Project Management

It goes without saying that requests for training in organizations stem from a need to fill a knowledge, skills or abilities gap in performers to meet specific goals or objectives. When that request is made, it is important align your work with “big picture” goals and objectives for the organization. The training department must interact with several functions and leaders within an organization. Therefore, staying organized, task-focused and goal-oriented is crucial. Project management is the key to staying on target in the organization’s training function. Managing training projects requires:

• Knowledge of training request origins (the who, where and why behind training requests)
• Knowledge of when training needs to occur
• Resources to support training delivery

Budget Planning and Monitoring

Budgeting is as simple as allocating funds to support training and then tracking expenditures to make sure you are not going over budget and becoming a liability to the organization. Always be thinking ahead in regard to your training budget. Find ways to cut costs, but not at the expense of the training – it’s goals and objectives.

Instructional Design Process

Have a defined process for creating training. By following a process, you can create effective training that is instructionally sound and cost effective. When you create training through an instructional design process, it can be completed in a timely fashion and more importantly be objective.

Outsourcing

Be open to hiring consultants or freelance instructional designers to work on some training projects. By outsourcing the design and development of selected training to third parties, you are able to free up resources that you can dedicate to more important training programs. A colleague at company in Boise, Idaho uses this method to focus his training team on the ongoing, mission-critical training programs in his organization. While they work on those programs, the one-time training events that are important, but not crucial, are handed off to consultants he manages.

Training Resources

Resources to support the development and delivery of training are wide and varied between companies. Training budgets often dictate what what access you have to tools and resources for training. Try to allocate the resources you need and find creative ways to use what you have available. You may find ways to deliver training that is efficient and cost-effective.

Evaluation Process

Create processes and models to measure the effectiveness of your training. The most popular evaluation methodology is drawn from Donald Kirkpatrick’s model of evaluation. Typically, evaluation of training programs will measure reaction to the training program or how well it was received. This is commonly known as a Level 1 Evaluation. A Level 2 Evaluation will test or quiz your learner’s knowledge of the subject matter after they have been trained. The data gathered from these forms of evaluation will provide guidance to you on what changes to the training need to be made, if any.

Conclusion

By looking at your training department from this perspective, you can effectively manage, organize and plan company-wide training. Any training you create out of your training function will then be aligned with your business’s objectives and demonstrate its ability to be an asset rather than a liability.

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Needs Assessment

Training programs should not be developed based on perceived needs. While the stakeholder may be confident that the training need they are approaching you with is legitimate, you still must validate the claim through some form of needs assessment. Often times people close to the problem only see it for what it is worth and unfortunately fail to look at the problem in a much broader context.

Objectives

Every training program must have a clear set of objectives that are measurable and observable. This not only lets you know that the training you are delivering is working in the selected target audience, it also demonstrates value. Without objectives, once again, you are only doing training for the sake of training.

Evaluation

In relation to objectives, evaluation is the opportunity to learn more about the training you developed and delivered. Donald Kirkpatrick’s Four-Level Evaluation Model measures the learner’s reaction to the training, knowledge gained from the training, changes in learner behavior and results. The information you gain from applying evaluation methods after you deliver training will help you further refine the training and make improvements where needed.

Other Important Tips

In addition to the previously mentioned elements to effective training, here are some other important tips:

• Be sure to put the training you are delivering into proper context for the target audience. Tell them why the training they are being asked to participate in is important. Explain how it will relate to their work and if you can, provide appropriate rewards, recognition and incentives for training completion.
• Foster leadership in the organization by training managers first. They can serve as examples by modeling certain behaviors and attitudes to motivate co-workers and team members to participate in training.

Conclusion

Above all, it is especially important to make sure there is a true training need before you commit to designing, developing and delivering training. Training is an expensive proposition and the training need that some in your organization thought needed to be addressed, may only turn out to be a performance problem that could be remedied through a non-instructional intervention such as replacement of tools and equipment or changes in processes.

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It’s not that rapid e-learning tools are entirely replacing trainers or instructional designers. They are, however, becoming a preferred choice of developing and delivering training in the corporate world. Their ease of use and overall cost is relatively low compared to the more traditional forms of training. Nevertheless, these software applications are merely tools and in the hands of inexperienced instructional designers or subject matter experts tapped as trainers, they are ineffective.

Instructional designers  have their place in the training process as they analyze and validate training needs. With their knowledge of adult learning and how to maximize the potential of each learner, they can organize and present the content in a fashion that is easy to learn and relevant to the learner. More importantly, they can create activities and exercises that give the learner an immediate opportunity to demonstrate what they learned and get corrective feedback.

Sadly, I have to agree with the author of the blog post that inspired this particular post that some companies are trading quality for speed. While it is understandable that managers and human resource departments need people to be trained quickly and efficiently, the science behind adult learning often gets overlooked.

I feel the profession instructional design is losing some ground as being an established function within organizations. This is largely due to the economy. When cuts in a company need to be made, training is often the first to go as instructional designers are largely a support and administration function of an organization. They are not a line function, which generates revenue directly for a company. Such cuts, in my opinion, are not necessarily a wise move as I discussed in a previous post.

Rapid e-learning tools, in place of qualified instructional designers and trainers give a false impression that anybody can put together training and I hope that changes when the economy turns around. Instructional designers must do a better job demonstrating their value within their organizations. At PinPoint, we’re happy to say we use rapid e-learning tools, but we back-up everything we produce with sound instructional design.

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As for what was learned in the last class, Synchronous Learning in the Workplace… well, nothing much. If I did have to point to specific take-aways from the course, here they are:

• Synchronous learning platforms and the technologies surrounding it are not a replacement for sound instructional design. When teaching online, you still have to adhere to instructional design principles in order to deliver quality instruction.
• You must think of ways to interact with the learner, create activities to engage them and provide opportunities to apply what they are learning wherever possible in synchronous learning.
• Enable social presence wherever possible in synchronous learning sessions.

It will be a while before I return to complete the WELPS certificate as my experience during the course was different from the previous courses. With a break, I hope to recharge and re-engage as soon as possible.

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