Developing Technical Training: A Structured Approach for Developing Classroom and Computer-based Instructional Materials - Hardcover

Clark, Ruth C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0787988464 ISBN 13: 9780787988463

Verlag: Pfeiffer, 2007

Inhaltsangabe

Since it was first published almost twenty years ago, Developing Technical Training has been a reliable resource for both new and seasoned training specialists. The third edition of this classic book outlines a systematic approach called the Instructional Systems Design (ISD) process that shows how to teach technical content defined as facts, concepts, processes, procedures, and principles. Whether you teach “hard” or “soft” skills, or design lessons for workbooks or computers, you will find the best training methods in this book. Using these techniques, you can create learning environments that will lead to the most efficient and effective acquisition of new knowledge and skills. Throughout the book, Clark defines each content type and illustrates how to implement the best instructional methods for delivery in either print or e-learning media.

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The Author

Ruth Colvin Clark, the founder of CLARK Training & Consulting, is a recognized specialist in instructional design for workforce learning. She served as training manager for Southern California Edison and is a past president of the International Society for Performance Improvement. Clark is the author of the best-selling e-Learning and the Science of Instruction and Building Expertise, both of which were bestowed the Best Communication Award from ISPI.

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Developing Technical Training
THIRD EDITION

SINCE IT WAS first published almost twenty years ago, Developing Technical Training has been a reliable resource for both new and seasoned training specialists. The third edition of this classic book outlines a systematic approach called the Instructional Systems Design (ISD) process that shows how to teach technical content defined as facts, concepts, processes, procedures, and principles. Whether you teach "hard" or "soft" skills, or design lessons for workbooks or computers, you will find the best training methods in this book. Using these techniques, you can create learning environments that will lead to the most efficient and effective acquisition of new knowledge and skills. Throughout the book, Ruth Colvin Clark defines each content type and illustrates how to implement the best instructional methods for delivery in either print or e-learning media.

This new edition includes all new guidelines and examples illustrating how to adapt training methods for new digital learning environments including synchronous, asynchronous, and mobile technologies. Developing Technical Training is written for new training specialists or subject-matter experts to help them:

• Follow a systematic process to define training content and develop training materials
• Identify the key instructional methods including practice exercises needed to teach facts, concepts, processes, procedures, and principles
• Design powerful practice exercises that will lead to learning
• Construct test questions to match learning objectives and type of content
• Provides a framework for assessment and principles of first line treatment

Aus dem Klappentext

Developing Technical Training
THIRD EDITION

SINCE IT WAS first published almost twenty years ago, Developing Technical Training has been a reliable resource for both new and seasoned training specialists. The third edition of this classic book outlines a systematic approach called the Instructional Systems Design (ISD) process that shows how to teach technical content defined as facts, concepts, processes, procedures, and principles. Whether you teach "hard" or "soft" skills, or design lessons for workbooks or computers, you will find the best training methods in this book. Using these techniques, you can create learning environments that will lead to the most efficient and effective acquisition of new knowledge and skills. Throughout the book, Ruth Colvin Clark defines each content type and illustrates how to implement the best instructional methods for delivery in either print or e-learning media.

This new edition includes all new guidelines and examples illustrating how to adapt training methods for new digital learning environments including synchronous, asynchronous, and mobile technologies. Developing Technical Training is written for new training specialists or subject-matter experts to help them:

• Follow a systematic process to define training content and develop training materials
• Identify the key instructional methods including practice exercises needed to teach facts, concepts, processes, procedures, and principles
• Design powerful practice exercises that will lead to learning
• Construct test questions to match learning objectives and type of content
• Provides a framework for assessment and principles of first line treatment

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Developing Technical Training

A Structured Approach for Developing Classroom and Computer-based Instructional MaterialBy Ruth Colvin Clark

John Wiley & Sons

Copyright © 2008 Ruth Colvin Clark
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7879-8846-3

Chapter One

The Technology of Training

AN INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

An economy dependent on design, engineering, analysis, and service-in other words on knowledge work-cannot afford ineffective or inefficient training. Training with organizational payoff won't happen by accident. It requires a systematic approach to analyze requirements, define instructional ingredients, and create a learning environment that achieves your goals. This systematic approach is called Instructional Systems Design or ISD for short. The result of ISD is the definition of four main ingredients in your training program: instructional content, learning outcomes, instructional methods, and delivery media.

This book is about the processes and guidelines you need to develop technical training that is consistent and effective. I define technical training as learning environments delivered in face-to-face classrooms or via computer designed to build job-relevant knowledge and skills that improve bottom-line organizational performance.

