Top Tips: How to improve training sessions using interactive technology

Top Tips: How to improve training sessions using interactive technology

editor :Annie Waite

Training requirements are now more varied – for example, on-the-job or off-site training may require more flexible, interactive approaches. This five-step guide details the various training technologies available.

1. Assess the scenario
The type of session (Is it with large or small groups? What topics are to be discussed?) will affect technology choice. Consider whether group understanding needs to be assessed throughout, or if it's mainly to raise general awareness of a subject. Once the circumstances have been assessed, the most appropriate interactive solution can be identified.

2. Select the technology
Where training sessions need to be mobile, interactive pads offer a portable solution. Audience response systems are transforming training sessions. Using individual handsets, they're ideal for sessions where tests are taken or where feedback is required on training delivery. The additional benefit of these systems is that they can be used in conjunction with, or independent of, other interactive solutions.

3. Prepare materials
A blank page or a diagram prepared in an electronic flipchart is useful to illustrate a point to a group. This can be annotated over during the session, then saved and distributed later. Some audience response systems plug directly into PowerPoint rather than using interactive software. As such, existing presentations can be enhanced by introducing live Q&A sessions.

4. Practice your training delivery
Practice makes perfect. Familiarize yourself with the information before the presentation. Software provided with interactive technology is usually intuitive, and often provides electronic versions of existing presentation tools, including annotation features and hide and reveal.

5. Develop the program
If a particular element of the presentation is well received, this can be re-used or adapted for the next time. Groups can be provided with personalized notes, rather than a standard handout, so they can take away annotations from their own session. Training evaluation has also become much easier with voting systems instead of time-consuming questionnaires, as immediate feedback can be gained at the touch of a button.

Source: Steve Dracup, managing director, Promethean (AV Distribution)
source: The Source - Melcrum

ROI - Perspective of Training Manager

ROI - Perspective of Training Manager

Return on Investment (ROI) is a buzzword in the corporate houses today. It is very interesting to see that small organizations tend to get more obsessed with ROI as compared to bigger business houses. This is equally applicable for training function. There are instances when the CEO asks curt and crisp question to the Training Manager "Your training plan is fine but what will be my Return on Investment". They want to see the dollars coming in out of dollars invested in the training function.

It is also a widely seen situation that, whenever an organization embarks upon austerity measures, training budget is the first casualty. This is primarily due to the ignorance of the CEO regarding the value of the training function. For a Training Manager, the goal is to bridge the skills gaps among the employees, which can be assessed through individual and team performance, before and after the training.

However, the goal of the CEO is to gain competitive advantage and/or transform the organization to ultimately increase the shareholders value. There have been instances where the organizations allocate 20% of their revenue expenditure on the training function year after year. At the same time, there are examples where the corporates spend as low as 2-3% on the training function. The budget allocation itself is an indicator of how the management thinks about Training. The question now arises as to how to measure the ROI. There could be lot many mathematical formulae to calculate ROI.

Fact, however, remains that return on training is intangible, to begin with. Being the training functionary myself, I can say with confidence that the ratio R/I can be more than 1 also, depending on the efficiency of training function. Following indicators can be used to appreciate the effectiveness of training:

1. Inspired performance by the employees
2. Availability of leaders at all levels in the hierarchy of an organization.
3. Lesser conflicts between the management and employees.
4. Lesser conflicts within the employees group and management group.
5. High incidence of useful suggestion coming from employees towards organizations improvement/ development.
6. Smooth career plan and succession plan
7. Healthy counseling and feedback system.

It is now left for the organizations as to how they measure these parameters and calculate ROI. To summarise, I find it adequate to say that higher productivity is the best indicator of training function. Let training give us the ROI rather than our getting fixed with ROI and working overboard to clip the training function. Drawing inspiration from a famous quote of Shakespeare, let me say -- - For measuring ROI , let the economists contest !! Whatever is administered best , is the best !!

