September 9, 2014 Dupont’s “A Step-by-Step Approach to Implement Your Industrial Skills Training Program” is an excellent introductory prescription for today’s post. We’ll reference only their first three steps: Step 1 – Conduct a Needs Assessment to Identify Industrial Maintenance Training and Technical Skills Training Requirements • Define training objectives, audience and metrics used to measure success • Review operational needs • Analyze job descriptions • Conduct interviews and surveys • Create...
September 3, 2014 In so many ways, technology has made significant contributions. But, too often, those innovations can detour from their original purpose and become institutionalized. And, there’s the rub. Often, the users of technology can become very excited about the things technology can do — and so they start misapplying the technology to enhance their own satisfaction. Consequently, they can end up complicating the lives of the people who have to...
August 27, 2014 When selecting your courseware solutions from a vendor, you should look for: a) content accuracy and completeness; b) the course’s designed learning objectives; and c) the production values (which should be rooted in full motion video and optional word-for-word audio). Today I’m going to a concentrate on the middle one of those criteria: the designed learning objectives. There are three primary considerations you must initially take into account when...
August 25, 2014 According to the Free Management Library, the “Overall Purpose of a Training Needs Assessment and Analysis” is described as follows: A training analysis is conducted ultimately to identify what areas of knowledge or behaviors that training needs to accomplish with learners. The analysis considers what results the organization needs from the learner, what knowledge and skills the learner presently has and usually concludes with identifying what knowledge and skills...
August 20, 2014 In previous posts, I have listed the salient features that are found within effective e-Learning designs. I have, also, emphasized learner-control and increased retention as two important goals of properly designed e-Learning. Today, however, I’m going to reverse that story. I’m going to list the more important elements you should avoid when buying or producing e-Learning. The following items are some of the “no-no’s” — if you are...
August 18, 2014 Five days ago I was privileged to witness a dynamic keynote at the SALT Conference in Reston, Virginia. The presenter was Glenn Bull, Founder and CEO of Skilitics, “ . . . the creators of the world’s first adaptive training development platform designed for building measurable learning content. “ The agenda description of Glenn’s remarks reads: “ While other industries have leveraged technological advances and surged ahead, the training...
August 13, 2014 The Society for Applied Learning Technology (SALT) Summer Conference begins today in Reston, Virginia. And, this year, I have the privilege of being the Session Chair for the “New Technologies” Track. That particular track will include sessions on cloud computing, virtual conferences, exercising the brain and wearable technology. SALT holds two conferences each year: one in Orlando in February and the other in the DC area in August. While...
August 11, 2014 From https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-literacy-america we find the following facts re: literacy (citations referenced): 1. 2/3 of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of 4th grade will end up in jail or on welfare. . . . 2. 1 in 4 children in America grow up without learning how to read. 3. Kids who don’t read proficiently by 4th grade are 4 times likelier to drop out of school. . ...
July 30, 2014 In the past, after completing one’s schooling (maybe only through the eighth grade) one became an apprentice. An honorable first step because it meant you had a “career path,” and you knew what you were going to do and how you were to do it. You were going to acquire a skill. Traditionally, the passive “live instruction-as-lecture” method became the norm for teaching the needed skills before the trainee...
July 28, 2014 A recently published article, “Don’t Send Your Kids to the Ivy League” by William Deresiewicz in the NEW REPUBLIC has generated much national comment. I urge you to read it, particularly if you have school-aged children. Among other observations, Deresiewicz has written: “ . . . College is not the only chance to learn to think, but it is the best. One thing is certain: If you haven’t started...
July 23, 2014 The Business Dictionary defines “training objectives” as: “Measurable intended end result of a training program expressed in terms of (1) the desired behavior or skill level, (2) conditions under which it has to occur, and (3) the benchmark against which it will be measured.” So, what do you want to accomplish with the objectives for your training initiatives? Do your objectives include minimizing downtime, reducing scrap, cross training your...
July 21, 2014 The “TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE GUIDE FOR DEVELOPING AND USING COMPETENCY MODELS – ONE SOLUTION FOR THE WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM” published as a resource for the stakeholders and partners of the public workforce development system supported by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration defines “competency” as: A competency is the capability to apply or use a set of related knowledge, skills, and abilities required to successfully perform “critical...
July 16, 2014 I have been working in the “Maintenance Training” field for just over four decades. During that time, in addition to daily maintenance “fix it” activities, advances have been underway to improve operational quality and enhance bottom line results through a variety of maintenance-related activities. Today, the “Reliability” movement has achieved the focus of much of our maintenance emphasis. Its many positive results, financial as well as operational,...
July 14, 2014 “Interactive video in an e-learning system allows proactive and random access to video content. Our empirical study examined the influence of interactive video on learning outcome and learner satisfaction in e-learning environments. Four different settings were studied: three were e-learning environments—with interactive video, with non-interactive video, and without video. The fourth was the traditional classroom environment. Results of the experiment showed that the value of video for learning effectiveness...
