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Rapid Instructional design

BUY THIS BOOK FROM BARNES AND NOBLE

Piskurich, George M. (2000). Rapid instructional design: learning ID fast and right. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Proper ID is critical but time consuming. The purpose of this book is to make it faster. It aims to accomplish this by including less theory and more practical checklists and shortcuts (e.g., special icons for tips, “can be skipped”, & shortcuts). The book is mostly for inexperienced or occasional instructional designers, but includes tips for seasoned designers.

WHAT IS THIS INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN STUFF ANYWAY?

Why use it? If you’ve ever left a course that didn’t deliver what it promised, or was hard to follow, either too familiar or too advanced, or meandering? Blame bad ID. Ineffective training costs businesses money in lost productivity, poor performance, and missed opportunities.

What is it? Rules or procedures for making training that does what it is supposed to do.

determining the goals of training
letting Ss know what those goals are
focusing the training on those goals
knowing that the goals have been achieved

Roles

facilitator: the person who delivers the designed training
designer (many times the same person as the facilitator)
SME

Advantages

analysis of whether to train: training isn’t always the best solution
cost effectiveness: though startup costs are higher, in the long run it’s proven more cost effective
time effectiveness: meet the right need of the right people at the right time, without wasting their time
object-oriented training (modularity): objects can be easily recombined or updated; likewise, effective templates can be re-used
learning effectiveness: a wide variety of delivery methods allows a designer to match the content to the most effective type(s) of delivery
training effectiveness evaluation: objective-based instruction allows you to go beyond “smile sheet” evaluation
competitive advantage: in fast-moving industries, good training is a valued perk.
business integration: training is related to the goals and objectives of the organization
consistency: standardized, proven methodology produces consistent quality
in the end, more successful training

Disadvantages

in the short term, ID takes more resources: different people, more steps.

Fish Story

You’ve heard the cliché “Give a person a fish and you feed them for one day. Teach him/her how to fish and you can feed them for a lifetime.” Well, that’s not really accurate: better to say you’ll feed them for as long as there are fish in the local pool. But if you design a training program that teaches the person how to stock and manage a pool, you can feed them a lot longer!

BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING: PRE-INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN ACTIVITIES

What Does Your Organization Need? Performance or Needs Assessments can help you find out.

How to Do a Needs Assessment

Start as close to the top of the organization as you can; interview them “most and first”
Don’t ask about needs; instead, ask about problems, opportunities, or recent/upcoming changes, or possible new products

Consider Performance Assessment Instead:

Here, instead of focusing on organizational needs, you zero in on performance. You could use

“performance gap assessment”, which looks for the difference between what performance is and what it should be. Or you could use
“performance opportunity assessment”, which deals, not with performance gaps, but with areas of opportunity where you can improve on already-good performance (e.g., quality, market share, customer satisfaction).
You can get performance data from paper sources (quarterly/yearly reports, budgets, sales figures, attendance data, reports of problems, training/test performance, performance appraisals), supervisors, seasoned employees, or complaint/suggestion boxes
Performance can be measured by outputs, time, quality, and costs.
Be sure and determine the benefit of the improved performance to the organization

Performance Interventions

If training’s not the best answer, don’t train! See list for alternatives.

Causes of Poor Performance

a) skills/knowledge deficits

b) organizational/environmental

insufficient time/people/resources
unchallenging work
poor reward structure

c) motivational/attitude

lack of recognition
lack of motivation and commitment
poor morale

Training Needs Assessment

If you’ve determined that training is the answer, what next? Determine what kind of training you need! You do this by going back to upper management and asking them questions (see Training Needs Assessment Questions for Management worksheet). Then interview or focus group “job incumbents”; i.e., the people you’ll actually be training (see Training Needs Assessment worksheet).

Choosing Needs to Address

Sooner or later you’ll have a list of all the training needs. Now you’ll prioritize them and decide which ones you’ll address. The two main questions you’ll ask yourself are:

1) how can I get the most return on expenditures? (see “Cost/Benefit Analysis” below)

2) which ones will get the support of the company?

Also consult the “Needs Consideration Questions” worksheet.

