Vision Technology Solutions, LLC
Home MenuFAQ List
Expand/Contract Questions and Answers
COVID-19- All Attendees
- Set up your workstation so you can watch the presentation AND also participate-
- 2 monitors are ideal BUT you can use your smart phone or iPad/tablet to watch the training
- Charge your devices!
- Get comfortable using Go To Meeting
- USE CHROME
- Be early
PRIOR TO TRAINING DAY—
- Make sure all necessary staff are invited
- If gathering in a central conference room; test the laptop/projector for functionality
- Verify your internet connection in conference room (hardwire, wireless, both)
- Verify that all participants and/or conference rooms are equipped with audio (mic/speakers) and a computer to login to GoToMeeting, as well as follow guided CMS activities
DAY OF TRAINING—
- Invite all participants to be available 15 minutes prior to scheduled start time
- Please encourage all remote participants to be logged in to GoToMeeting 10-15 minutes prior to scheduled start time
- These valuable steps will ensure that less time is spent on technical logistics and more time is spent preparing you to use the CMS.
TRAINING SETTING OPTIMIZATION NOTES-
- USE CHROME
- It is best to have everyone participating in the training to be in the same room watching one projector (this includes web based training)
- Participants should each be sitting at a computer with access to the internet.
- All people who will attend a "Super User/Advance" training must attend a Basic training first
Objectives
After the 3 hour Basic Training participants will be able to...
- Navigate/find their content
- Edit/publish their content properly
- Organize content within the components to display within widgets on the proper pages
This is a hands-on training, all participants are expected to have their own workstation (computer) and will be building content throughout the exercises
Agenda
Basic Training (All Users and Editors)
- Dashboard and administration interface overview
- Support Menu and Help buttons
- Intro and overview of Homepage
- Interior page overview
- Site Content tab
- Pages
- How to find pages in the back end of the CMS
- Adding, editing and deleting
- Saving, Archiving and Publishing
- Pages
- Image Library-How to Upload
- Document Central-How to Upload
- Calendar-Overview of the component, how to Create an Event
- News-Overview of the component, how to Create a News Story
- Review of Concepts / Discussion
During a Basic Training the Trainer will also cover elements of:
- SEO-Search Engine Optimization
- WCAG 2.0 AA
The 3 hour Super User Session
- All Participants should have participated in the Basic Session
- Super User means- A CMS User has has access to build/edit content for all Content Groups, and is responsible for the overall settings of the CMS
- All Super Users will be given a tutorial of the content within the Administration and Configurations drop down menus
- Hands on training within the Page Templates component
- Overview of how to update the Home Page and Customized Content
Agendas are fluid/ dependent on client:
- Page Templating
- Build a new Page Template-Edit Available Page Templates in the Component
- Effect a Page Template by adding widgets at the Page level
- Administration/Configurations Tabs
- Reports
- CMS User Accounts
- Website User Accounts
- Workflows/Approval Cycles
- Security Roles
- Departments
- Trash Can
- Friendly URL Redirect
- Social Media Accounts
- System Variables
- Custom Content
- Editing the Home Page
- Page Templating
- Build a new Page Template-Edit Available Page Templates in the Component
- Effect a Page Template by adding widgets at the Page level
This is a deeper dive into several components.
After a Basic Training session CMS users are able to
- …Navigate/find their content
- …Edit/publish their content
- …Organize content within the components to display within widgets on the proper pages
BUT- some CMS users need an extra session to go "Beyond the Basic" activities and want to edit their content while a trainer is present to answer questions. A Trainer or PM can offer a Workshop Session to be fulfilled in a time slot that is available for the client.
Do you want your users to know how to use the Forms component? or have a deeper dive into the Facility Directory? a Workshop session may be what you want your users to attend following a Basic User session.
Example: The city of San Jose, CA has 100 CMS users that will need to be trained on the CMS (of the 100 there are 10 Super Users)
- All CMS users must participate in a 3 hour Basic session
- The classroom they have available for training holds 25 people (25 workstations)
- They must have at least 4 Basic sessions and 1 Super User session (total of (5) 3 hour sessions)
- (2) 3 hour sessions a day leaves an available 3 hour time slot for a Workshop session and can be scheduled for the third day of training
- Several departments want a handful of their Basic Users to be able to convert their paper printable PDFs to Forms
Solution: Everyone sits in on a Basic User Session, Super Users attend the Super User session also, and those that need to be able to convert Forms attend the Workshop session.
