The limitations of these solutions are buit in the medium (the screen copy) that will never approach the real application's realism.

In truth, screen capture based simulation have two major drawbacks:
1. the lack of interactivity, which translates into poor retention from trainees.
2. the lack of maintainability, which condems these kinds of simulations to be quickly out of date and therefore not useable.

Towards an immediate return on investment

On one hand, the reason why mimicking the real application's behaviour is important is mainly linked with end user retention and performance. Past studies (1) have shown that the trainee retention rate is significantly impacted based on the delivery approach. In particular, a demonstration will bear a 30% retention whereas "Practice by doing" (the sandbox) bears a 75% retention rate, not far from 50% more!

Screenshot based simulations generally do not overcome the demonstration barrier, as the lack of interactivity acts as a deterrent to practise and evaluation.

On the other hand, maintainability is a necessity to win the fight against change. The real application changes every year, quarter, month, week. The user force changes, the business evolves. A static and barely maintainable simulation cannot cope with change. The day it is delivered, it is already out of date, inaccurate, not useable.

Ask yourself: if creating the simulations costs 100, but maintaining them costs 95, then chances are the content is money down the drain. If maintaining it costs 15, you have built a pretty solid capital for the years to come.

In conclusion, here is how we see the return on investment on software simulation content:
1. the simulation has to be interactive enough to make the trainee feel he is practising in the real application in a sandbox environment (ie capabilities for data input, multiple path navigation, scrolling, keyboard and mouse response ; capabilities of experiencing mistakes and understanding consequences of actions), in order to reach the best retention level.
2. the simulation has to be maintainable so that it can evolve with the real application's changes as near automatically as possible (manual modification is not maintainable, automatic update is). Chances are the simulations will be captured on a beta version of the real application, and then the training material will have to be delivered in synch with the final release of the application. At that time, it is generally too late to spend days or weeks amending the material created on the beta version to reflect changes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Kim Cameron, NTL Institute for Applied Behavioural Sciences, Michigan Business School.

Assima's Wizard Training Suite

Wizard Training Suite is based on software cloning, which is a totally different paradigm than screen copy. This technology is based on capturing information from the real application, storing it (in a simulation file) and playing it back as a clone of the original transaction.

Interactive simulations and tutorials

Wizard Training Suite generates fully interactive simulations without a single screen copy. Simulations can include several levels of multiple paths:

1. - Data can be entered in simulated screens in any order
2. - Same actions can be performed in multiple ways (mouse, keyboard, shortcuts, etc…)
3. - Full free-navigation can be obtained to simulate real application behavior

To get this result, simulation capture is made in a matter of minutes, with no programming involved. Also, entire or parts of simulations can be merged together to speed up the process of creation.

Tutorials guide and evaluate trainees while they are practicing in the simulation. Tutorials can include any kind of external training resources, like PPT, PDF or HTML files. Voice can also be added, as well as character customization. Messages can be displayed in HTML format, thus including unlimited possibilities of style and interactivity with the trainee.

Tutorials and simulations combined include in standard a demonstration mode (show-me), a practice mode (let-me), and evaluation mode (score-me), as well as the ability to automatically generate multiple other training medium (transactional documentation, SCORM compliant intranet training portal, full EPSS used alongside real software, multilingual generation capabilities via dictionaries).

Automated quality check

An automated test facility is provided. It means all simulations and tutorials can be fully tested in minutes. The test will simulate the actions a trainee would perform in the simulation, thus validating all its screens can be accessed correctly, and all steps can be carried forward up to the final one.

This becomes extremely important when maintaining the Training Solution, during quality control process, because it allows the testing of hundreds of simulations in few hours, without human intervention. Combined with testing is also the capability of automatic recapture of simulations, making the full solution extremely maintainable.

Integrated localization capabilities

As simulations and tutorials do not contain images, they can be very easily translated into foreign languages. Text export facilities are provided, as well as dictionary management, so that you end up with one simulation, one tutorial and one dictionary, for displaying this same training material in as many languages as you request. You do not have to design and develop your training kit as many times as you have target languages, which cuts your development time in huge proportions.

The Training Kit Localiser is fully compliant with ANSI, Unicode, or DBCS character sets, as is the full Wizard Suite. This also means all simulations and tutorials can be displayed in all languages (Latin-European, Arabic, Asian, Hebrew, Russian, Greek, etc…).

Documentation generation

A transactional documentation can be generated automatically from the tutorial. This documentation is generated with XML format, and can then be converted to DOC or HTML format. It includes all screen copies of the transaction in a step by step approach, with generated pictures showing where to enter data and where to click. It is parametrised with a CSS file, so that each set of documents can have tailored fonts, header, logos and styles.

