The new face of corporate classrooms for technical training [Part-2]

In Part1 of this post, I have introduced you to the need of different types of course delivery for the same or similar content to different types of learners. In this part, I would focus on discussing and taking you through the model accomplishing this need. The below graphic is a pictorial form of the model.

In the phase 1 of the model, you can deliver the course content through an online learning module. Since the course that you would deliver in the online learning module is one sided content delivery package, you could choose to provide either a rapid e-learning course or a custom e-learning course which-ever is the most suitable. I would discuss the differences between a rapid e-learning course and a custom e-learning course along with their best fit cases in my near future posts. For now, the online learning module can be either a rapid e-learning course or a custom e-learning course.

The phase 2 of the model is to identify and segregate the learners into three or four categories as per your need based on their performance in the course. This phase of the model is aimed at identifying the learners’ learning level, expertise and learning need. For this post, I have tried to divided the learners into four categories based on their expertise with the subject and their learning need.
• Basic
• Intermediate
• Advanced
• Expert
Basic level learners are expected to:
• Learn new technical skills when required.
• Use the newly gained learning into their job.
Intermediate level learners are expected to:
• Learn fast and use the new technical skills and knowledge.
• Be enthusiastic to seek out ways to improve technical knowledge.
• Uses the newly gained technical knowledge efficiently in their job.
Advanced level learners are expected to:
• Be genius at learning, combining and applying new technical skills and knowledge.
• Actively seeks out avenues to learn about advances in relevant technical disciplines, including technical courses, seminars, conferences, professional journals, collegial learning.
• Effectively incorporates new technical knowledge consistently into his or her job; seeks out opportunities to apply new knowledge.
Expert level learners are expected to:
• Be preferably the SMEs or subject evangelists.
• Have a natural interest for quick learning, integrating, and applying the technical skills and knowledge
• Continuously indulge reading/writing relevant technical disciplines, including technical courses, seminars, conferences, professional journals, and collegial learning.
• Apply new technical knowledge towards innovation and performance improvement.

Now, once you have identified the learners into different categories, the learners could interact with each other if the details of the Advanced and Expert learners are provided or preferably highlighted on your LMS or CMS or your student management system. The learners can use forums, chats and blogs that are available in an LMS to collaborate effectively. This would help you to develop learner collaboration and also create a community of learners and experts in a controlled and managed system.

In the phase 3, you can arrange a Questions & Answer session. Imagine this session more like TV reality show where you would see a facilitator, panel of experts, some live learners and rest of the learners watching online. In this case, ID or the trainer takes up the role of the facilitator to conduct and drive the session. Based on the choice of the facilitator, he could take up at any unit level of the course in the curriculum to explain briefly about the unit and invite questions on that specific unit. Based on the criticality and technicality of the question, the facilitator can choose to either answer the question or direct it to the panel of experts. Not to forget, the questions can be either from the learners in the live classroom or from the students present online. For the learners who are used to a classroom kind of environment and those who like to ask more questions for gaining clarity would benefit heavily from this session. Do not forget to record the complete session including the questions from learners online. It is the responsibility of the facilitator to keep in mind the curriculum and the time available for the session while conducting the session.

Phase 4 is the best part and my favorite in the complete model. Once you have recorded the session of questions and answers for the course, you can expect to have an elaborate and exclusive experts’ answers to almost all the most commonly asked questions. A cherry on the cake would be a set of questions and answers voluntarily by the experts and SMEs that a learner could possibly come across while learning the course. If possible and needed the classroom sessions can be held at regular intervals to add more details the course or the curriculum itself. These sessions can also be used to update the course if the changes to the technology or the content are not many but need an update.

You can use this model with modifications and customizations to suit your organization’s training needs. If you consider implementing this model in your organization and you need any support or consultation, you are welcome to write in the comments section. You can also write your experiences if you have implemented a similar or equivalent model in your organization. Your constructive feedback or suggestions to enhance or improve this model are welcome.

The new face of corporate classrooms for technical training [Part-1]

Way back in 2001, the percentage of people using technology to deliver training and people using classroom for delivering training was 11.5 and 76 respectively as per ASTD. But, the recent study says that the percentage will be 50 – 50 in next five years. Even after so much change in the learners’ attitude towards the delivery format and their openness for new forms of learning in the last few years, I am still wondering if the e-learning courses and the packaging of them are as per the audience needs and their new learning styles. Is e-learning changing as fast as its learners?

Before we answer either yes or no, first lets’ do our audience analysis. For the benefit of keeping this blog as short as possible and easy to understand, I am making few assumptions about the learners. My assumptions are:
• The learners have understanding of how to use internet.
• The learners have technical background.
• The learners can be either internal or external customers seeking on the job training.

It is evident from the above assumptions that some of the learners could be learning from different locations on internet such as forums, blogs, twitter, vblogs (video blogs), articles and more learning media on need basis on their own before starting an online course. But, since the learners are learning all by themselves and on need basis, it is possible that they could have gained unstructured learning.

Now, while creating learning solutions for such audience, what kind of learning solutions and what kind of delivery formats would enhance their learning opportunities? Do you think traditional classroom training or an e-learning course or a rapid course can be the best suitable one stop solution for all the learners?

Before I answer this question, I wish to share what I have believed for a couple a years. I believe that the very way we look at the need of classrooms and the online courses would transform over the time. The most efficient use of both the medium will be the face of next generation efficient learning solutions. While thinking about such possibility of a new generation learning solution, I had a model in my mind for a couple of years now. I have tried to explain the same in this blog. Why now if it was in mind for couple of years? Because, now the technology enables us to implement this model, I decided to write about it. The model and explanation is a little too long, so I decided to write this in two installments/parts. However, the same model can be implemented for different audience as well to reap results with the same efficiency.

Let me clear few apprehensions you may have before I go ahead and explain the model. The new classroom that I am talking about is not an all new process or system into your training process. It is only few appropriate changes to the development and delivery process to enhance learning and yield effective results with the existing resources. In fact, you can consider this model as a flavor of blended learning in which you have the online learning and classroom learning in suitable phases of your learning solution to provide a more efficient way of learning.

The diagram below is the pictorial of the model that I foresee for the corporate classrooms delivering on the job training and/or technical training.


The above diagram is a very basic idea/flow chart of the model. This model can be improvised and developed to suit individual organization needs. I would explain the diagram and the model in detail in Part-2 of this post.