Whereas delegates have to book if they want to attend a classroom-based course or a virtual training session, the eLearning courses (which have been created using Articulate) are hosted on our team’s website and can be accessed at any time by simply clicking on the name of the course on the website’s Course Catalogue page.

Unfortunately we don’t have access to a Learning Management System so in order to track usage of the eLearning, I added an additional table (tblTracking) into the Customer Relationship Management system that I built. The CRM system stores it’s data in a SQL Server database and integrates with the website to allow delegates to see what courses are available, when they are running and ultimately book a place.

When a user clicks on the name of a course on the website’s Course Catalogue page the following happens…if the selected course is an eLearning course (indicated by a value of True in the ysnELearning field in the tblCatalogue table) a record is added to the tblTracking table. It records the user’s Name (this is actually their Windows logonID and is automatically captured), the name of the course and the date.

As all my colleagues are familiar with Access, I’ve created an Access database that is linked to the SQL Server database. The Access database lives on a file share that we all have access to and provides an easy way to query the database.

In the screenshot below (which uses fictitious data), you can see that User1 has accessed the Excel Functions course and the File Management course. In fact this user accessed the Excel Functions course twice – once on 15th June and once on 18th June. This in itself is useful information as not only can we track usage of the eLearning, but we can also see whether people are accessing individual modules more than once. Users could do this for a variety of reasons – maybe they just want to run through it again or maybe they were interrupted part-way through and decided to start again from the beginning.

Another request from my Manager was to produce a list of users who had accessed each module but exclude users who had accessed the same module more that once.

To do this I created a new query:

I added the Name, Course and Date fields and then clicked the Totals button to display the Total row in the Query Grid. The Total row entry for strName and strCourse was left as Group By but the dtmDate was changed to First. This instructs Access to display the first date it finds for a combined Name/Course and so gives the desired result:

I explained the issue to the Genius, who verified that it was a fault. I then assumed that it would be a simple case of exchanging my faulty iPad for a new one (assuming that they had one in stock). How wrong I was! The Apple Online Store and the Apple bricks and mortar stores are different companies and because I had purchased my iPad online I would have to send it back for either a refund or exchange.

I wasn’t happy with this and told the Genius that I could understand if I’d bought it from PC World or Currys as these are obviously different companies but surely Apple is Apple is Apple. I had pre-ordered the most expensive WiFi-only iPad over 2 weeks before it was available because I was told that there was no guarantee they would have them in stock in the store on the first day of sale and although Apple didn’t put the transaction onto my credit card before the items had shipped, they had my credit card details and therefore could have done so. I had re-arranged my work schedule to fit in with their (changing) delivery schedule and now I would have to be without an iPad for, well however long it took for the exchange to be completed.

I was assured that a courier would pick up my iPad free-of-charge and provide me with a new one at the same time – but what if the replacement had the same problem – or worse. The reason that I wanted to do an in-store exchange was so that I could check the iPad and if I wasn’t happy with it I could “exchange the exchange”.

He understood what I was saying and said that he’d love to be able to help but the online store and the real stores have different barcoding systems so my transaction would not be recognised on their system and therefore he couldn’t initiate an exchange.

I packed my iPad away, walked out of the store and immediately walked back in. I had the bit between my teeth and asked to see a Manager. Claire, one of the Managers, came out to see me and I repeated everything that I’d told the Genius, but this time I also added that we have a business account at The Arndale Store, hoping this might sway her. Unfortunately she couldn’t (and I say couldn’t rather than wouldn’t) authorise an exchange – but “if there’s anything I can do to help…”

So back to the car to discuss the situation with Elaine. We found the Apple Customer Support telephone number (thank goodness for the MiFi) – maybe they could authorise an exchange – but it’s an 0845 number, which is free from landlines but not the iPhone. OK…here’s what we do…go back to the store, speak to Claire again, ask to use their phone to call Customer Support and if they still won’t exchange it then I’ll buy another iPad and return faulty one at my leisure.

Back at the store, Claire was on her lunch break so we spoke to Dean, the other Manager on duty. He couldn’t have been more helpful. He listened, understood, apologised and even called Customer Support for us. This had the advantage that when he handed the phone to me, the Customer Support Representative had already been briefed by an Apple employee, which speeded up the process. Whilst I was talking to Customer Support, Dean had reserved me a 64GB WiFi iPad.

