I chickened out on my attempt to add transitions to our in-house training program. Maybe that’s a little harsh, I am still planning to add them, but I needed a test run before going live. I wanted to make sure that the technology I was planning to use for taking notes (my Tablet PC) and the type of transition I was planning to use (lead-in questions) were going to work. So, instead of a debut session, I opted for a dry run in front of a few trusted critics. I’m, convinced that the concept is a good one, but I’m glad I did the test.
One reason I’m glad has to do with the technology; it worked fine for recording input, but there were problems. I had practiced using my Tablet PC as a note taking device, and I knew that would work. I also knew that I would have to use the on-screen keyboard to enter data during the demonstration segment – I had practiced performing both tasks. I practiced, but I didn’t do a dress rehearsal. By that I mean I didn’t try it in the room connected to the projector. When I connected my Tablet to the projector, the screen resized (the Tablet is wide screen) and the access icon for the on screen keyboard disappeared. This left me fumbling to access the physical keyboard which is under the screen when the PC is used as a tablet.
The other reason I’m glad I did the test was that it generated so much valuable feedback about the training program in general. We’ve talked on this blog before about the importance of feedback, and I’ve mentioned how we use surveys and blogs to gather feedback, but this was special. I was live, in front of four coworkers who offered comments and advice on a wide range of subjects. We talked about the concept and technique of transitions. We talked about the topics selected for the training session. We talked about what topics should follow in the next session and when that session should be presented. What was planned to be a 30 minute demonstration turned into a 90 minute program critique and generated some very valuable comments.
Since that dry-run, I’ve figured out the on-screen keyboard issue and I’ve adjusted the program content and the schedule to reflect the input received. I am more confident than ever that we are moving the program in the right direction.
I want to end this entry with a special note of thanks to Faith Antion, Roger Brown, Vince Stevenson, Guila Muir and Mark Thompson. You guys were willing to get on board and support the idea of yet another blog about training and your efforts helped gain page views and followers. I look forward to more great posts, more guest bloggers and more comments in 2010. I hope each of you will join us again as we share the things we know about our shared passion.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
A Field Report on Great Training
I thought I would be interrupting our series on Transitions this week with a “report from the classroom”. I spent the past four days attending AIIM’s Electronic Records Management (ERM) Master certificate training. Having already completed the ECM Master course, I knew the class would be great and I knew I wouldn’t be able to wait to talk about it. As it turns out, this class was also a perfect example of the use of transitions.Teaching a four day technical class takes a special kind of instructor under the best of circumstances. In my opinion, the best of circumstances would be a class on a judging beach volleyball; did I mention this was a class on Records Management? Our instructor, Carl Weise, pulled it off with ease.
Whenever I am in a class like this, I take three sets of notes. One set is the stuff I need to remember for the exam and case study required to get the ERM Master certificate. The second set is the things I need to remember to work into our implementation (see my other blog) and the third is ways I can improve as a trainer. As I mentioned two weeks ago when I started this series, I am changing our in-house training program to incorporate transitions and I am planning to adapt my presentation based on the input I receive from the students. I saw some great examples of exactly what I hope to achieve, I only hope I can pull it off as well.
In the off chance that it still needs to be said, if you need training in ECM, ERM, BPM or any of the subject areas that AIIM covers, check out the AIIM web site and find a way to attend one of their classes. You will be very happy you did!
Friday, December 11, 2009
The Magic of Great Training
Hello, adult education aficionados! I’m Guila (pronounced “ghee-lah”) Muir. I’m an avid adult educator, having studied this art for many years. For the last 17 years, I have run my business, Muir and Associates. We primarily train professionals from all walks of life to design and deliver effective training sessions and presentations.
I find this work highly creative and enjoyable. I provide SMEs a highly-honed, rapid instructional design process that they can use to develop sessions in their areas of expertise. I love research, so attempt to inject meaningful findings into my offerings in very practical ways.
I live in Seattle, WA, and do a lot of (cold) open water swimming. I was excited to discover the Training Debate blog and am happy to play a part in it!
Please visit me at http://www.guilamuir.com. I’ve got plenty of helpful articles at http://www.guilamuir.com/train-the-trainer-articles/, and add a new one each month.
Here’s a short article that supports what many of you do.
What Separates Great Trainers From the Merely “OK?”
Many training participants would respond, “Great trainers make the learning easy and fun.” If probed further, they might mention the use of engaging training activities, or the trainer’s personal style.
