Position Paper on Value of E-learning and Technical Publications in the Training and Education Industry

1. Position Paper
Value of E-learning and Technical
Publications in the Training and
Education Industry

3. Introduction
This position paper presents the value and need for TWB – Leading Technical Documentation
qualitative e-learning and technical publications in the
training and education industry. Outsourcing Company
In e-learning, learners decide how, what, and when TWB is a leading technical communication
they access information. E-learning is a dynamic outsourcing company that provides services in
process that is platform independent and provides technical documentation.
users with the advantage of reusing content
depending upon the environment and functional TWB is the pioneer and a leader in providing world-
needs. class e-learning services in technical
communication. TWB helps customers with all their
E-learning provides an effective classroom alternative e-learning needs such as ILTs, WBTs and CBTs,
to increase employee knowledge and skills. Industry along with process and workflow documentation.
reports show that by implementing e-learning, may
organizations have experience 50-75% reduction in TWB works closely with client teams located
training costs as compared to classroom training. globally, and assists them in meeting their worldwide
product announcements and launch deadlines. We
However, may organizations have fallen short of work round-the-clock with client teams and help
achieving effective e-learning training due to them with quick responses that facilitate timely
difficulties in implementing and lack of expertise in distribution of documents around the globe.
integrating technology.
“Knowledge is people, money, learning, flexibility
Effective implementation of e-learning necessitates and competitive advantage. Knowledge is more
the creation of training materials such as workbooks, relevant to sustained business than capital or
exercises, assessments, and demos for students and labor. And yet knowledge remains the most
employees. Meta-analysis states that the students in neglected asset of a business. TWB helps you
e-learning perform better than those in classroom unlock and share your technical knowledge with
courses. the world.”
“Overall usage of e-learning in Asia is expected
to reach a compound annual growth rate of 25%
to 30 % through 2010, according to a survey.
Worldwide that rate should hit between 15
percent and 30 percent, the report states.”
The rapidly growing need for effective e-learning
education makes quality documentation important for
employees and students. The training documents
need to be effective and interactive to the learners,
which necessitate the involvement of Instructional
Designers who specialize in creating these materials.
In this paper, we will discuss the importance of
technical believes that providing effective learning
“TWB publications in technology cannot exist
with respect to growth, implementation, and
without being communicated effectively.”
solutions.
“The global market for corporate e-learning will
grow nearly 27% compounded annually.” –
McGee, 2004.
The Writers Block www.twb.in 1

4. E-learning Industry – Technical Publications
Growth of the E-learning Industry Challenges and Solutions
Organizations are increasingly shifting their staffing Some of the greatest documentation challenges
models away from a dominant focus on trainers and faced by organizations today include:
are now more focused on e-learning services and
support activities. Governments and schools have  Creating effective training and keeping the
added more online courses due to the fall in the audience engaged
cost of implementing e-learning tools.
 Creating compelling and convincing training
material
“IDC forecasts that the e-learning market, which  Enhancing the audience interest while
was about $21 billion in 2008, will increase to
explaining complex topics
more than $52.6 billion by the end of the year
2010.” TWB provides e-learning solutions with
professional quality which makes learning
simple. Interactive presentations are created to
make the learning more effective.
E-learning systems are standardized, which
often require modification to suit the different
types of training requirements of a specific
organization. It is essential that the training
materials are updated accurately and efficiently.
"According to Dr. Ronald Marks, marketing
professor at the University of Missouri, studies
claim that people learn up to 200% faster, pay Benefits
26% more attention, retain 38% more and
reduce their learning time by 25-40%, since TWB provides effective e-learning material to
multimedia presentations engage all the transfer knowledge through simple training.
senses." Producing professional training materials
The ratio of moderate increase to moderate benefit in:
decrease in e-learning industry is 41:1 with
significant increase of 23% annually.  Understanding complex technical data
easily and quickly
 Visualizing concepts or working on newly
developed products
 Significant interactive experiences
The Writers Block www.twb.in 2