Ten minutes later it was all sorted and we walked out of the store with a new iPad (plus 2 iPad stands and a wireless keyboard). I have a returns number, the courier will contact me within a couple of days to organise picking up the faulty iPad and the money will be refunded to my credit card.

We celebrated with a cup of tea – well Elaine did. I made myself dizzy by looking at every single pixel on my new iPad.

Uh Oh – what’s this? There was a mark. It was under the screen. Not a dead pixel but definitely a faulty screen. Back to the Apple Store to exchange the exchange! Again Dean was extremely helpful. He verified that there was a problem with the screen and yet again went into the back of the store and came out with another 64GB WiFi iPad. He also told me that I was the first person to bring back an iPad purchased at the Arndale Apple Store.

Another iPad, another cup of tea! Another 10 minutes staring at the iPad screen. This one’s perfect! So we finish our drinks go home to install some apps.

Three days later UPS came to pick up the faulty iPad and Apple refunded the money back to my credit card just before the bill was made up, saving me laying out extra money.

I spent most of the morning refreshing the tracking page on the UPS website (Elaine’s had been delivered by TNT) – all I knew was that it was on a van that had left Tamwworth (about 60 miles away) at 6:30 that morning. I was running a training course in the afternoon which gave the F5 (Refresh in IE) key a break. Our training room is in a building that seems to have lead lined walls – at least that’s how it feels – I can’t get a data or phone signal on my iPhone. I had a break on my course at 2:30 and on checking my mail (my work email via Outlook) I had a mail from Elaine simply saying “it’s here”. Finally!

I already had a prior engagement on Thursday night and although I was working from home on Friday, I managed to refrain from playing with my new toy until Friday night. All was going well until I watched a video on YouTube. At the end of the video, the screen faded to black I noticed a red dot on my iPad screen. “Noooooo!! I’ve got a dead or stuck pixel.”

“It’s going back” I said. Now I know that when you buy a device with an LCD display there is an acceptable number of dead pixels – a local computer supplier has a sign in the shop that explains this, but having paid almost £600 I wanted a perfect iPad. So I logged on to the Apple website and made an appointment at the Manchester Arndale Genius Bar for the next day.

Read The Magical and Revolutionary iPad – Part 3

Fast forward three-and-a-half months to May 10th. This was the date that Apple announced the prices (though there’d been confirmed rumours for a day or so on the rumour websites and Twitter feeds) and began to take pre-orders outside the USA (the iPad went on sale in the USA on April 3rd so our friends across the pond had already had several weeks to play with theirs and make us jealous).

Apple being Apple there was no indication as to what time the prices would be announced so when I got up at 6:00 to take the dog for a walk, I had a quick check of the website – and there it was…the prices and the link to pre-order – but, unlike in the USA, there appeared to be no option to reserve and pick up from an Apple Store. A phone call to an Apple Store later that morning confirmed that to be the case, so I left it in Elaine’s capable hands to order me a 64GB WiFi model (at least I didn’t have to choose between black and white as well this time).

Why did I go for the WiFi and not the 3G? Well, I guessed that I’d be using the iPad primarily in the house, in the garden and at work. As my Twitter followers and MacBites listeners know, despite it being one of the most affluent areas in Cheshire, the area that I work in is sadly bereft of 3G (I don’t actually work in the middle of a field but from a technology point of view, it sometimes feels like it).

When I take Meyer for a walk I take my iPhone and usually listen to podcasts or music and keep up with Twitter and Facebook, read and reply to emails and surf the web. Sometimes I use dog-walking time as “thinking time” and if something comes into my head I’ll open Evernote or one of the other note-taking apps and make a note of it, and if there’s a football match on Sky, I sometimes watch that (rain permitting). I can hardly see myself holding my iPad in one hand, building a Keynote presentation or putting together a Pages document whilst being dragged around by a large Samoyed! If I do go out somewhere and need Internet access, I’ll take the MiFi with me.

On the 22nd May I received an email from Apple advising that my iPad had shipped (along with the £30 “official Apple iPad case” and the iPad Dock). However, Elaine’s status was still showing as Not Shipped, so I had to keep my excitement to myself. I’d already decided (and it’s documented in my Twitter feed) that should hers not arrive on time, I’d leave mine unopened until we both had them.

On 26th May my order showed “Shipped – delivery due 27th May”. Now this should have been greeted with cries of ecstasy, however Elaine’s was still showing as Not Shipped. I checked the credit card statement online and both transactions had gone through, so I persuaded her to check the status again – and this time it showed as “Shipped – delivery due 27th May”.

