About Reeltime College

Reeltime College is a unique way to learn new computer skills. We've developed it with the single aim of giving you the maximum return on the time you spend training.

It is a fully integrated system comprising software, courses, documentation, on-line resources and tutor support. Course tutors use the Learning Management System (LMS) for tracking and managing students progress.

Software	Our own Reeltime College software manages the learning, delivering the courses, keeping progress records, integrating with the on-line resources and much more. It even delivers a certificate at the end of the course.
Courses	A Reeltime College course is rich in videos, screen movies and interactive hands-on sessions. Courses are designed to be involving and above all, effective. Courses are delivered on CD - they are simply too big to deliver over the Internet. They can be installed on a LAN server or Intranet.
Handbooks	All courses are fully supported by very comprehensive full colour illustrated manuals, which are downloadable from the website - and are available for customisation by organisational clients.
On-line	On-line resources include a dedicated Student Area, where you can get support, join discussion groups, contact the tutors.
Tutors	Private students get access to our own Reeltime College tutors - but the whole system can dovetail to in-house trainers for professional users or organisations.
LMS	The tutors stay in control of the whole process using the built-in Learning Management System and access controls.

The best way to appreciate Reeltime College in action is to download the setup file and install the Reeltime College software. This will let you see the College in action, though naturally you won't have access to the lessons and on-line services until you enrol. Full Help information is provided and you can also download the User Guide in printer-friendly format.

Read on for more background on what you can do in a Reeltime College session.

Explore

The Reeltime College software takes care of all aspects of the courses on your PC. You can explore the features and facilities and 'browse' the courses in detail.  Naturally you won't be able to complete any lessons, and some of the other features like the Induction are disabled until you have access to the media files (on CD-Rom or on your network).

You will be able to explore all the features using the built-in help system, so it's a good way to get familiar with the College environment before you actually start a course.

The Reeltime College software also takes care of things like updating the software and course information, so you always have access to free upgrades.

Enrol

Before you can complete any lessons, you need to enrol for a course and become a member of the Reeltime College on-line community.

• If you are a private individual, simply use the Reeltime College software; select Enrol, then choose your courses. You will then be asked for your details and card number.  You can order the CD at the same time.
• Your employer or organisation may be organising your membership - in which case contact your supervisor; you'll either be enrolled by them or they will give you an enrollment password.

When you enrol, you are given a Student ID and an Enrolment Reference for the course. Together with your password, these are the key to accessing the on-line parts of the course.

Start

Once you're ready to start, just select your course and the software automatically contacts the College on-line to update your records and validate your password for security. (If you're not permanently connected to the Internet, College will make the connection then close it, to make sure you are only on-line for the few seconds it takes.)

College Induction

When you start a course for the first time, College will offer you the Induction or guided tour, just as you'd expect in a physical college environment. This introduction movie will show you the essentials of College life. You can repeat it at any time, and get more detailed information at any time during a course.

'Autopilot'

Although College is very flexible, you don't need to use all its features straight away. If you just want to get on with your course, just click the Continue button and you walk through the entire course one step at a time.

Lesson structure

Each course comprises 20-30 separate lessons, and each lesson has a number of components:

• Overview - short text introduction to the lesson
• Topics - shows the topics covered in the lesson
• Records - shows which parts of the lesson you. ve completed
• Tutor - shows a video of the course tutor setting the scene for the lesson
• Movie - where you watch a detailed on-screen movie (using Lotus ScreenCam technology) of the lesson content.
• Hands-on - where you listen to guidance from the tutor while you work 'live' with the real software
• Assignment - where you try out a series of structured tasks on your own, to reinforce your learning

This sequence is carefully structured to give you 'progressive immersion' into the topic. It ensures that whatever you learn is completely relevant to the way you'll use the skills after the course.

Manual control

Once you've completed a couple of lessons, you'll probably want to step in and take more control, so that you can start to exploit more of what College has to offer.

Any sequence

Naturally you are free to take lessons - and the individual components - in whatever order you like. The course map gives you an instant overview of the course and how far you've progressed. You can jump to any lesson directly from the map, so it's easy to navigate and you don't get lost in layers of options.

Curriculum

Each course has a set of curricula, dealing with specific topics or themes, or you can build up your own personal curriculum tailored to your individual interests. (Or you may have a personal curriculum defined for you by your company or organisation.)

Find

The Reeltime College has an advanced Find feature which helps you to find a specific word or phrase anywhere in the course - even in the spoken sequences - and preview or go directly to the lesson where it occurs.

Progress report

Anytime you want a more formal statement of your progress, you can view or print a detailed progress report, to help you plan your training or to support external certification.

Change options

The hands-on session is the core of the course, and you can tailor many aspects of how the course works, such as set the amount of text help which is displayed, change the speed of the lesson, change text size and font. This means you can adapt the College to suit your own preferences and personal learning style.

Go online

From the Welcome screen, you can go direct to the student area for a range of on-line services:

• Exchange ideas with other students in the discussion groups.
• Contact the course tutors for support.
• Download course information and handbooks

Handbook

Once you've enroled on a course, you can download a detailed course manual. Course manuals are typically 50-60 fully illustrated pages, which you can edit and add your own comments.

NEXT: Feedback from Reeltime College users