5. Value of Technical Publications
Technical Communication for Communication for Different Levels of
Transferring Product Knowledge Technical and Product Knowledge
The purpose of technical communication is to In technical publications, audience is the focal
transfer product knowledge to end users in a point. Hence, the style, language, and content
comprehensible manner. The strategies of must vary depending on the type of audience
communication and levels of information vary being addressed. It is because every user has a
depending on the type of product and audience. specific role in the implementation and usage of
the technology. Therefore, it is important that
Providing end users with information about a documents be created keeping in mind the role of
product’s operation and maintenance is critical to the person who will use the document.
the market performance of the product. Hence, the
need for quality documentation is imperative. For example, when you document a software
application designed for highly technical users, it
In today’s business scenario, technical publications is sufficient to provide the users with quick
are often developed as an afterthought. This reference information to use the application.
usually results in inaccurate and incomprehensible
documentation, which, in turn, renders the users For users who start without technical or product
incapable of using the products. knowledge, it is important to provide detailed
product information along with instructions on
Accurate, readily understandable, and quality how to use the product.
documents determine how a product sells in the
market and result in increased customer
satisfaction. Attractive Publications as Useful
Marketing Tools
Faulty Assumptions that Result in Faulty
Documentation Besides transferring knowledge, technical
publications are also used for marketing a product.
Before a product is released in the market,
The faulty assumptions listed below result in information about the product needs to be
incomprehensible documents: effectively communicated to the customers.
 Developers know their products better than Well-designed, accurately presented, and attractive
anyone else – due to time constraints and limited marketing collaterals increase the market prospects
resources, many companies assign their of a product and reduce support costs.
documentation tasks to the programmers. This
more often results in the creation of technology-
centered information, while end users require
task-oriented information.
 Documentation of complex applications requires a
longer learning curve for the writer - learning the
product will not be a major obstacle for writers
with the right technical background.
The Writers Block www.twb.in 3

6. Conclusion
 Importance of e-learning: E-learning systems are often customized to meet the specific needs of
organizations. With the reduction in implementation cost of e-learning tools, businesses, educational
institutes, and government organizations have added more online courses and computer-based distance
learning to their training needs. Effecting e-learning implementation helps users operate and maintain
systems with ease, and improve work efficiency and business.
 Value of Technical Publications: Technical Publications are very essential for transferring product
knowledge to end users. Provisioning of proper material to use the technology and products enables the user
to accept and efficiently use the product. Faulty assumptions about documentation lead to inaccurate and
incomprehensible information. This also decreases the chances of marketing the products in the global
market.
 Role of Documentation Outsourcing: The complexity involved in implementing an e-learning system
requires that vendors and purchasers consider outsourcing their development needs to well-established
technical publications solutions providers. This helps the company cut costs and at the same time deliver
their products with quality documents.
The Writers Block www.twb.in 4

7. TWB Services
TWB is India’s leader in technical communication outsourcing and education. TWB offers a complete suite of services that
allows our customers to effectively publish their technical knowledge with their people and processes. TWB’s customers range
from Global 500 – including Cisco, Accenture, McAfee, LG, Samsung, Citrix, SAP, Siemens, AOL, Intel; Indian technology
majors – including Infosys, Wipro; Global defense majors - Pratt & Whitney, Honeywell, DRDO, HAL; and exciting technology
startups. TWB's expertise in technical communication ranges from IT Products and Outsourcing, ITES, Banking, Financial,
Aerospace, Defense, Ship Building to Hi-tech Manufacturing, and Discrete and Process Manufacturing.
TWB’s services include:
Technical Marketing Technical Product Documentation Quality
Solutions Documentation Management
 Datasheets
 Administrator’s Guide
 Datasheets  Copy Editing and Proof Reading
 API Document
 Cheat sheets  Managing Writing
 Configuration Guide
 Solution Briefs/Solution Brochures  Editing Services
 Functional Specifications Document
 Presentations –  Layout and Design
Products/Corporate Profile  Installation Manual
 Creating SLAs
 Brochures and marketing collateral  Interface Document
 Web content  Interactive Electronic Technical Business Documentation
Manual (IETM)
 Audio and video scripts
 Maintenance Manual  Business Proposals
 Press releases
 Online Help  Legal Disclaimers
 Direct mail
 Operation Manual  Policy Manuals
 Newsletter design copy
 Product Demo  Style Guide Design
 Sales catalogues
 Product Specifications Document  Template Design
 Sales sheets
 Product Overview Document
 Quick Reference Guide
Business Communication Content Management
 Release Notes
 Short Reports  Requirement Analysis Document
 Single Sourcing
 Proposals  SDK Document
 File Version Control
 Case Studies  Troubleshooting Manual
 Document Naming Conventions
 Lab Reports  User Manual
 Consistent Document Formatting
 Memos  Open Source Documentation
 Data Transformation
 Progress/Interim Reports  Programmers Guides
 Writing for Electronic Media  Functional Specifications Document
 Use Cases Web site Development
Illustrations  Online Help /Context Sensitive Help
 Web 2.0 development
 Troubleshooting Guides
 Graphic Designing  Web content