About the Author - She can be reached at lucydoss@yahoo.com.sg

Out to Sea with the Human Resources Forum

Out to Sea with the Human Resources Forum

The ninth annual Human Resources Forum, recently held for three days on board the Norwegian Dawn cruise liner off the coast of Atlantic City, N.J., provided insights to best practices in human resources and training. Keynoter Alex Gibney, writer/director/producer of the documentary Enron:
The Smartest Guys in the Room, talked more about what not to do than what to do when it comes to business practices. Incorporating clips of his film, which also was broadcast continually into attendees’ cabins during the conference, Gibney highlighted the culture of abuse that made Enron infamous, and ultimately, criminal.

Gibney spoke of, for instance, how Enron practiced a corrupt form of forced ranking in which workers battled against each other only to find their ranking often had as much to do with who they knew on the evaluating committee. The Machiavellian culture had exactly the effect Enron execs were hoping for, Gibney explained. It allowed Skilling and chairman (and later CEO) Kenneth Lay to efficiently cover up the company’s abuses and its declining financial performance. “If you’re battling with co-workers, you’re not going to share information,” he noted.

Gibney said workers and associates may have felt as if it were OK to be unethical because authority figures, namely Skilling and Lay, were giving them permission. Gibney said the effect Enron management had on its employees and business partners was similar to that exhibited in the famed “Obedience to Authority” experiment conducted by social psychologist Stanley Milgram.

Subjects were encouraged to continue administering electrical shocks to what they thought was a person actually suffering the effects (they were in fact actors). Despite the screaming they heard, they kept pressing the levers to electrocute because those were the orders they had been given. Similarly, Gibney posited, Enron employees and cohorts continued doing what they may have suspected or even known was unethical because they were “following orders.” As everyone knows now, it wasn’t until whistleblower Sharon Watkins spoke up that the company’s wrongdoings came to light. “The truly powerful message that comes out of Enron,” Gibney said, “is to treasure the people who ask ‘why?’”

Dell HR Makes Waves

Steven Helmholz, outgoing director, executive talent acquisition, global human resources for Round Rock, Texas-based computer manufacturer Dell, shared the secrets behind Dell’s talent procurement and corporate culture.Like all efforts at the company, talent acquisition reinforces the ethic espoused by founder Michael Dell that “we can always do better.” Even when the company made the cover of Fortune, for instance, there was no celebration, Helmholz said, “because it wasn’t part of our culture.”

Human resources, he explained, is no exception to the mantra of constant improvement. There have been some cultural shifts, though, as Helmholz pointed out. Until recently, applicants have had the responsibility to court Dell as a prospective employer. “There was a mentality that they were privileged to be here in this room,” he noted. “Not a good idea.” The tide is changing in Dell’s approach to talent recruitment, Helmholz said. “We’re now trying to sell [to] a candidate, not just put an offer out there,” he pointed out.

It was this shift in approach that gave rise to the global talent management department Helmholz headed, and coupled with an emphasis on talent retention, is indicative of Dell’s “organic growth” strategy. The company now has a 1:1 ratio in how often it fills slots from within vs. finding new talent from outside. The attrition rate at the non-executive level is at 20 percent, and at 9 percent among executives. Look for more information on this year’s HR Forum in the June issue of Training.

Initial Sales Training Preps TAP Reps

Initial Sales Training Preps TAP Reps

Sales reps at TAP Pharmaceuticals, a Lake Forest, Ill.-based pharmaceutical company, head to work armed with an abundance of practice. Reps are required to complete a five-week initial sales training requiring them to pass two exams as well as 25 role-play exercises. These introductory lessons are followed up with additional three-day training programs at six and 12 months after their hire.

TAP ranks #33 in the 2006 Training Top 100, Training magazine's annual ranking of organizations that excel at training and development.

THE COST OF E-LEARNING INTERACTIVITY

A reader asks: Does anyone have information about how to break down the cost of e-learning by level of interaction? In addition, "Is there any evidence that higher-interactivity-level courses are worth the cost?" www.vnulearning.com

We ran responses to this query in previous issues (April 20 and May 18, 2006). Here's one more:"I was intrigued by this comment in the April 20th edition of TDF e-Net," says Henry Stewart (henry@happy.co.uk): A Level I course, for example, might be classified as one that contains an interactive object (e.g., video, animation, or a quiz). "I'd say some folks have different definitions of 'interactive,'" says Stewart.