But most won’t be able to identify an important action that differentiates expert trainers. This action is subtle and powerful. It helps lubricate the session and increases learner retention. Though mostly invisible to the untrained eye, it truly separates the “Greats” from the “OK’s.”
What is this seemingly magic characteristic of great training? It’s the use of transitions.
What are Transitions?
Transitions are verbal checkpoints. They connect disparate pieces of material and move the session forward. In using transitions, the trainer operates much like the pilot of a plane: “We’ve just gotten a good look at the Colorado River. Next, we’ll be flying over Hoover Dam.”
This verbal framing helps the participants’ brains organize all the new content they’re receiving. It also readies them to process new input.
What do Transitions Look Like?
Transitions typically have two parts, the summary and the transition statement.
Here are three examples of effective transitions.
A. “We’ve just introduced (reviewed, talked about, etc.) ___________.
“Now, let’s move on to_____________.”
B. “We’ve just reviewed ___________. What are the _______, ___________, _____________?”
“Next, we’ll take a look at ____________.”
C. “Each of you has demonstrated that you can _____________. Now, you will have the opportunity to ________________.”
By building in transitions like these, the trainer makes the whole session flow better. There is a built-in silkiness, fluidity, and logic between chunks of content. And best of all, the trainer has the opportunity to test for participants’ understanding before moving to the next issue.
Try using a few well-thought-out transitions between modules in your next training session. You’ll be amazed at how much more smoothly the class goes, and how much more the participants retain.
© 2009 Guila Muir. All rights reserved. You may make copies of this article and distribute in any media so long as you change nothing, credit the author, and include this copyright notice and web address.
I find this work highly creative and enjoyable. I provide SMEs a highly-honed, rapid instructional design process that they can use to develop sessions in their areas of expertise. I love research, so attempt to inject meaningful findings into my offerings in very practical ways.
I live in Seattle, WA, and do a lot of (cold) open water swimming. I was excited to discover the Training Debate blog and am happy to play a part in it!
Please visit me at http://www.guilamuir.com. I’ve got plenty of helpful articles at http://www.guilamuir.com/train-the-trainer-articles/, and add a new one each month.
Here’s a short article that supports what many of you do.
What Separates Great Trainers From the Merely “OK?”
Many training participants would respond, “Great trainers make the learning easy and fun.” If probed further, they might mention the use of engaging training activities, or the trainer’s personal style.
But most won’t be able to identify an important action that differentiates expert trainers. This action is subtle and powerful. It helps lubricate the session and increases learner retention. Though mostly invisible to the untrained eye, it truly separates the “Greats” from the “OK’s.”
What is this seemingly magic characteristic of great training? It’s the use of transitions.
What are Transitions?
Transitions are verbal checkpoints. They connect disparate pieces of material and move the session forward. In using transitions, the trainer operates much like the pilot of a plane: “We’ve just gotten a good look at the Colorado River. Next, we’ll be flying over Hoover Dam.”
This verbal framing helps the participants’ brains organize all the new content they’re receiving. It also readies them to process new input.
What do Transitions Look Like?
Transitions typically have two parts, the summary and the transition statement.
- Summaries reiterate, check for, or test key points.
- Transitions move the training from one stage to the next.
Here are three examples of effective transitions.
A. “We’ve just introduced (reviewed, talked about, etc.) ___________.
“Now, let’s move on to_____________.”
B. “We’ve just reviewed ___________. What are the _______, ___________, _____________?”
“Next, we’ll take a look at ____________.”
C. “Each of you has demonstrated that you can _____________. Now, you will have the opportunity to ________________.”
By building in transitions like these, the trainer makes the whole session flow better. There is a built-in silkiness, fluidity, and logic between chunks of content. And best of all, the trainer has the opportunity to test for participants’ understanding before moving to the next issue.
Try using a few well-thought-out transitions between modules in your next training session. You’ll be amazed at how much more smoothly the class goes, and how much more the participants retain.
© 2009 Guila Muir. All rights reserved. You may make copies of this article and distribute in any media so long as you change nothing, credit the author, and include this copyright notice and web address.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Training, Transitions and Tablets – Oh My
Sorry, it’s the holiday season and the Wizard of Oz seems to be airing non-stop. Actually, this post is about training and transitions with a side note about tablets.
I was speaking to a friend who teaches at one of Connecticut’s state universities about our in-house training program (CLiP). Over the course of our conversation he asked how long our sessions are, and I said “an hour”. Then he asked how many topics I cover, and I said “too many”. Actually, we only ever have one topic, but I divide the session into five learning modules.