Validation: send the list to SMEs and managers (but, if possible, not the same people who helped you in your assessment) and ask their opinions. By the way, who’s a “SME”? The Subject Matter Expert Selection Form worksheet can help you find out.

Training Needs Statement

You’ll be compiling your data and generating a training needs statement. See the Outline Template to get idea of the general form.

Cost/Benefit Analysis

See worksheet for a full breakdown, but here’s the quick and dirty method

COSTS

Salary costs = daily salary of all attendees x number of class days

Benefits cost = daily benefits cost of all attendees x number of class days

Lost production = either anticipated loss of value for the period of training or the costs of employee replacements (if salaried, a rule of thumb is ¼-1/2 daily salary cost)

Instructional designer time to develop training: 10:1 ratio for instructor-led and 25:1 for print, and “even higher” (my guess is 50-100:1 for multimedia).

Hard Costs: overheads, Xeroxes, videos, workbooks, certificates, gifts or prizes, binders, etc.

Travel costs: hotels, meals, transportation

BENEFITS

Break down into specific tasks or behaviors, then ask for help from several people, assuring them or anonymity and getting them to estimate savings from reduced errors and increased productivity. Then average across your survey and multiply by the number or people who’ll be attending.

Consider less direct benefits like:

less overtime
fewer injuries
less absenteeism
decreased turnover
fewer penalties for noncompliance
less breakage
reduced loss of sales
decreased inventory size
decreased set up time
less time spent correcting errors

Return On Investment (ROI)

ROI = Benefits minus Cost divided by Cost

ROI Example

$106,000-45,288

-------------------- = 1.34 ROI

$45,288

Also see the “How Valuable is Your Training?” Checklist.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO DO? ANALYSIS

Analysis tells you what needs to be taught and what does not need to be taught.

Data Collection Methods

focus groups
interviews
surveys
observation
document collection and verification
categorizing of job duties
Delphi studies
job diaries
examination of performance and productivity measures
nominal group technique
critical incident method

Focus Groups

Who: Either use Ss with a variety of levels of experience in one group or run separate focus groups for each level of experience. Include experts, if possible. Don’t mix supervisors and workers.

How: Start out with brainstorming, using flip charts or Post-It notes to record ideas. Then categorize the information. Fill in gaps. Take a break, then discuss for the last half of the focus group.

You: you’re just the facilitator, creating the agenda, preparing the room, inviting the people, making sure everyone’s introduced, stating the agenda, recording data, keeping everything on track, thanking them and communicating the results.

Interviews

Interview experts one or two at a time. Phone interviews can save you time but lose data, so only consider them where travel is involved. Send experts the questions in advance to let them consider them. Always end by asking what questions they’re surprised you didn’t ask.

Surveys

Use when you need a lot of data quickly and cheaply. It’s hard to write good unambiguous questions, though, and hard to get decent return rates. Consider web-based surveys.

Observation

Hang around with incumbents; if possible, use both experts and average workers. Usually, save questions for later if there’s much chance you’ll disrupt the work process (or watch one time, then come back and watch another time with interspersed questions). Observation is flexible and a great place to get started, but it takes a lot of time and still you may not get to view all important tasks or aspects of the job.

Hybrid: use combinations of the above techniques.

Why Analyze? Remember the person who acts as his/her own lawyer has a fool for a client! No matter how good you are, you could stand to consider the opinions of others.

Job Analysis

Breaks down a job into its component tasks. Notes on tasks:

tasks have a beginning and an end
tasks tend to be of short duration (no longer than a few hours)
tasks are independent of other actions
tasks start with a verb or have a specific action

Job Analysis Questions for SMEs

what do you need to know to do your job well?
what do you think you do that a new employee at your job would not?
what are the most common procedures you encounter in your hjob?
what changes most often on your job?
what tricks have you learned that help you do your job better?
what do you like most and least about your job?
what makes you most productive on your job?
what prepared you best to do your job?

Product of a Job Analysis: an exhaustive list of all the tasks that make up the job.