"Interactive surely means where the learner is actively engaged in interacting with the e-learning, not just pressing a button to make something happen. A quiz creates that sort of interaction. Video, however, is just about the least interactive media around. You press 'Play' and sit and watch -- similarly with animation." "Many people seem to define 'interaction' as 'something different and interesting that happens on screen.' Nope, I don't think so." "Comments are welcome. Are we unusual in relating interactivity to the active involvement of the learner?" Stewart is chief executive of Happy Computers, an IT training company in London, England, U.K.

Source: learning Inside - VNU

MORE BULLET POINTS BALLYHOO

In response to “Beyond Bullet Points,” a Q&A with author Cliff Atkinson that ran in this newsletter on March 9, 2006 (visit www.vnulearning.com to view the archived issue), reader Dale Werth (dawerth@earthlink.net) says, “There are some very real myths, oversights, and gross distractions still perpetuated in most training circles regarding this tool. These have to do not just with ‘bullet points,’ but with PowerPoint in general.”

His thoughts?
PowerPoint is always a tool, not an end to itself. "This should be the true mantra of every ISD proponent and instructional designer alive. The more obsessed you are with color schemes, fonts, customized templates, bullet lists, dancing pigs, and audios of yourself looking cute in conjunction with the matter being discussed, the less likely will be your practical use of PowerPoint or any other electronic visual learning tool as a means to an ends -- but rather the other way round. Taking your eye off the learner in this way is, in my mind, unforgivable. E-tools have their place, but when they become the altar to which we sacrifice all time, budget and creativity, we are all in serious trouble."

Bullet points, schmullet points. "They, like anything else in PowerPoint, are only overdone when you ignore rule no. 1. Bullet points, like many other aspects of PowerPoint, are not in themselves evil, but become so when presenters or trainers become so dependent/obsessed/addicted to them that they start finding themselves 'bullet-pointing' their personal letters, their family e-mails, and so forth. Indeed, I knew an instructor who pled guilty to this very professional liability. (I offered to take her to PowerPoints Anonymous -- but, well, I digress ... .) Truth is, I spend much of my time teaching/mentoring novice trainers in getting used to (gasp!) turning PowerPoint off during key parts of their presentations so that their audience can actually have a chance to think out loud and share in and actually shape the discourse. Show me a trainer who knows how to do this, and you will not have the feared 'bullet-point coma' syndrome to which Atkinson referred."

More bullet points ballyhoo. "I am a great proponent of fewer lists and more open-ended core learning item sheets (sometimes referred to as golden-nugget pages) that invite the audience to truly fill in new, unanticipated or previously unknown items -- and therefore truly engage learners and expect them to actively seek new knowledge and professional discourse, as well as incorporate their real-world knowledge with what has been pre-assumed to be reality. Using only pre-fabricated lists (i.e., 'Here is the gospel according to ME.') is a sure way to make your audience feel/ act like helpless zombies -- even when they really aren’t."

The real kicker. "I once had a well-intentioned, but obviously misguided, young designer who sought to introduce three minutes of audio/visual film into a PowerPoint for a customized training presentation. She eagerly showed me this part of the presentation, and all the while I sat there in confused incredulity. At the end of her demonstration of this creative insert, I asked her, 'And do you really think your professional audience wants to sit for these three minutes of your feature film when they could have gotten the same point in less than five seconds with a quick side graphic, after which you would have moved on to the next meaty slide?' She looked at me as if I had pricked a bubble from her PowerPoint bubble pipe. (Oh, what a villain I can be!) What’s my point here? Because PowerPoint allows you to do entertaining things, that doesn’t mean you actually should."