- Each of the pages of your website is made up of miscellaneous content blocks called widgets
- When you "Edit" a page on the website you are actually making changes to the Widgets on that page
- Each site widget serves a different purpose and function, and many of them provide numerous settings that will customize the look and function to meet an individual need
- Some widgets allow you to display content that is built and managed in Components
- 7 different Calendar Widgets can display Events managed in your Calendar component Calendar Example (ALL Calendar Widgets on one page)
- 3 different News Widgets display Stories Managed in your News Component
- MANY Image Widgets display Images from your Image Library
- 4 different Document widgets can present the Documents and folders from your Document Central Component Documents Example (ALL Doc Widgets on one page)
- Some widgets are Text Editors- you add simple text to these widgets
- Content Area
- Accordion
- Content Column
- Tabbed
- When choosing a Page Template to build your new page consider what widgets already exist on this page template
- ex. If you are planning to display a list of "upcoming meetings" use a page template that has a Calendar Meeting List widget
- Super Users will be able to create new templates with a variety of different widgets organized how you desire
During the 3 hour Basic session all participants are trained how to-
- …Navigate/find their content
- …Edit/publish their content
- …Organize content within the components to display within widgets on the proper pages
We accomplish this within an activity centered on the Calendar and News Components. In this activity the CMS user is given the following task: (using the Calendar Component as an example below)
- Build a new Event that starts and ends tomorrow (or a specific date)
- Fill out all fields in the Summary section including:
- Subtitle
- Introduction
- Thumbnail
- Event Location
- Details
- Categories (why not departments? Categories are taught to be "Best Practices")
- Open the Channels section (below the Summary section)
- Fill out or adjust remaining fields
After the CMS user has completed the task outlined above the trainer reviews the application of content within each field as a group, stressing the importance of Best Practices such as using customer-centric Categories
After discussion and Publishing of the Calendar Event CMS users are asked to navigate using the Site Preview button to front end pages that may have Calendar Widgets, and practice adjusting the widget settings to display the created content.
Following this example the trainer will open a different component in the Site Content drop-down and demonstrate the creation of a new piece of content and stress the importance of the Show All Options purple banner and the use of proper Categories.
- 3 Hours
- I plan all training sessions to be as close to 3 hours at a time
- Any longer than 3 hour sessions and participation tends to diminish, reducing retention rate of material
- A "Full Day of Training" is a set of (2) 3 Hour sessions
- Exceptions to the 3 hour session length must be discussed during the scheduling phase
The number of participants in a single session is determined by the number of workstations that are available to the participants. 1 person per workstation.
A workstation is defined as a computer or device that allows a trainee to participate (log into the CMS and build content).
Training During COVID-19- (Remote)
- Trainees are either being trained from an individual workstation- at home or at the office
ONSITE TRAINING-
- How many workstations do you have in a room?- that's how many people can be trained at a time
- The documents on the right of this page, specifically the CMS Training Reference Guide, can be used to answer most of your questions
- The CMS is constantly being updated the best way to seek information to answer your learning needs is the HELP button within the Dashboard of your CMS
- Or seek the information within the Support Menu, also within the Dashboard of your CMS
- Or visit http://help.visioninternet.com/
Anyone who has access to the CMS that is NOT a Super User, is a Basic User.
This includes:
- Interns
- editors
- publishers
- mangers
- department heads
This does not include:
- Super Users
How can I tell if I am a Super User? When you log into the CMS you have 100% access to the Administration and Configurations drop downs
- Everything listed in the Site Content Drop Down is a Component, as seen below:
Local government websites require compliance with various regulations such as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 to provide an accessible site experience for residents. For example, this includes removing interaction barriers for people with disabilities like visual or auditory impairment. More information about WCAG 2.0 is available at Vision Internet’s blog post titled, “Almost Everything You Need to Know about Local Government Accessibility."
For more information about the specific WCAG 2.0 guidelines, practices, and tips for compliance, please refer to the official WCAG 2.0 website.
- The Training is scheduled by the Granicus Project Manager and the Client Contact
- The Client will receive a calendar invitation with the Go To Meeting location (a link to view the training presentation and participate)
- The Trainee is responsible for testing their technical equipment in advance of the training
- All participants are expected to be able to begin at the agreed upon time
- If the Trainee's equipment malfunctions enough to cause a significant time delay, we will discuss rescheduling the training
- If the Trainee is more than 15 min late to a training time the session will need to be rescheduled
This is up to the client, but should be discussed between the Trainer and client while scheduling the training date. The trainer should be at the training location at least 30 min prior to the training time. CMS users should be seated and signed in at the agreed upon time.
Anyone who will log into the CMS (Content Management System). All users should have a foundational understanding of the CMS. What are the foundations?
- How do I FIND my content? (navigating the components to locate your pages, images, documents, calendar events, etc.)
- How do I EDIT, SAVE/PUBLISH my content?
- How do I ORGANIZE content within the components to display within widgets on the proper pages?
- WCAG 2.0 AA and what it means to you