Criticality Analysis

Helps decide which tasks are critical enough to require training. Looks at:

how often the job is done
how difficult it is to do
how important it is to the job
how much training it takes to become proficient at that task

Also Consider:

whether agencies mandate the training
if it’s required for legal or HR reasons
significance of mistakes if there’s no training
how it relates to organizational goals
hw much time it takes to perform the task
how/whether they’ll learn it if you don’t train

Refer to the “Data that May be Collected During a Job/Task Analysis” worksheet

Criticality Matrix

A good tool is to list all tasks in a column on the left and include columns on the right for rating each of the four dimensions listed above. Rank from 1-5, with the higher the number the more frequent, difficult, important, or difficult to train.

Task Analysis

Same idea as job analysis, but finer-grained: you break tasks down into subtasks or specify the knowledge and skills necessary to perform the task. See the Task Analysis Questionnaire worksheet.

Audience Analysis

The more you can find out about your audience, the more likely it is that the training will meet their needs.

How to do Audience Analysis

Here, surveys followed up by phone interviews are better than interviews, focus groups, or observation. See the checklist for questions to ask.
Also consult personnel records for education level, skills, age, etc.
Consider the training delivery method: if print-based, their reading level becomes more important than with standup training; if CBT is used, their computer skills become more important, etc.
Think of their attitudes and interests. Artsy or not? Scientists or mechanics?
Try to find out their level of job satisfaction (the lower, the harder your task will be). Find out what they like and don’t like about their jobs and use it to gain rapport.
If your audience is diverse, design for the majority and consider individualized instruction to meet other needs.
If literacy is a problem, rely on multimedia training that substitutes visuals and audio for most text. Don’t rely on the net, which is still mostly print-based.
See the Audience Characteristics and Audience Analysis Report worksheets.

Competency Analysis

Identifies the ways or levels at which tasks are performed. You observe top performers and average performers, then note

what they’re (top performers, that is) are more likely to do than the average performer
what they do more often than the average performer.
what they do more completely than the average performer
See the list of questions to ask.

When to Use Competency Analysis

for jobs where it is critical that every person function at the highest possible level
for very complex jobs
for positions that require lots of abstract decision making (e.g., supervision)
for jobs that offer a large cost/benefit savings to the organization

Output of Competency Analysis

A list of all the competencies associated with a given job and the behaviors associated with each competency. Typically, you can categorize them into three types:

a) administrative: what they do to keep the work progressing

b) technical: actual skills used to produce

c) personal: feelings and interactions with coworkers

Have your finished list validated by the experts.

Computer-Aided Analysis

There’s software on the market that helps you do all these analyses:

Designer’s Edge
ASTD’s www.surveyselect.com
Inquisite’s www.inquisite.com
www.assessmentworks.com
www.bnhexpertsoft.com
www.pdnet.com
Learning Styles Inventory

Note that these may not be cost effective unless you do a lot of analysis.

HOW TO DO IT: DESIGN

Here, the main question is “How will my training program be delivered?” Most often, that’s still classroom-based, instructor-led training. But maybe the classroom isn’t the right setting. Maybe the right way is:

on-the-job training (OJT)
self-instruction using a structured program
technology-based training (TBT): e.g., CBT& WBT (includes multimedia, drill-and-practice, and simulation), Satellite
Job Performance Aids: Job Aids and EPSS
Training by Documentation: this isn’t really training, but consists of giving employees manuals and documents to read for themselves.

When to use what: see chart and Delivery Choice checklist.

Mixed Delivery

You’re not usually confined to one modality, so consider a hybrid: e.g., a car manufacturer who uses OJT for new hires but lets them practice via virtual reality simulations. Or Bob’s ISD class, which uses classroom training combined with WBT, job aids, and EPSS.

Constraints

logistical: number of trainees, facilities, & budget
stakeholder: who is sponsoring and their characteristics and expectations
design: design time and materials available
human resources: availability of instructors/designers and SMEs

See the Questions for Constraint Categories for a breakdown of each category.

Facilitator Assessment

Availability of the right facilitators can make or break your training.

Classroom: apart from content delivery, classes where people learn skills need someone to solve problems, clarify points, lead activities, facilitate discussions, and proctor tests. Many times the content expert is also the facilitator, but not always---some people have superlative skills at one and fail at the other.

