Running head: VIDEO CONFERENCING TRAINING CONTENT DIAGRAM

Video Conferencing Training Content Diagram

Elaine M. Mello
Capella University
ED7814 - U02a1 January 24, 2016

VIDEO CONFERENCING TRAINING CONTENT DIAGRAM

XYZ University has collaborative partnerships with research universities around the
world. They also collaborate on government and National Science Foundation funded projects
which require research interaction with other researchers in the fields of biotechnology,
engineering and the related sciences. The university uses standard video conferencing hardware
for researchers to meet remotely and work together on their projects. Many departments, labs
and centers have invested in their own installed video conferencing rooms for the convenience of
their faculty and researchers. These installations use an automation system with a touch panel to
control the video conferencing hardware and room environment settings. The systems are
scheduled and run by department administrative staff and teaching assistants who assist faculty
and researchers on their remote connections. The Office of Digital Learning support department
has suggested that a self-directed and self-paced e-learning website be created to train the
department staff on the use of the video conferencing rooms. This e-learning site will replace inperson training sessions.
Interaction design was chosen as a focus of the interface design in order to create a set of
e-learning training modules. The learners will interact with both the training site as well as the in
room interactive touch panel. The online training will allow the learners to become familiar with
the use of the system in a non-pressure situation. They will be able to interact with the elearning site in a manner which will mimic the steps needed to conduct a successful video
conference. Once the user analysis has been completed, it will be possible to create a task
analysis which accurately mimics the steps that the users will go through to setup and conduct a
video conferencing session. An in depth task analysis allows the designer to understand the
functionality of the system and the users' processes in achieving a successful conference (Stone
et al., 2005).

VIDEO CONFERENCING TRAINING CONTENT DIAGRAM

Understanding the human interaction with both the website and the in room system will
allow the designers to create an effective e-learning training site that will emulate the video
conferencing room system. By having a clear image of how the users will interact in relation to
their physical workplace, the designers can use this information in creating an effective
interaction design (OHara, Kjeldskov and Paay, 2011).
In addition to creating use case scenarios which will help designers create an effective
training site, consideration should also be given to other factors, such as motivation to learn how
to use the system. The primary users are administrative assistants who will need to schedule and
set up the video conferencing system for their department administration as well as for individual
faculty who need to collaborate with their peers at other universities. The secondary users will
be teaching and post-doctoral assistants who are assigned to faculty research projects as part of
their jobs. Motivation for both will be to be able to successfully run the video conferencing
hardware for their faculty. The motivation to learn may not be as strong as a designer might
wish due to competing priorities within their jobs. Knowing the motivational factors which may
affect users as they go through the e-learning training will help the designer create opportunities
for effective performance (Szalma, 2014). Understanding what motivates users will help to
create task scenarios and use cases (Stone, et al., 2005) which will lead to the creation of a plan
for the design of the e-learning site. The design should be an organic interface that is segmented
so that busy learners can do the training in short segments which will follow cognition principles
that will enable them to successfully complete the training in a way that complements their
motivational needs and match mental models to the tasks at hand (Ghalwash and Nabil, 2013).
Use cases and scenarios will feed into the conceptual design of the e-learning site structure in the
creation of a content diagram (Stone et al., 2005) that will identify key areas of the interface. The

VIDEO CONFERENCING TRAINING CONTENT DIAGRAM

content diagram will provide a frame work for the design team to create the e-learning website.
The content diagram consists of a series of containers which link to one another and provide
navigational direction for the team to follow when creating the e-learning site.
The breakdown to use cases to the content diagram will occur through the examination of
the use case tasks, actions and attributes. These items will be transferred to the containers within
the content diagram to provide flow from one task to another. A use case (Appendix A) was
created for the Administrative Assistants who are the primary learners and which provided the
basis for the content diagram (Appendix B). The designer can use a cognitive walkthrough
approach (Stone et al., 2005) to have a better understanding of the work that the users do and the
tasks that they need to support as well as what they need to learn in order to be able to complete
those tasks. Once a content diagram is created, the team will be able to analyze it and the users
interaction with the work environment to create an effective training site that will assist them in
being successful in running a video conference for their department.
While this content diagram may be particular to a particular department, it can be used to
base similar e-learning sites for other departments that have similar needs and use case scenarios.
Having clear understanding of the users, their prior experiences which we can used to scaffold
the learning of new information in the e-learning site and how mental models can be utilized that
can lead to effective user centered designs for the design that will work best for the users (Stone
et al., 2005). Successful designs will lead to efficient training of users and create an atmosphere
of confidence for users who will be tasked with using the video conferencing system in support
of their department and university initiatives.

VIDEO CONFERENCING TRAINING CONTENT DIAGRAM

References:

Ghalwash, A.Z., Nabil, S. K. (2013) Organic user interfaces: Framework, interaction model and
design guidelines. International Journal of Ad Hoc, 4(4), 39-58.
doi:10.5121/ijasuc.2013.4404

O'hara, K., Kjeldskov, J., & Paay, J. (2011). Blended interaction spaces for distributed team
collaboration. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), 18(1), 1-28.
doi:10.1145/1959022.1959025

Stone, D., Jarrett, C., Woodroffe, M., & Minocha, S. (2005). User interface design and
evaluation. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.

Szalma, J. L. (2014). On the application of motivation theory to human Factors/Ergonomics:

Motivational design principles for HumanTechnology interaction.Human Factors: The
Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, 56(8), 1453-1471.
doi:10.1177/0018720814553471

VIDEO CONFERENCING TRAINING CONTENT DIAGRAM

Appendix A

Administrative Assistant Use Case

Faculty needs to collaborate with a peer university and gives some basic information to the
administrative assistant (AA) with a date and time as well as a contact number for someone at
the other university. The AA must do the following:
- Reserve the department's video conferencing room. Task
- Contact the peer university to confirm the meeting. Action
- Exchange contact and technical information Subtask
Technical information includes: Attributes
- Video conferencing system Make and Model (ie, Cisco SX20).
- System's Internet Protocol (IP) address.
- Telephone number in room to contact in case of problems.
- Confirm who should initiate the call to the other side. Action
- They should also receive the information from the peer university for troubleshooting, if
necessary. Attribute
- Schedule a test of the two systems ahead of time to test compatibility. Action
- Conduct the test Task
- Start the system Task
- Press touch panel to start room Action
- Select video conference button Action
- Place microphone near presenter Action
- Close window shades Action
- Await the call, or call out to the peer university Action
- Test video and audio quality Action
- Confirm that the remote location can see video and hear audio from the system. Action
- Test data sharing connection. Action
- Bring a laptop and connect it to the system. Action
- Show a test presentation Action
- Share the presentation Action
- Troubleshoot audio/video issues Subtask
-Echo Attribute
- Low bandwidth connection Attribute
- No Video to remote site Attribute
- Confirm that the remote site can see both camera video and presentation. Action
- Disconnect system after test Action
- Shut down system Action
- On the day of the conference: Task
- Start the system Action

VIDEO CONFERENCING TRAINING CONTENT DIAGRAM

- Await the call, or call out to the peer university Action

- Test video and audio quality Action
- Confirm that the remote location can see video and hear audio from the system. Action
- Wait for faculty member to arrive Action
- Assist with setting up presentation with faculty's laptop Action
- Confirm that remote site can see the presentation Action
-Return after the conference and shut down the room. Action

VIDEO CONFERENCING TRAINING CONTENT DIAGRAM

Appendix B

Video Conferencing E-learning Site Content Diagram