 Info graphics  Web applications
Qualitative Analytics for
 2D & 3D animation
Decision Support Translation and Localization
 Line drawings and illustrations
Services
 Economic Business Research
Process Documentation
 Industry Analysis  Software Translation Services
 Workflows  Market Opportunity Analysis  Document Translation Services
 Standard Operating Procedures  Competitive Business Analysis  Localization (L10N) Testing
 ISO Documentation  Company & Prospect Profiling  Internationalization (I18N) Testing
 CMM Documentation  Reporting Solutions
 Assessment of Unmet Market Needs Records Management
Deployment and Support  Status and Potential of Technologies
 Document Management Solutions
 Benchmarking of Strategies Vs
 Record Management Storage and
 Installation and Configuration Competition
Retrieval
Guides  Forecasting
 Operations Manual  Sales Force Effectiveness
 Market Assessments
 Competitive Intelligence
 Opinion Leadership
 Emerging Markets - evaluation and
research
The Writers Block www.twb.in 5

8. TWB Software Tools Expertise
Our technical proficiency inin software and authoring tools includes:
Our technical proficiency software and authoring tools includes:
Unstructured Content XML Structured Editors Multimedia/Authoring
Development
 Epic  Adobe Flash®
 Microsoft Word®  FrameMaker+SGML  Adobe Dreamweaver®
 Adobe FrameMaker®  X-Metal®  Microsoft FrontPage®
 Adobe InDesign®  Adobe Captivate®
 QuarkXPress® Macromedia Captivate
 Adobe PageMaker® Graphics/Animations
 Multimedia/Authoring/
Illustrations  Adobe Flash® Supporting tools
 Adobe Photoshop®
 Adobe Flash CS4 Professional  Adobe Fireworks®  Adobe Flash®
 Adobe Illustrator CS3  Adobe Flex®
 CorelDRAW Online Help  Adobe AIR®
 Microsoft-Expression Graphic  Adobe Dreamweaver®
Designer  Adobe Acrobat®
 Xara Xtreme (Windows & Linux)  JavaHelp
 Microsoft Silverlight®
 CuteDraw  Adobe RoboHelp 7.0
 Adobe Authorware®
 Publisher3D(for animation)  HelpScribble
 Adobe Director®
 Sketsa SVG Editor (for vector  WebWorks Publisher
 Adobe Captivate®
graphics)  PowerCHM
 Trivantis Lectora®
 Techsmith Camtasia  Doc-To-Help
 ASP.NET
 Arbortext IsoDraw (technical  WinCHM
 JSP
illustrations for 2D and 3D)  HelpSmith 2.1.1(Windows)
 JAVA
 Fast-Help
 MadCap Flare Standards
Graphics/Animation  Help-Server
 NVU Help
 SCORM 1.2 / 2004
 Adobe Flash®  AICC
XML
 Adobe Photoshop®  W3C
 Adobe Illustrator®  Section 508
 Adobe Fireworks®  XMetal®  QTI XML
 Microsoft Silverlight®  Microsoft Word 2003®,
 Microsoft Word 2007®
Databases Development and Publishing
tools
CMS/ LMS
 Microsoft Access  XSLT/XSL
 Microsoft SQL Server  EDD
 Sharepoint®
 Moodle
Flowcharting  Joomla,
 WordPress
 Microsoft Visio  Media Wiki
 iGrafx  CMS Builder
 EDraw  Author-it (formerly AuthorIT)
 RFFlow  Alfresco
 Flowbreeze
 Smart Draw
The Writers Block www.twb.in 6

9. Technical
Communic
ation for
Industries
Transferrin Served
g Product
Knowledge
TWB services a wide range of technology and knowledge-driven industries, helping them meet their markets better. These
TWB services a wide range of technology and knowledge driven industries, helping them meet their markets better, these
include:
include:
 Banking, Insurance and Financial Services  ITES/ KPO/ BPO
 Consulting and Business Services  Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology
 Defense, Aerospace and Hi-Tech Manufacturing  Process Manufacturing and Allied Industries
 Education and Learning  Steel, Ship Building, Construction and Aviation
 IT, ITES  Telecom and Digital Communications
TWB has been the preferred technical documentation outsourcing company for:
TWB has been the preferred technical documentation outsourcing company for:
The TWB Building US Office:
No: 4062, 19th Main Road, TWB
HAL 2nd Stage, 11701 Norwegian Wood Drive
Bangalore – 560008 Austin, TX 78758
India.
Landmark: Behind Carlton Towers
Telephone: Telephone:
+91.80.40741400 / +1.512.586.8357
+91.80.41256367
Corporate Enquiries:
corp@twb.in
The Writers Block www.twb.in 7