OJT: similar to points made about classroom training.

Self-Instruction: even here, a facilitator is needed to get trainees started, provide materials, answer questions, and evaluate learning.

Distributed Learning: facilitators orient trainees to the system and manage assessment.

Objectives

Learning objectives have many uses:

give the trainees a clear understanding of what the course will cover
give trainees a clear understanding of what they will be expected to know or do when the segment is completed
help the designer make sure that all the content that is needed is there (i.e., there are no important gaps or omissions)
help the designer make sure there are no time-wasting duplications
to succinctly tell managers what will be taught
to organize the course
to serve as the basis for trainee evaluation
set the criteria for how the course itself will be evaluated

In summary: objectives “let the trainees know what they need to do, tell the designer and trainer what they need to do, let higher management know what’s going on, and set the criteria for course success.”

Why Don’t More People Use Objectives?

they don’t understand how valuable they are
they don’t know how to create them
they think they’re developing them when they’re really not
they make them, but so poorly that they’re not really useful

The Differences between Goals and Objectives

course goals explain what the course will cover.
course goals are more global.
Course goals are written from the course perspective rather than the trainees’ perspective.
Course goals focus more on the expectations of the organization than on trainee performance.

Mistakes in Writing Objectives

mistaking them for goals
writing them at too high a level
Not using observable behaviors (see list of verbs)
Picking the wrong verb

Parts of an Objective

time frame: may be implied or stated: e.g., “at the end of training”, “at the end of this module”, etc.
subject: “the trainee”, “the writer”, etc.
conditions (under which the performance takes place)
behaviors: aka action, performance (i.e., verbs).
standards

Shortcut: the time frame, subject, and standards may be implied or omitted.

Levels of Objectives

Sometimes you need more than one level of objectives: two or even three, with each more specific than the last.

Review

Because so much depends on the objectives, make sure you get lots of reviews and feedback, especially from SMEs. To make SMEs’ job easier, make a form for them to fill out (specific instructions, objective with space for comments followed by questions about that objective like: Do the objectives make sense? Do they cover too little? Too much? Do they reflect what’s really important on the job?

S.M.A.R.T. Objectives

S = Specific

M = Measurable

A = Action-Oriented

R = Reasonable

T = Timely

S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Objectives

Adds:

E = Evaluate Consistently

R = Recognize Mastery

Design Documents

(See Design Document Template)

Scope of Project:
1. goal
2. audience
3. design time
4. milestones
5. length of course
6. estimate of development time (broken down for each step)
Delivery
1. content (what the course will cover)
2. method
3. estimate of training time
4. special problems
5. special opportunities
Goals and Objectives
Materials
Who is Involved
Topic Outline
Administration (logistics) and Evaluation
Catch-all (anything that doesn’t fit in the above categories)

Course Descriptions

Some designers prefer “Course Descriptions” over design documents (see template)

Working With SMEs

Use the same types of data collection tools you used in the analysis stage: surveys and interviews. Ask each SME to write content based on each objective (or interview them and guide them by objectives). Emphasize a distinction between “must know” and “nice to know” content. Remind them that the content is for novices, not people at their level (SMEs often forget basics because they’ve become second nature).

Prerequisites

With SMEs, develop a list of knowledge and skills that trainees must have to enter the program.

Other Sources of Content

manuals
existing training
quality control manuals
standardized tests (e.g., those for professional certification)

Don’t Get TOO Much

Just as you can get “analysis paralysis” and never finish the analysis phase, you can get “content paralysis” and end up gathering way too much content. At some point, you need to stop gathering and start structuring.

Adding Structure: The Instructional Plan

Now that you’ve got your content, the next step is to structure it and write a document explaining the structure. You’ve got lots of different choices in structure documents.

Course Maps: can be done as outline, flow charts, or other graphics
- pre-instructional activities
- introduction
- information to be presented
- trainee activities
- learning assessment
- post-training evaluation
- follow-up
Expanded Outline: create a “Roman-numeral”-style outline, adding the 1s, As, as, is, etc. until you’ve run out of content. Roman numerals are first-level objects while As are second level objectives. Doing it on a word processing program that supports outlines is nice because you can collapse and expand levels to look at it different ways.

