But videotape has limits, she said. Somebody in Montana could watch a video, and I'd have no way of measuring their competency after the training. The new CD-ROM will permit such measurements. Users who watch it will be tested intermittently. They will be presented with hypothetical situations, ones related to situations they've just learned about, and asked to answer questions about them.
Cress knows the the workshop format well.
In the early 1980s, Spellman and Cress went to nine states to train people who would, in turn, train others in vision testing. The two have been involved in vision testing since 1976. But job turnover and deaths meant they were getting requests to go back and train again and again, Cress said. Our attempt to put together the videotape-print package was an effort to address the large numbers of people who need this training. I can't do workshops for everyone.