Read The Magical and Revolutionary iPad – Part 2

In days gone by I would hand out paper-based feedback forms (commonly known as “smile sheets”) at the end of the training course. The advantage of this is the immediacy – the course has just finished and “in the heat of the moment”, delegates are more likely to be honest, especially if they have a complaint.

The reality is somewhat different…”it’s 4:30 and I want to beat the traffic, so I’ll just whizz through the feedback form, answering Excellent to each question, leave no comments, hand my form to the trainer and go.”

At one stage we were giving delegates a stamped addressed envelope so that they could take the form away, complete it at their leisure and post it back to us. The idea was that they’d be more inclined to be truthful if they had time to really consider their answers and if they thought that the envelope was going to be opened by the Training Manager (to whom it was addressed). This initiative didn’t last very long though – I think the bean counters became envelope counters!

The other problem with a paper-based system is that it…generates a lot of paper, both for the training company and the individual. Most trainers like to keep a copy of their (good) feedback for future reference. At one stage I had a box full of feedback forms in my loft, although in my attempt to go paperless, these were scanned and shredded a couple of years ago.

The team that I currently work for is an in-house training team. When I joined the team, the process for collecting course feedback was to send an email “form” to each delegate. This form was simply a custom-built Outlook template. The delegate completed the form and clicked Send and the email was stored in the Team mailbox. Unfortunately, it is not an easy process to extract the data from these emails so they became nothing more than electronic forms.

When I joined the team 3 years ago, although I was taken on as a Trainer, I took it upon myself to build a complete web-based, database-driven Customer Management System. This included automating the feedback capturing process. With the click of a button all attendees are sent an email with a link to a web-based feedback form. They complete the form, click Submit and their “scores” and comments are automatically stored in a database.

Not only does this save paper but it means that my colleagues and my Manager can check the feedback at any time without searching for pieces of paper. It also means that reports and stats can be generated very quickly.

You might think that as the system owner, I would be tempted to delete any poor feedback that I receive – of course that pre-supposes that I get poor feedback! On the whole, my feedback, like the feedback of my colleagues, is excellent – and if anyone wants to argue that point I can back it up with delegate’s comments!

Occasionally somebody gives poor feedback but they usually back it up with a comment and most of the time it’s down to the delegate being on the wrong course or inappropriate event, or misunderstanding the objectives, despite the fact we quite clearly state the course/event objectives on our website and re-state them at the start of the course.

By the way, if you’re wondering about these “events” that I keep mentioning, in addition to formal training courses we run 1-hour bite-sized events. Some of the subjects covered include pre-Vista migration information, PST and best practice email management and productivity tips for laptop users.

So now we have an easy way to capture, store and report on the feedback, but what do we actually do with it?

A few months ago, at our monthly team meeting, I “presented” the feedback. I picked out the 6 best comments from the previous month’s feedback and built a Powerpoint presentation with one comment on each slide. Did I include my own feedback? Of course!! This went down really well and has now become a regular feature of team meetings. We also have a large noticeboard in the office which has printouts of the slides on it, serving as a reminder of what we can achieve.

So how do I react to good feedback? On the one hand, I’m only doing my job, but I must admit that getting a nice comment gives me a feeling of a job well done. Good feedback often finds it’s way to the boss’s boss’s boss, which serves to remind them that both the team and I are doing a great job (now where’s that bonus? LOL). However, I don’t sit back and get complacent. There’s a saying in sport that you’re only as good as your last game. Well in training, you’re only as good as your last course.

What about negative feedback? Earlier this week I ran 4 x 1 hour “Get productive with your laptop” sessions. The course outline had been clearly advertised on the website (where attendees go to book a place on the session). However, some people turned up hoping to get answers to technical questions, primarily relating to issues that they have with connecting to the company network from home. Not being familiar with the peculiarities of our VPN, I was unable to answer some of their questions (a fact that was commented on by some attendees). Although 90% of my feedback was excellent and some people even said it ‘hit the mark’ as far as their requirements were concerned, it’s the negative feedback that I remember more than the positive – which is probably what prompted me to write this blog post in the first place.

How valuable is feedback? One the one hand, it’s personal and subjective. Questions like “Please rate the pace of the course. How knowledgeable was the trainer? How do you rate the course overall?” are open to interpretation.

