Organizational Training Function Recommendations for Implementation By: Marcia Hawk

Identifying Different Levels of Training  Corporate Level Training  Employees need to know about their organization, its structure, policies, rules, procedures, and benefits. Examples of corporate training are: New Hire Orientation, Workplace Safety, Employees’ Professional Conduct, Technology Usage, etc.  Employee Level Training  Leadership and Management Training for Managers.  New application systems (Example: How to the Use EduBoard Application).  Succession plans (How to Develop a Succession Plan for a Departing Employee’s Position).  Performance reviews (How to Conduct an Employee Performance Review).

Conducting Organizational Training Needs Assessment  Identify functional departments (Business Development, Information Technology, Product Support, etc.) within XYZ, and document the function/services that each department manages.  Identify key stakeholders, managers, supervisors, leads, etc., and conduct a Training Needs Assessment (TNA) for each function.  Identify and select a data collection tool(s): surveys, focus groups, interviews, etc.  Perform a Training GAP Analysis (TGA) for each department to identify gaps in training, and opportunities for training. Example: Human Resources—are there policies and rules that all new employees are required to know?  Identify existing training and assess need for enhancements. Example: Human Resource—what, if any, training currently exists but might be better delivered in another format such as eLearning or Instructor-Led.  Begin developing an implementation plan for the training function. Planning should be based upon results of Gap Analysis.

Implementing the Training Function  Develop the mission of the Training & Development Division (T & D) of Southeastern Data Corporation. A mission statement energizes and motivates employees to fulfill the mission of the function. Develop an internal website to promote and support the training function. It doesn’t have to be fancy!  Adopt an Instructional Design Model: Addie, Spiral or SAM. ADDIE is the most commonly used, so it makes sense to use this model since it’s a standard for most companies and most instructional designers use this model.  Develop a staffing plan to support each phase of the training deliverable.  Select an authoring tool—for the eLearning development.  Select a Learning Management System to manage training content, deployments, assessments, evaluations, participants’ enrollments. etc. It’s a good idea to have a dedicated training server for the training function.  Identify a Systems Development Life Cycle process (Agile, Waterfall, RAD, etc.) for managing project deliverables, estimating cost, dealing with issues that might delay deliverables. Agile is a commonly SDLC short sprints—quick delivery.  Create a committee to prioritize training projects based upon potential Return on Investments-ROI.

Adopting an Instructional Design Methodology  Along with a Systems Development Life Cycle used to manage projects, an Instructional design methodology facilitates the design and development of Training programs. The five-phase Addie model is the most widely used and accepted within corporate settings. Addie 5 Phase Model AnalysisDesign Development ImplementationEvaluation

ADDIE Model (Cont’d)  Analysis Phase: The analysis phase clarifies the instructional problems and objectives, identifies the training environment, learner's existing knowledge and skills.  Design Phase: The design phase deals with learning objectives, assessment instruments, exercises, subject matter analysis, lesson planning, and media selection. The design phase should be systematic and specific. The design should be reviewed and revised according to feedback from SMEs and other stakeholders.  Development Phase: In the development phase, instructional designers/developers create and assemble content to create the learning product. IDs also integrate technologies. QA test the learning/training product. The product should be reviewed and revised according to feedback from QA, SMEs and other stakeholders.  Implementation Phase: In the implementation phase, procedures are developed for training. Train-the- Trainer sessions may be needed to cover training outcomes and instructional strategies. Preparation for learners includes student registration, and identification of any tools that will be needed for the training. Implementation includes evaluation of the design and may result in revision of the learning product.  Evaluation Phase: The evaluation phase consists of two parts: formative and summative. Formative evaluation is conducted during each stage of the ADDIE process. Summative evaluations focus on whether Training outcomes have been met. Based upon assessment results, did students successfully meet the course goals and objectives? Evaluation may also result in revision of the learning product.

Staffing the Training/Training Function  A Training/Learning Development function is ideally staffed with employees to fulfill certain roles:  Instructional Designers (ID) work with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to conduct needs assessments, and identify instructional needs. They gather instructional requirements, design and develop instructional plans, design assessments and storyboards. IDs also conduct train-the- trainer sessions during the implementation phase.  Project Managers manage the deliverables for an instructional project.  eLearning Developers develop/author instructional modules. Not all instructional designers know how to use an authoring tool. Depending on the complexity of the training module, an eLearning Developer might be needed to develop instructional modules and assessments.  Subject Matter Experts provide expert subject guidance to support the development of instructional goals, objectives and assessments.  Trainers deliver/facilitate training.  Quality Assurance tests all instructional modules developed. An SME, Project Manager or Instructional Designer could also assume a QA role.

Other Instructional Design Models  The Spiral Model of instructional design is similar to the ADDIE model but combines the features of the Rapid Prototyping model and the ADDIE model. Phases include define, design, demonstrate, develop and deliver. DefineDesign Demonstrate DevelopDeliver

Selecting an eLearning Authoring Tools  Adobe Captivate  Great for product-based instructional design. ID is able to build out demo and training simulations.  Great themes and layouts for instructions and assessments.  It’s an Adobe Developer product with steeper learning curve than Articulate Storyline or Camtasia Studio. Integrates well with other Adobe products such as Flash (for animations) Connect for live training delivery; Photoshop for image enhancements).  Articulate Storyline  Very intuitive and easy to use; perhaps the most popular eLearning development tool.  Great themes and layouts for instructions and assessments. Great assortment of characters for scenario based learning.  Camtasia Studio  Similar to Articulate; a product within the TechSmith suite of products.  M.S. PowerPoint  Great for non-interactive and limited-assessment training modules. Users can develop presentations in PPT and convert to Articulate, Camtasia or Captivate.

Implementing a Learning Management System  A Learning Management System should be implemented to effectively manage the training function. LMS allows organizations to:  Provide a centralized repository for training content.  Enroll students in training courses.  Manage instructors’ profiles.  Track students’ participation or progress.  Provides regulatory compliance.  Reduce training cost.  Provides reporting of summative assessment data that can be used to assess the quality of instructional modules for eLearning, Instructor-Led or hybrid courses. Many LMS systems come with a data analytics feature.  Conduct and manage the results of formative assessments.

Selecting the First Project to Implement  Start with a small project that will be easy to implement. HR Policy training might be a good candidate for eLearning.  Decide upon an SDLC – Agile, RAD or Waterfall  Implement a project plan for each phase of the delivery phases:  Analysis  Design  Develop  Implement  Evaluate  Conduct lessons-learned follow-up meetings to examine what worked well and what didn’t. This would be valuable for all of the project phases.  Revise Training Function, SDLC, ID methodology as needed.

Project Templates and Other Information Needed  Every training project should have standards and templates to facilitate training development.  Instructional Design  Instructional design document; assessments, storyboards, evaluation checklists, etc.  Design/media assets and templates -- XYZ Logo, pictures of employees, trainers, etc. copyright info., etc.  Design theme that matches the company’s website; style guides.  Organizational Needs Assessment and GAP Analysis  Organizational Needs Assessment (high level)  Organizational Gap Analysis (high-level)  Sample Project Plan based upon SDLC  Agile – Sprints  Waterfall  RAD

References and Links to Resources  design-for-agile-software-development.html design-for-agile-software-development.html