The Costs of Training Waste

It's a common and costly myth that if there are ten to fifty people in a room with an "instructor" at the front showing slides and talking, learning is taking place. In other words, a training "event" is assumed to result in learning. It is further assumed that learning translates into improved job performance. Another pervasive myth suggests that training delivered on a computer is not as effective as face-to-face learning. Whether delivered in a classroom or on a computer, often training events fail to realize their potential! Participants are unable to do anything new or different after training when they return to the job. Or if they can do new and different things, those things don't translate into job skills that align to bottom-line organizational objectives. In fact, some studies have shown that learners were better off before the training than afterward, when they felt confused and inadequate about their own abilities.

Exact estimates of training waste are difficult, since training results are so rarely measured that no one really knows for sure what has-or has not-been accomplished. Only about 50 percent of companies measure learning outcomes from training, and less than a fourth make any attempt to assess job transfer or work improvement resulting from training (Sugrue & Rivera, 2005).

The costs of ineffective training are twofold. First, there are the visible dollars invested in instructors, training materials, and training administration. This is not a trivial sum. The annual Training magazine industry survey reports that in 2006 over $56 billion were invested by U.S. organizations in training (Industry Report, 2006). And this is a low estimate because it does not include the most expensive element of any training program-the time workers spend in training events. When training funds are not well invested, the result is waste-not only of the training expenditures, but also from lost-opportunity costs of a workforce that lacks the skills they need to fully utilize the technologies or techniques required by their jobs.

A typical lost-opportunity scenario is associated with the development and installation of a new software system. Months, even years, of effort and hundreds of thousands of dollars are invested in the design and development of the software. Then, sometimes almost as an afterthought, someone is asked to put together a training package for the end users. Because the resulting training is suboptimal, the software ends up underutilized and a portion-sometimes a substantial portion-of the system potential is never realized. Some new users ask for help from their colleagues in adjacent cubes. Others spend hours poring over confusing technical manuals. The immediate result is learning and performance that is inconsistent and inefficient. The long-term result is underutilized and mis-utilized software.

I write this book for individuals with technical training assignments who may be new training specialists or technical experts with an instructional assignment. As job performance become increasingly knowledge-based, there is a growing and appropriate trend toward using technical experts as trainers. But this brings us to another costly training myth: the misconception that all it takes for effective training is technical expertise, combined with the years most of us spent in formal educational programs. This assumption puts an unfair burden on the experts, who are not given adequate support in the preparation and delivery of their training. It is also unfair to the employees who are supposedly "trained" and later feel demoralized because they can't apply the skills needed on their jobs. Finally, poor training cheats the organization by failing to generate a return on investment. These two assumptions are illustrated in Figure 1.1.

Why We Can't Afford Ineffective Technical Training

Five major trends make the development of the human resource through effective training a greater priority than in the past:

1. New Technology: Organizations continue to be increasingly dependent on the use of new technologies, especially information technologies, as routine business tools. While many tools have improved user interfaces over the past ten years, in many cases new functionality goes unexploited in terms of productivity payoff.

2. A Knowledge-Based Workforce: Knowledge workers have nearly doubled in the last half of the 20th century from 37 percent in 1950 to nearly two-thirds of total employment in 2000 (Wolff, 2005). Reliance on a skilled workforce continues to grow in industries most dependent on safety, knowledge, and service. In 2005 the industry segments with highest per employee expenditures on training were transportation and utilities; finance, insurance, and real estate; and services (Sugrue & Rivera, 2005).

3. Lifelong Learning: An aging population requires organizations to think now about how to efficiently transfer a large skill reserve to replace a growing number of retirees. At the same time, new products, global competitors, updated policies, and emerging markets require a flexible workforce that can rapidly acquire and apply new skills. Lifelong learning requires continuous and rapid deployment of effective instructional resources.

4. Access to Learning Resources: The ubiquitous access to data via broadband Internet and wireless technologies makes channels of instruction broadly available to a wide population. Similarly, many workplace tools such as new software systems embed training and memory support within the tool itself. However, as we will see below, it is not the delivery medium that impacts instructional effectiveness. Only by using effective instructional methods can we harness delivery channels effectively.

5. Operational Alignment: In a global economic environment, learning must be aligned to business strategy and increasingly integrated into the work environment. Better decisions about how to deploy training resources will result in growth of "just-in-time" performance support resources and...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Pfeiffer
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2007
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0787988464
• ISBN 13: 9780787988463
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Auflage: 3
• Anzahl der Seiten: 288
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Wiley-VCH GmbH; product_safety@wiley.com; ; Boschstrasse 12; Weinheim; 69469; Deutschland