Documentation is generated in several languages from one simulation, tutorial, and dictionary.

Publication

Simulations, tutorials, manuals, dictionaries and synopsis are packaged automatically for publishing to CD-ROM or Intranet. All files are compressed for optimization (100Kb for a simulation of 30 actions + tutorial). Trainees can access all training resources from the generated web portal.

Publishing on Intranet also incorporates automatically AICC and SCORM compliance, and facilitates enormously the task of integrating eLearning content into a LMS. It is also possible to publish all training resources in all defined target languages.

Five great reasons to choose Wizard Training Suite

1. Simulation Quality

Quality of simulations within training material has a great impact on the way that trainees retain information. True simulations, those not based on screen shots, enable the user to fully interact with the simulation, increasing learning retention and in turn improving their performance in the production environment.

For more information on the real benefits of true simulations please take time to review the following material.

	Assima's Simulations			Other Simulations
	are fully interactive			are simply enriched screen copies with a clickable or an editable zone
	behave exactly like the real application (scrolling, mouse-over, tab within edits, menus)			a poor reproduction of the real application with no real interactivity (ie no scrollbars etc)
	allow a three-level multiple path navigation (entering data, compulsory and optional paths)			no multi path navigation available (only one correct action allowed meaning only one error is possible)
	interaction with simulation emulates the real application			like a Power Point slide with good visual reproduction, but very limited interactivity

2. Educational Quality of Tutorials

User-friendly training materials have an immediate impact on the user retention of training matter. It is proven that poor quality materials tend to discourage the user from continuing with e-learning solutions.

	Assima's Tutorials			Other Tutorials
	involve animated 3-D characters enabling live and interactive learning			often have no animated character available
	allows for an infinite number of actions, allowing the user to explore the software as if in the production environment, receiving feedback customized to each move			inability to provide multiple possibilities of end user messages based upon specific action taken with same screen
	includes AICC / Scorm compatible scoring
	gives help at a variety of different levels (an index, visual clues, playback, direct access to any step of the simulation)
	able to link to external training resources (PDF, PPT, HTML etc)
	able to attach sound files

3. Rapid Development

Development time has a direct impact on the usability of the solution. Delivering quality simulations quickly enables projects to be completed within deadlines and within budget.

	Assima's Wizard Training Suite			Other Solutions
	simulations are captured in 10-15mins - the time it takes to perform the task in the real software			simulations based on screen copies with clickable zones, which means that to get the simulation to behave like the real application there is programming, setting configuration and special knowledge and time needed
	capture is no quicker than screen shot based solutions but all the functionality is immediately available
	the tutorial layer is automatically created - without any programming			no multi-lingual support, no personalized messages
	simulations and tutorials are automatically tested in a matter of minutes			manual and human (error prone) testing
	the training materials are easily translated into 20+ languages, with automatic extraction of text and creation of dictionaries - ready for translation

4. Ease of Maintainability

Because effective training materials take time and effort to create, easy maintenance is important, not only for the Training Department but also for their budget. Many materials are not up-to-date because maintenance costs nearly as much as re-creating from scratch.

	Assima's Wizard Training Suite			Other Solutions
	simulation and tutorial layers are separated to avoid global redevelopment when graphical changes occur.			screen copies mix simulation and tutorial layers meaning that a significant amount of time is needed to update the materials. A change in the simulation (graphics) means that you also need to redo the tutorial layer
	as 80% of changes generally happen in the simulation layer, maintainability is eased as the tutorial layer can automatically be reconnected to the new simulation
	possibility to edit/merge simulations			no modification of the screen is possible (or occasionally pixel by pixel which is very time-consuming and inefficient)
	objects can be edited (images, colours,data) quickly and easily			manual tests, prone to human error
	automatic test mode means that simulations and tutorials are tested for compatibility before deployment (100 simulations can be tested in less than an hour)			total duplication of work needed for a muti-lingual environment

5. Minimal Impact on IT Infrastructure

The solution must be as neutral as possible for the computer infrastructure (operating system, files installation, plug-ins, bandwidth) to enable full publishing of training material on all infrastructures.

	Assima's Wizard Training Suite			Other Solutions
	can be published in ActiveX (80 KB) or pure HTML mode			generally have an ActiveX plug-in , with heavy runtime
	simulation files are very small (100 KB for 20-25 screen simulation) because they are based on information not screen shots - makes an ideal solution for intranet-based training			use much bigger files which can cause difficulty downloading in countries with limited bandwidth