How I View Training

I focus most of my time on problem analysis and training evaluation. More specifically, I like to know answers to questions such as:

  • Is the project adequately scoped, and are the correct tasks and behaviors being addressed?

  • Are evaluation metrics built into the design? Will we be able to get ROI numbers easily from the trained population?

  • Does the training focus on the action? Is it performance-based? Does it have the right components to learn and practice with adequate positive and corrective feedback if it is?

How I View Instructional Design 

As a learning designer and project manager, I view instructional design as a cohesive series of projects. I focus on problem analysis, identification, and training evaluation. Knowing the objective of the training and how it will be evaluated, and to what extent it will be evaluated is almost a hobby for me.

  • I prefer the Dick and Carrey, SAM (Successive Approximation Model), and Kemp approach to training-not ADDIE, which in my mind, produces cookie-cutter training.

  • I also use the Learning-Transfer Evaluation Model by Thalheimer.

  • I use the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) philosophy: adults learn best when the training meets a current need, answers an existing problem, or furthers their career.

  • I love to work with SMEs because I learn so much from them.

  • Not every piece of training requires a game.

  • Updates are a fact of life.

How I Approach Instructional Design Projects

Most of the training I’ve designed follows the path below: from analysis and findings to evaluation, including treating each piece of training as a project.