In my post “Why training doesn’t work“, I wrote about 2 key concepts in adult learning that motivates adults to want to learn. Now, I’d like to focus on a different adult learning concept that affects how you structure your training class once learners are convinced they should be in your class. According to Malcom Knowles’ theory of adult learning:
- Adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented
Essentially, adults learn better when they are engaged in activities where they are asked to apply the concepts they are being taught to solve real (and relevant) problems. However, before you can design those problem-centered activities, you have to figure out what it is the learner really needs to know.
A common mistake when designing training classes is focusing solely on what we want participants to learn (objectives) and failing to factor in whether it is important to them. This is a fatal mistake because if it’s not personally and immediately important, learners won’t remember or apply the concepts.
How do you reconcile the information you have been charged with conveying, and the needs of the learner? It can take years to perfect learner-centered curriculum design, here are some tips for starting out:
- Start with a needs assessment: Before writing out the objectives you have for the class, conduct one or more needs assessment interviews with stakeholders such as supervisors, employees and customers. Needs assessment should focus on what learners cannot currently do that the training will address. Interview question templates and assistance are available from UITS Professional Development.
- Write clear objectives: Using the needs assessment data, write out clear objectives of the skills learners will gain from the class. An easy format to follow: Upon completion of course, learner will be able to …
- Gain approval of objectives from primary stakeholders: There’s nothing worse than spending hours designing a course and then having it rejected because the objectives don’t match.
- Course creation: Many new instructional designers start with this step and usually pay the consequence with ineffective training. I could (and probably will) write an entire post on how to actually design your course around your objectives. For now, let’s just say that UITS Professional Development is available for consultation but you can start out with a few simple tricks:
- Change what your learners see every 7 minutes, and what they are doing at least every 20 minutes. If you’re using PowerPoint to convey concepts, keep your slides short and change them frequently (but not so frequently as to induce dizziness). It’s best to keep the “meat” of your lecture OFF of the slide and have the slide contain information in short “key concept” lists. Add in an interactive activity every 20 minutes .
- Activities should be interactive, engaging, problem-oriented AND objective relevant. DON’T do something “just for fun”. All activities should be de-briefed to tie into course content.
- A general course format you can follow: Tell, Show, Do, Review. TELL learners the concepts, SHOW them the concept in application (step-by-step walkthrough is good ), provide learners with an exercise so they can DO it on their own, REVIEW concepts and de-brief activity
- Conduct a dry run of the course: Even the most well-designed course encounters hiccups in execution. You may think you don’t have the time for this step, but you’ll regret skipping it in the end.
- Course roll out: Conduct the course to your heart’s content…you’re done, right? Not quite, there is one final step.
- Collect feedback: Most of the time, courses are not static. They change, evolve, and hopefully improve.Collect and review your feedback after every session, repeat steps 1-6 as often as necessary to continue to meet the needs of your learners and stakeholders.
I hope these tips will help you out if you’re planning any training in the near future. Remember, UITS Professional Development is always available to assist you further.
Happy Course Designing!
