ESF Software Makes Developing Materials So Easy

Since 1969, ESF has been:

• developing training modules
• teaching others to develop training curricula
• supervising clients' development projects.

During all that time, ESF has constantly striven to make its IDLS process simpler and easier to use.

In the early 1990's, personal computers became a household "must have" and a business owners' best friend. At that time, ESF saw its greatest challenge and opportunity: to make life easier for instructional developers by creating its proprietary software, TaskOutliner along with a series of MS Word-based templates, StyleDoc.

It has taken many years of research, trial and error, and advancement in computer technology to produce ESF's TaskOutliner software that makes doing the hardest part of the instructional development process, that is, creating the Task Analysis, a snap. ESF is now proud to say that TaskOutliner is available for its corporate, educational, and government clients.

Among its many features is the ability to produce the following reports automatically just by using a simple keystroke:

• Task Analyses
• Performance Checklists
• Table of Contents
• Objectives.

For a complete list of features, click here: TaskOutliner.

ESF discovered another need early in its instructional development career: to provide a method for developers to create courses written by several developers that were consistent and professional looking.

This task used to be the responsibility of the developers' team of secretaries who took the developers' hand-written yellow legal pads and turned them into cohesive-looking training programs.

With the introduction of computers into the workplace, it was often easier for the developer to type up the course him/herself. What initially looked like a cost-saving opportunity, often turned into a nightmare of inconsistent-looking training materials.

ESF recognized immediately the need for a "style sheet" that all developers could use to create standardized training materials. To that end, ESF now has available for its clients StyleDoc, which contains a series of "style sheets" or templates, including the following:

• Workbooks
• Inventory Items (Test Questions) including:
• • Multiple Choice and Matching Items
  • Directions for before and after Inventory Items
  • Page Reference Model
• Cover Sheets
• Table of Contents
• Objectives and
• Instructor's Guide
• (PowerPoint Slides as well as Notes).

For a complete list of features, click here: StyleDoc.

As always, we are only a phone call away.

Peter and Mary,

I just imported my Word checklist into TaskOutliner and immediately printed out a Performance Checklist. Then, using StyleDoc, I reformatted my Pre/Post Inventories, Cover Sheet, Response Sheets, Workbook, Objectives and Table of Contents. Using StyleDoc made the whole job very easy. And the project looks so professional.

Thanks ESF!!!

Joe Reif, Training Director, HMS Host, Bethesda, MD