CRI Training for Desktop Color Proofers

Both careers and fortunes may literally be at risk, so long before jobs ever go to press, everyone and his uncle wants to know, “How’s it going to look?”

Enter the “color proof.” It’s sole purpose is to confirm that all files, films, and you-name-it are 100% correct. The farther upstream in the process problems get caught and corrected, the better and cheaper it is for everyone. And better and cheaper are huge driving forces in the printing industry, same as everywhere else.

Enter the Digital Desktop Color Proofer, or DCP. If you imagine a large desktop color printer, but with far more accurate color, many more capabilities, and control options galore, you’ve got the general idea.

I got to design training for two of Eastman Kodak Company's early forays into the DCP arena. The second involved a third-party RIP, or raster image processing engine, that was even more complex than it was powerful. In short, it was a beast! Talk about your design challenge!

Admirable Bird's-Eye View?

Here's an overview of a my solution:


Front-end analysis revealed I could divide the program into three increments: Users, Queue Managers, and System Administrators. Users would take just the first stage, Queue Managers the first two, and System Administrators all three.

Each stage was divvied up into bite-sized modules. This yielded a highly hands-on, self-study, self-paced, lab for teams of participants. Teams were proctored by a Course Manager who could answer questions, provide hints, fix problems, and so on.

Participants followed maps like you see above, showing which course modules ought to be tackled in what order. Starting at the bottom arrows, they’d work upward along whatever connections they choose, so long as they didn't skip links to lower-down prerequisites.

For instance, if you’d just completed the blackened-in CIO module in the middle of the above picture, you'd be free to choose either the SIO or VPD module next. However, not MJQ, because MJQ depends on things you’d first need to learn in VPD. In such fashion, you’d eventually visit all relevant modules and complete the course.

Of course lots of worksheets, samples, guided exercises and opportunities for self-evaluating progress were provided. Nobody was hurried or deprived of a chance to explore possibilities or variations at their leisure. Likewise, nobody was held back if they made rapid progress.

This strategy works well because it shows participants all the bases they need to cover, and then gives them as much freedom as possible to enjoy their learning experience. Such freedom is a built-in characteristic of the CRI -- Criterion-Referenced Instruction -- methodology.

Naturally it's a lot of work to do all of the up-front detailed task analysis, development of sound instructional objectives and many other things required by this approach. However, the end result is a training program that you can prove genuinely delivers on all its promises. So it's certainly well worth it.