Sunday, April 18, 2010

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.

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