"Truth be told, my audience experiences over the years have taught me that all audiences will truly learn when they are realistically and practically engaged at all levels -- not just during the first or the last five minutes of a learning experience, but during the entire session. Whether we’re using PowerPoint, e-learning or any other electronic tools at our disposal, the fact is that we are all overusing them. Active learning, coupled with actual practice and engagement, equals a better chance for true learner ownership and, ultimately, opportunity to practice/ perform/realize outcomes. Once a learner owns the content and fully grasps the positive behavior outcomes that such learning attempts to engender, the world becomes a much better place for us all."
"One of the best PowerPoint commandments I have heard over the years, and which I have seen in print in this newsletter and others regarding such electronic tools, goes something like this: 'Function first. Aesthetics second. Entertainment third.' Clearly and simply communicate your message –- and, I might humbly add, equally make it a true dialogue of learning. Then, make it functionally clean, attractive, and ultimately audience-interactive within the timeframe available. Only then (if at all), consider adding touches of cleverness and entertainment. Edutainment is definitely neither. Go Hollywood at your own risk -- and definitely to your learners’ disadvantage." Werth is a senior consultant with "20 years of experience in training and development, organization building and redefinition, and advanced project/program management." He is based in Springfield, Va.

Source: learning Inside - VNU

Training Helps Close the Deal at Reynolds and Reynolds

There's a correlation between sales success and training at Milwaukee-based consulting firm Reynolds and Reynolds Co. Reps who received the company's redesigned sales training closed 85 percent of all deals in the three months following the program. During that same time period, reps who hadn't received the training only closed 55 percent of deals. Reynolds and Reynolds ranks #24 in the 2006 Training Top 100, Training magazine's annual ranking of organizations that excel at training and development.

Trust Busting in the Office

Trust Busting in the Office

Gossiping employees, workers who don't feel like their manager is always acting in their interest, and those of your workforce who sense they can't take co-workers at their word, are all issues that can mean a big headache for human resources. More than that, though, they all stem from a lack of trust, says Dr. Michelle Reina, who co-founded The Reina Trust Building Institute in Stowe, Vt., with her husband, Dr. Dennis Reina.

The institute conducts research on the underlying causes of broken trust in organizations and also specializes in developing tactics for repairing it. "Business, regardless of size, shape, form or industry, is conducted through relationships, and trust is a critical foundation to the effectiveness of relationships," Michelle Reina says. While the importance of trust is widely recognized these days, with many organizations incorporating it as part of their mission statement or even adopting it as a core competency, there are still plenty of problems for companies in this area, she notes.

Step one is making workers aware of how trust is built, violated and, whenever necessary, repaired, Michelle Reina says. Training programs that define trust for employees and provide them with instruction for preserving and fixing it should be given on an ongoing basis, but primers may be necessary at certain critical junctions in a company's life such as during mergers and acquisitions. "When an organization is going through change and transition, people become unclear of what is expected of them and of their roles and responsibilities," she stresses. "When they're not clear of their expectations, they're also not aware of what agreements they are being expected to honor."

Training that emphasizes the importance of communicating fears and concerns directly with managers and co-workers, rather than relying on the old gossip mill, therefore, is essential. "Our research over the last 10 years has found that gossip and backbiting is the number one breach of communication trust," Michelle Reina points out. "Nine out of 10 employees experience it." In addition to unclear (or unused) channels of communication, workers may feel their manager doesn't trust them if they end up doing work that doesn't take advantage of the skills they were hired for, Michelle Reina says. "When people have skills, abilities or insights they are not able to offer, they often feel as though they are not being trusted by their leaders. They feel as though they are not being perceived as trustworthy, and not feeling trusted, they are not trusting in return."

Trainers and HR execs who are able to effectively match employees' skill sets to their work may see an organization that's not only more efficient, but one that suffers a lot less from interpersonal problems. If you're communicating directly with workers who are well suited to the tasks they've been given, another tip to keep in mind is leaving off the blinders. You need to trust your managers and employees, but not with tunnel vision, Michelle Reina explains.

If a manager complains repeatedly about an underling, for example, it does more harm than good to fall back on the age-old wisdom to simply "trust your manager." A protocol should be in place for grievances so the gossip and backbiting mill isn't fed, and the charged employee is given a fair hearing. "When we follow an age-old wisdom like, 'You always trust your manager,' that is an idealization that comes under the category of what is most desired," she notes.

