Designing Effective Training

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Designing Effective Training

• Instructor
• Paul Clothier
• An Infopeople Workshop
• 2004

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This Workshop Is Brought to You By the Infopeople
Project

• Infopeople is a federally-funded grant project
  supported by the California State Library. It
  provides a wide variety of training to California
  libraries. Infopeople workshops are offered
  around the state and are open registration on a
  first-come, first-served basis.
• For a complete list of workshops, and for other
  information about the Project, go to the
  Infopeople Web site at infopeople.org.

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Outline

• Determining Needs
• Designing Instruction
• Developing Content
• Delivering Content

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Determining Needs

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The Purpose of Training

• Why is training needed?
• Provide new skills?
• Provide new information/knowledge?
• Address a problem?
• Improve job performance?
• The purpose informs the approach

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Be Clear on Benefits

• Who will benefit?
• Why will they benefit?
• How will they benefit?
• When will they benefit?

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Training Development Process

• Analysis - what are the needs?
• Design - create the blueprint
• Development - develop the training and materials
• Implementation - deliver the training
• Evaluation - did you achieve your objectives?

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Review at Each Stage
stakeholders
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Needs Analysis - Actual vs Perceived

• Interviews
• representative sample?, mgr vs trainee?
• Questionnaires / surveys
• online, paper, in-person?
• Observation / task analysis
• see where the problems are
• Informal conversations
• listen to comments, complaints

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Whose Needs?

• Organizational needs
• ROI, learning strategy, library goals
• Learner needs
• feeling of competence, solving immediate
  problems, making life easier
• Task needs
• just enough to get the job done, use the new
  system, etc. - no fluff

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Need Analysis - the Learner

• As well as analyzing the task/skill needs - take
  into account the learners
• Preferences
• Attitudes
• Concerns
• Fears
• Experience

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Instructional Objectives

• Why are they important?
• A basis for planning the training
• A roadmap for the learner
• A basis for evaluating effectivenessof the
  training

Will objectives ever change during the delivery
of training?
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Developing Objectives

• Specific
• address specifics not vague generalities
• Measurable
• be able to evaluate/measure the skill/knowledge
• Action
• specify action/activity they will actually do
• Realistic
• make it achievable
• Timeframe
• specify a timeframe if possible

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Objectives

• The objective of this 1hr lesson is to understand
  the concept of ABC database security, be able to
  successfully login to the system, and be able to
  change your user password.
•  By the end of the 2-hour training session
  participants will be able to understand who
  Melvil Dewey was, the origination of the Dewey
  Decimal System, what it is and how it is used.
• By the end of the day you will be able to use
  Excel to create a simple spreadsheet, use basic
  math functions, save and print.

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Poor Objectives

• To have participants learn the features of the
  new catalog system
• To have learners understand the basics of using
  the Internet
• To be able to use Word effectively to create
  documents.

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Designing Instruction

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Objectives drive Content
Section 1 .. .. .. ..

• Objectives
• ..
• ..
• ..
• ..

Section 2 .. .. .. ..
Section 3 .. .. .. ..
Section 4 .. .. .. ..
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Considerations

• Are you teaching skills, knowledge or behavior?
• How will learners fears and concerns be accounted
  for?
• What might be the resistances to the training?
• What are the prerequisites, if any?

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Balance

• Lecture, demonstration, hands-on exercise,
  group discussion, written exercise, group
  exercise, playing around
• What balance of the above activities should you
  have and why?

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Method and Media

• Method
• Lecture, discussion, discovery, simulation,
  activity, project, role-play,
• Media
• Overhead, book/manual, paper exercise, job aid,
  online resource,

What should determine the choice of method and
media?
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Exercises and Activities

• Have learners do something whenever possible
• Hands-on
• Written or oral exercise
• Small and whole group interactions
• Role-playing, simulations

What should the type of activity be determined
by?
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After the Training

• Consider how the learners might get help after
  the training
• Book or manual
• Handouts
• Cheat-sheets
• Online support
• Phone

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Developing Content

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Outlining

• Top-down approach
• Outline in Word or PowerPoint

Objective
Topics
Main points
Final content
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Sequencing

• Cover the simplest first
• Ramp up the complexity
• Ensure a logical progression
• Build on previous concepts
• Have any lecturing in the morning
• Consider active participation in the afternoon

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Chunking
Idea IDEA Concept Idea concept
Idea .. .. ..
Concept .. .. ..
concept .. .. ..
Idea .. .. ..
?
?

• Break into digestible chunks
• One idea or concept per page, screen or graphic
• Approach it like a newspaper article

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Delivering Content

This section will be covered in much greater
detail in workshop 4
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Before the Class

• Do a dry run first
• Check flow, timing, balance of activities
• Think visually
• Where could you sketch diagrams to aid their
  understanding?
• Association
• What analogies could you use? Where could you
  relate content to their experience?

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During the Class

• Show the big picture
• Explain visually whenever possible
• Be sensitive to learners energy level
• Relate content to learners experience
• Constantly check for understanding
• Be flexible and adapt

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After the Class

• Learner evaluations
• How did they feel about the class?
• Evaluate your delivery
• How could you improve it?
• Evaluate your materials design
• How could they be improved?