Chris Harris's CBT Page

So what is CBT?

CBT stands for computer based training. My job involves designing training material that gets presented on a computer.

Last update: January 2005

This page is still under construction, so please bear with me...

The big difference between working with a computer program and reading a book is that the computer program - if it's been designed properly - can pay attention to you. It can check that you're actually understanding what you're experiencing. This may be as simple as asking a question about the subject matter; if you get it right, you can continue. If you can't answer the question correctly, then the computer should present some additional training material to give you another opportunity to learn. People are all different, and to a certain extent we learn in different ways. If you don't "get it" one way, try another.

So, a computer can be programmed to act a little bit like a teacher, making sure your attention stays focused, and checking that you're keeping up with what's going on. All of which is difficult for a book to do.

It's difficult for TV, too - even the educational shows just happen at you. Even the red button of "digital interactive" shows doesn't have that much of an effect on the content. The programmes will be the same whether you watch them or not. The fundamental idea of technology-based training is that it should be interactive in the fullest sense of the word. In other words, what you do affects the training you receive. You make a difference.

I graduated from the University of Lancaster in December 2001 with an MSc. in Advanced Learning Technology. It's a modular course - originally a few of us at work were just going to do the first module, but got carried away!

The course gives a broad overview of technology based training, and subjects that we covered included:

• The psychology of technology-based training
• Analysis and design methods
• Networked learning, collaborative learning, communities of practice
• The use of artificial intelligence in education
• Methods of research and evaluation
• Multimedia courseware engineering
• The organisational context: learning technology integration
• Project management

I design training that's delivered either using dedicated software built using packages like Authorware, or via a browser using either XML or HTML. Each approach has its own advantages and disadvantages. The big, purpose built authoring systems are very flexible, and you can present your content in pretty much any way that your imagination can think up. Their downside is that they're expensive, take time to learn, and produce software that's quite memory intensive. HTML, on the other hand, can be put together with a simple text editor and can be very low-bandwidth. One training programme I worked on recently delivered text and graphics on pages that were never more than 30Kb in size - or about the memory required for one of this site's banner graphics!

One of the big challenges in training is to get people interested in what it is you're trying to teach. One of the biggest challenges for any training designer is how to get the stuff you're teaching to stick. That's one of the reasons why I run this website: by going back and looking at what I've written, I can see whether or not it's useful. I can try my ideas out in the formatting and presentation of text on the screen and see what I like and what looks awful. You'll already have noticed that I tend to keep the design fairly clean - I hate web designers who seem to go out of their way to make text illegible, either through daft colour choices or overpowering backgrounds.

Macromedia's site

Multimedia Authoring Web

Distance education web resources

DL Treasure Trove