"It is most desirable to always trust our managers and team, however, when we exercise blind trust, we open ourselves up to being vulnerable to missing the fact that there is always the human element at play."

A manager who cries to her boss repeatedly that she isn't being treated right by a subordinate and simply doesn't want to work with him anymore should be pressed for specific examples of wrong-doing that can be discussed openly with the supposedly errant employee. "It is the responsibility of a leader to be aware there will be some people who at some point in time may become vulnerable and lose their sense of themselves, and may behave in a way that is untrustworthy," she says.

"We are human beings, and even those of us who are highly trustworthy do trip up. We do lose our way. We do mistakes. We do lie, and we do violate trust." For more information on building trust in the workplace, including a Web-based assessment to gauge the level of trust in your organization, visit http://www.elabs2.com/c.html?rtr=on&s=cc4,lzz,21,id9e,ap5c,bv7k,fy01.

Source: Inside Training - VNU

WORKING WITH SMES

WORKING WITH SMES

"One of the most difficult challenges I face is working efficiently with subject-matter experts (SMEs) to create online courses," says a reader. "I'm constantly trying to identify better ways to work with new SMEs, to motivate them, and to make their task of communicating the necessary content easier." Can others offer advice, insights, and/or tips regarding how to work effectively with SMEs?

www.vnulearning.com
We ran responses to this query in previous issues (April 25 and May 9, 2006). Here's one more:

Lyn Maize (lyn.maize@ey.com) offers these tips, which are excerpted from her company's self-published white paper entitled "Working With SMEs."

When it comes to communication, the white paper says, the Intellinex team utilizes four interventions with SMEs to make the most of SME's available time and to achieve optimal learning results. These interventions include the following:
• Design Sessions: "We have found that intensive time spent with SMEs in a formal design session early in a project's life during the design phase pays significant dividends in the efficient and successful completion of the learning development initiative and accelerating the overall development process. A design session typically takes one to three days and requires some prior preparation time on the part of both the [learning] project team and all SMEs supporting the project. During the design session, the [learning project] team drives and facilitates the creative exchange of ideas between customer SMEs and instructional designers and documents the outcome of the exchange. The participating SMEs are pushed hard to provide a comprehensive view of the content in order to arrive at a content design that is appropriate for the learning audience, yet creative enough to accommodate their unique learning styles. The result of this interactive session is that the entire team leaves with content consensus, saving an enormous amount of time in what might otherwise be numerous iterations and review cycles. Also, the entire project team typically participates together -- customer SMEs and the [learning] project team -- building a solid collaborative foundation for the remaining work."
• Deliverable Reviews: "During each learning development initiative, a number of deliverables such as roadmaps, graphics, and draft online or classroom course materials are prepared, each of which requires careful SME review. The ... project team may send these materials to SMEs via e-mail, or they may be made available for SME access via a shared server. For each review, SMEs are provided checklists and forms to use to document their review comments and critique. These materials are returned to the [project] team to take any corrective action and continue progress toward project completion."
• Project Status Review/Milestones: "The [project] team conducts periodic project status reviews with customer SMEs. The frequency of these regularly scheduled sessions is determined by the amount of interaction the SME prefers in the creation of the deliverables. The [project] team primarily interacts with the customer project manager and/or sponsor, and the SME may choose to leave the status review at that level."
• Online Community: "All project materials are collected and stored in a Web-based online resource accessible to the entire project community -- the [learning] project team as well as customer stakeholders and SMEs. This easy-to-use resource is continuously available throughout each project as a ready reference. It promotes document version control and includes online facilities for discussion and exchange among the project team. Any SME may go online to do reviews and check project status at any time at his or her convenience."
Maize is director of market research and analysis at Intellinex LLC, a spin-off of Ernst & Young LLP in Irving, Texas. Intellinex recently announced that Affiliated Computer Services Inc. has signed an agreement to acquire the company.

Source: learning - VNU

HOW'S MY E-LEARNING?

HOW'S MY E-LEARNING?

