Training: tackling the task of reeling them in

IT Training and Communications is a division of Information Technology Services of Saint Louis University. In response to university-wide adoption of a new education portal called Luminus, developed by the Society for Technical Communication (SCT), we were asked to provide training to the entire faculty and staff population. This training challenge may be an easy task for a training department with dozens of instructors, but we were a department of two people. What a task to tackle!Where do you begin when the whole University is learning a new administrative system that incorporates email, calendar, news and information? Communication! We met with project leaders and portal developers to discuss the role our department could and would play in the rollout of this new essential communication portal. These discussions led to several questions that quickly came to the table.We were able to write training manuals by our own testing of the portal and by using documentation from the vendor. While the vendor's information was technically correct, we felt there was a strong need for a common-language approach, along with addition of various screen shots to define more difficult steps. We also felt it was important to "brand" the portal to reflect the look and feel of Saint Louis University rather than the generic look of the vendor.This paper will discuss the challenges of working with multiple stakeholders of a large project, narrowing our scope of service, and enlisting assistance from other departments to ensure a successful launch of a new university-wide portal.