He suggested I reduce my sessions to four modules, and use the time to add a transition segment between modules. He said he started doing this in his classroom and it helps keep his students engaged. I’m going to refrain from using his examples in case I can convince him to join us as a guest blogger but I’ll share my plans for how I hope to follow his advice.
I am primarily teaching technology subjects; how to use some feature of Office, or SharePoint, or eMail or Social Media, or, well you get the point. I’m constantly guessing what people will want to learn and, while I often get the subject right, I frequently miss the reason. For example: our next training session is on SharePoint Custom Lists. If you’re not familiar with SharePoint, see my other blog or just imagine something that lets you easily build a very robust means of keeping track of items you’re interested in. I know four things people should know about Custom Lists, and I can cover those four things in 40 minutes. What I don’t know is why they might care; what context might help them connect with the need for a Custom List of their own.
I have tons of examples of Custom Lists, but they are the things I want to keep track of. So, in this upcoming class, I’m going to stop and ask questions before each topic, to try and surface the things they care about for each topic. I have tried to make my training material somewhat flexible, so I can change course (within reason) on the fly. In a future blog, I’ll let you know if this worked - now what about those tablets?
I’ve been using a Tablet PC since they first became available. I have never tried to use them in conjunction with training because I always prepared the training ahead of time and just presented it. Now that I’m planning to ask some questions, I thought it would be great if I could capture the answers using the Tablet’s pen. My first thought was to see if I could integrate OneNote into PowerPoint. That didn’t go so well so I looked to see
if there was an add-on I could buy, but nothing jumped out at me. Then I decided to simply write on the presentation using the pen as PowerPoint’s Pointer. I figured it would be enough to show the comments on the screen, even if I couldn’t save them. To my surprise, when I exited the Slide Show, I was asked “Do you want to keep your ink?” – Wow, built right in was the feature I was trying to find; who knew?
The moral of this story is that there are always ways to improve our approach to training, our content, our technique and there’s always more to learn. See, you thought I was going to end with “there’s no place like home”.
I was speaking to a friend who teaches at one of Connecticut’s state universities about our in-house training program (CLiP). Over the course of our conversation he asked how long our sessions are, and I said “an hour”. Then he asked how many topics I cover, and I said “too many”. Actually, we only ever have one topic, but I divide the session into five learning modules.
He suggested I reduce my sessions to four modules, and use the time to add a transition segment between modules. He said he started doing this in his classroom and it helps keep his students engaged. I’m going to refrain from using his examples in case I can convince him to join us as a guest blogger but I’ll share my plans for how I hope to follow his advice.
I am primarily teaching technology subjects; how to use some feature of Office, or SharePoint, or eMail or Social Media, or, well you get the point. I’m constantly guessing what people will want to learn and, while I often get the subject right, I frequently miss the reason. For example: our next training session is on SharePoint Custom Lists. If you’re not familiar with SharePoint, see my other blog or just imagine something that lets you easily build a very robust means of keeping track of items you’re interested in. I know four things people should know about Custom Lists, and I can cover those four things in 40 minutes. What I don’t know is why they might care; what context might help them connect with the need for a Custom List of their own.
I have tons of examples of Custom Lists, but they are the things I want to keep track of. So, in this upcoming class, I’m going to stop and ask questions before each topic, to try and surface the things they care about for each topic. I have tried to make my training material somewhat flexible, so I can change course (within reason) on the fly. In a future blog, I’ll let you know if this worked - now what about those tablets?
I’ve been using a Tablet PC since they first became available. I have never tried to use them in conjunction with training because I always prepared the training ahead of time and just presented it. Now that I’m planning to ask some questions, I thought it would be great if I could capture the answers using the Tablet’s pen. My first thought was to see if I could integrate OneNote into PowerPoint. That didn’t go so well so I looked to see
if there was an add-on I could buy, but nothing jumped out at me. Then I decided to simply write on the presentation using the pen as PowerPoint’s Pointer. I figured it would be enough to show the comments on the screen, even if I couldn’t save them. To my surprise, when I exited the Slide Show, I was asked “Do you want to keep your ink?” – Wow, built right in was the feature I was trying to find; who knew?The moral of this story is that there are always ways to improve our approach to training, our content, our technique and there’s always more to learn. See, you thought I was going to end with “there’s no place like home”.
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