A reader's organization currently offers synchronous and asynchronous e-learning. His questions? "What sort of formal processes/steps should my department follow/take to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of its e-learning offerings?

Do others who have gone through the same process have advice to share as to how to go about doing something like this?" Here are responses:

Linda Fitzgerald's (linda.fitzgerald@cheetahlearning.com) company recently underwent a review by the American Council on Education (ACE) in Washington, D.C. "The ACE review is a way a company can have the effectiveness of its courses evaluated by an outside authority," she says. "It was a time-consuming process (the whole process took months), but at the end of the day, our e-learning and classroom courses all were sanctioned by ACE for college credit.

The four-person ACE committee that audited each and every course had a few minor recommendations to further increase the value of our courses, but overall, they gave the seal of approval." For more information about ACE, visit www.acenet.edu. Fitzgerald is president of Cheetah Exam Prep in Hartford, Conn. DON'T WAIT!Don't wait until instructional materials are complete to analyze quality, says Patti Shank (patti@learningpeaks.com).

"Rather, develop a checklist/rubric to be used during design and development to ensure that quality is built into design and development."

Good Web sites where one can find examples of quality indicators and metrics to potentially adopt include the following:
ASTD E-learning Certification Standards
Quality On the Line
The Institute of IT Training's Standards
Principles of Good Practice for Electronically Offered Degree and Certificate Programs
Open eQuality Learning Standards
Guidelines for the Design of Educational Software

Shank's two cents?
Don't ignore higher-education metrics, where one can find "lots of good ideas for making online training more effective." Shank also recommends that the reader's team work together to "jointly build a checklist and determine how to use it during and after the design and development process." The reader "may also want to add project-management metrics.

Effectiveness metrics should center on whether learners met the learning objectives (learning assessments) and whether learning transferred to where it gets used (performance metrics)." Shank is with Learning Peaks LLC, an instructional design and instructional technology consultancy in Denver, Colo.

Source: learning VNU

On-Site Training Saves KLA-Tencor Customer and Company Dollars

On-Site Training Saves KLA-Tencor Customer and Company Dollars

KLA-Tencor Corp., a semiconductor company based in San Jose, Calif., did its customers—and itself—a favor when it decided to offer on-site training. Using local field engineers who have been certified, instead of sending trainers from headquarters, has reduced training costs for customers by 40 percent, and saved the company almost $2 million dollars. KLA-Tencor Corp. ranks #9 in the 2006 Training Top 100, Training magazine's annual ranking of organizations that excel at training and development.

When Leaders Get It Wrong

When Leaders Get It Wrong

Nobody—least of all those in positions of power—like to admit they’ve goofed. So, you may be surprised to learn that more than 1,400 leaders, managers and executives opened up on the subject to Escondido, Calif.-based training and development consultancy The Ken Blanchard Companies (www.kenblanchard.com). The findings of the study, released last month, reveal these leaders’ views on their most-needed skills and biggest mistakes.

An ability to crunch the numbers and meet the bottom line may have played a huge role in securing them that coveted corner office, but survey participants have a strong appreciation for the more subtle art of interpersonal relations—an area that also causes them some trouble. Forty-three percent, for instance, identified communications skills as the most critical skill set to possess, while 41 percent said that inappropriate use of communication or listening is the number one mistake leaders make.

Many agreed that a much too heavy-handed approach was sometimes used. Twenty-seven percent cited under- or over-supervising, giving directions or delegating as a problem when working with others. Fifteen percent said that empathy and emotional intelligence are critical to leadership success.

Interestingly, when asked to identify the five things that leaders most often fail to do when working with others, high percentages of respondents targeted the same handful of issues. Eighty-two percent, for example, cited failing to provide appropriate feedback, praise or redirection as a personal shortcoming; 81 percent weren’t satisfied with their ability to listen or involve others; 76 percent said they fail to use a leadership style that is appropriate to the person, task and situation, which then leads to over- or under-supervision; 76 percent cited failure to set clear goals and objectives as a problem; and 59 percent said people in their position too often fail to train and develop their people.

source: training magazine