Archive for February 2010
An Introduction to Scenario-Based eLearning Courses
A scenario-based eLearning course is an instructional design where learners are given a hypothetical situation that they have to solve or deal with. The learner is then guided through the process of solving the problem by a facilitator or instructor who is playing the role of the protagonist in that particular situation. Scenario-based eLearning courses…
Read MoreHow to Use a Chalkboard When Teaching Something
As hi-tech a society as we are, we still use chalkboards in many in-class training and presentation situations. What’s the most productive way to use a chalkboard? Here are the U.S. Department of Transportation guidelines for using a chalkboard efficiently: Keep the chalkboard clean. Erase all irrelevant material. Keep chalk, erasers, cleaning cloths, rulers, and…
Read MoreHow to Count the Number of Selected Records in a Dataset by OpenOffice CALC's DCOUNT Function
© 2010 Ugur Akinci OpenOffice is a free office applications suite provided by Sun Microsystems. (http://www.openoffice.org/) OpenOffice CALC is a powerful spreadsheet program which corresponds to Microsoft Excel. Here is how you can filter and count the number of records (rows) in a dataset by using OpenOffice CALC: Consider the following imaginary data set for…
Read MoreHow to Create a Patient Information Form with Acrobat 9
An excellent step-by-step tutorial on how to create forms in healthcare industry by using Adobe Acrobat. (Excerpts) I’m frustrated with paper-based Patient Information Form Process. The frustration is fresh on my mind since I ran into the same problem today trying to schedule an appointment for my son today. My son is in school at…
Read MoreA Check List for Creating Technical Documents for the Global Market
Creating technical documents for an international audience requires not only writing in simple “international” English, but also removing all sources of possible mistranslation and misunderstanding. Here is a short check list to prepare your documents for a global audience: Are your dates obvious enough? HINT: write the month openly. 1/2/2010 could be Jan 2, 2010…
Read MoreHow to Write a GPS (Global Positioning System) Device Review
© 2010 Ugur Akinci The day when every new car and truck would carry a GPS (Global Positioning System) device as standard equipment is not that far away. The market for GPS devices is expanding by leaps and bounds. In the second quarter of 2006, for example, 2.4 million GPS devices were sold in the…
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How to Prepare an Ideal Localization Kit
Introduction to Localization Kit Whenever undertaking a new project, and regardless of who will be performing your localization, the first thing to do is to create a complete localization kit and a localization project Bill Of Material (BOM). What is a BOM? A BOM is a localization kit containing all the files that need to…
Read MoreHow to Write Technical Documents for an International Audience
Writing technical documents for an international audience means writing documents that translate easily to the target language, and are understood easily by the speakers of the target language. In the world we are living in, technical documents are increasingly translated from one language to another since customers of most goods and services transcend national boundaries.…
Read MoreImportance of Book Covers
A unique blog post on a topic that is usually ignored by most self-publishers… (Excerpts) There are two key things you can NOT skimp on when you are self-publishing. One is an editor. No matter how careful a writer you are, you have to have an editor. Period. The second, of course, is the cover.…
Read MoreHow to Become a "User Experience Designer"
(Excerpts) About once a week, I get an email from someone who is interested in becoming a user experience professional. They ask me a series of questions about how one would do this. The questions and areas of focus for these emails vary dramatically, depending on the interests of the individual asking. I thought it…
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