I know of actors who won’t read theatre reviews until the run is over and Sir Matt Busby, the legendary Manchester United manager, is reported to have told Sir Alex Ferguson not to read newspapers. At the start of this year I did consider not reading my feedback, but curiosity got the better of me! Not only that, but as a professional, I feel that it is in my and my delegates interests to read the feedback. Every cloud has a silver lining and out of every negative can come something positive.

My first job this morning was to reconfigure my desk for my new acquisition and then take a photo of said desk…

So what is on my desk? From left to right…

• iPhone in a Dock
• iPad in a Griffin A-Frame stand. Elaine has written a review of iPad stands on her blog
• 17 inch monitor connected to Vista laptop
• Vista laptop
• 17 inch monitor connected to MacBook Pro
• A cheap USB mouse connected to the Vista laptop
• MacBook Pro
• Apple Bluetooth keyboard
• Logitech MX Revolution mouse

The plant in the background is on my colleague’s desk – with all that tech, do I look like I have room for a plant?

After the photo-shoot it was time to put the iPad to work (well you don’t think I just bought it as a toy do you?). Today I was running 4 x 1 hour training sessions “how to get the most from your Vista laptop” (OK you can all stop laughing now).

I had the names of the attendees in a spreadsheet which I copied onto the iPad. As delegates arrived, rather than ticking their names off on a piece of paper I simply marked them off in the spreadsheet, which I had opened in Numbers. I also had the training course running order and some notes on the iPad as PDF’s – of course I just “had” to refer to these notes during the sessions!

All in all, a good first day at work for the iPad. No wonder the battery was down to 20% when we got home. It’s now fully charged and ready for tomorrow!

Several months ago, whilst helping somebody setup and run a meeting using Webex, I discovered a problem – if the presenter is using Vista (and most of our company is now) and they display the chat panel and/or the participants panel, the other participants will see on their screen, a grey box with a yellow “cross hatched” pattern.

The size and location of this cross-hatched pattern is determined by the size and location of the panels on the presenter’s screen.

This issue only arises when the presenter is sharing their screen and of course, unless a participant shouts “Something’s covering part of the screen and I can’t see the presentation”, they’ll be non the wiser.

I’m lucky in that I have an external monitor. OK, it’s not a super-duper 22-inch one, it’s an old 17-inch one that I’ve had for a few years. But nevertheless, when I’m in the office, I have it permanently connected to my Vista laptop.

When I’m running a training course or delivering a presentation via Webex, I share my laptop screen and drag the participants panel and chat panel over to the external monitor so that I can have these permanently displayed. This allows me to monitor the chat and see who is attending/dropping out of the meeting without spoiling the attendees view of the presentation.

On another note, I wondered if it is possible to set Webex to screen share an external monitor? If I select Share Desktop, it will only share the primary laptop monitor. If I select Share an Application, and the application is on the external monitor, other participants can’t see it.

After some research, I found that the version of Webex that we use (Webex Meeting Centre), doesn’t support screen sharing multiple monitors.

IT Support staff used the screen-sharing capabilities to take control of a user’s screen. Trainers used it to deliver 1:1 training sessions and demos and managers and others used it to deliver presentations to colleagues in far-away places.

I’m still at that company, now working for the IT Training team. The company has just finished a 6-month upgrade from Windows 2000/Office 2000 to Vista and Office 2007. Prior to the start of the rollout, our team delivered a number of pre-migration seminars, the purpose of which was to let users know about the rollout process and advise and educate them regarding new functionality on offer.

“Live Meeting and Office Communicator will be replacing Netmeeting”

They were OK with the Live Meeting bit – “Netmeeting on steroids” is how I explained it, but when it came to talking about Office Communicator, the instant messenger client, I would get comments such as

“I’m not using that”

“Can I turn it off?”

“I’ll never get any work done”

Yet, these same people are quite happy to use Yahoo IM, MSN and even SMS on their phone (during work time). Don’t they realise that Office Communicator is just another IM system?

Fast forward 6 months and guess what? Everyone loves OC! It’s being used in a responsible manner, users respect other user’s status setting (i.e. if you set your status to Do Not Disturb then chances are you won’t get disturbed unless it’s a dire emergency).

From a training and education point, one of the key areas is ensuring that users understand when to use email v when to use IM.

So what’s next? Well there’s a pilot running, which I’m part of, which will really bring us into the 21st century with webcams and VOIP.

Now where did I put my razor and hairbrush?