Sequencing the Content

Don’t get too attached to your outline---almost nobody gets it right the first time, so you’ll be tearing it apart and rearranging it.

Types of Sequencing

Here are a few types of sequencing:

general to specific
simple to complex
time sequence
known to unknown
problem to solution
logical (based on SMEs’ experience and logic)

Training Activities

Pre-instructional activities: pre-readings, questions to answer, online work like bulletin boards, chat rooms (and tutorials on how to use them)

Introductions: what’s coming up in the course
Pre-Tests: these have several uses---screening, assist trainer with facilitation, inform trainee as to content of the class, and data for comparison with post-test for assessment.
Trainee-Centered Activities: good activities are interesting or fun, content-related and provide feedback to trainees.
Instructional Games
Testing
- Embedded tests
- Post-tests
Summaries
Post-Class Activities (e.g., activity reports, action plans)

Evaluation

Criterion-referenced testing: relate test questions to objectives
Consider mastery learning
Consider performance checklists (see sample Trainer Certification Checklist)
Use question banks
Track question performance with item analyses

Tip for Trainee Evaluation: Relate test questions to objectives

It’s fair

It helps you determine whether your training “worked”

It supports certification

It provides legal justification

It helps you know what content needs revision or emphasis

Consider Performance Checklists

See “Hints for Designing in Various Formats” worksheet

DOING IT RIGHT: DEVELOPMENT

Classroom: detailed lesson plan, all media, participant’s guide or handouts, evaluation instruments

On-the-job Training: trainer’s guide, participant’s guide or handouts, other exhibits or job aids, evaluation instruments.

Self-Instruction: participant’s package consists of the self-instructional program or software, the media, and a facilitator’s guide.

Technology-based Training: depends on type of technology; for web, include lesson plan, participant’s package, media,

Lesson Plans: Summary

A sample lesson plan might contain:

Objective (overall as well as individual)
Summary of class period (also called “Directions”)
References (all documentation that will be used)
Discussion points
Demonstration points
Practice Points
OJT Checklist

You might also include:

Pre-Class Activities
Trainee and Supervisor Pre-Activities
Post-class activities

Lesson Plan Formats

two-column: one side has content, the other contains trainer notes, media, activities, references.
three-column: Time, Media/Activities, and Content
four-content: Objective, Content, Methods and Media, Testing

Lesson Plans: The Parts

INTRODUCTION

Consider how you’ll:

gain trainees’ attention
help the establish the desired mindset
help trainees recall prior knowledge
set expectations
establish relevance
make trainees comfortable

Consider how you’ll

present the title
present objectives
present a summary of class period

Hints about the Introduction

make it short and sweet: long introductions make people antsy
if it’s too long, consider “off-loading” objectives and other material like wrap-up summaries into the participant’s packet.

Overview

the overview follows the introduction and previews the upcoming training
graphics (e.g., flow charts) are good for previewing training

Icebreakers

good for letting participants get to know each other
good for reducing anxiety
lets participants know from the beginning they’re expected to participate

Motivation

why they should want to learn this material
how it will help them

Pre-Tests

often given before class, but can be delivered near beginning of class
be sure to give feedback
consider purpose: screening or “test-out” of topics
pre-tests are especially useful in “branching” forms of training like CBT

Handouts vs. Pass-outs

Handouts are given in a packet; pass-outs are material you don’t want them to see until the time is right so they’re distributed at the appropriate point in the class. Tip: don’t use too many pass-outs because they’re cumbersome to distribute.

BODY

Facts and Principles
Parts
Processes
Procedures
Policies
Interactions
Activities

36 Possible Class Activities

Anonymous questioning
Behavior modeling
Brainstorming
Case Studies
Colloquy (panel comprised of half experts, half trainees)
Committees (each solves part of a problem)
Critical Incidents (similar to case study, but trainees given incomplete data and must ask questions)
Critiques
Debate
Demonstrations
Dialogue (two people hold a conversation while trainees observe)
Discussion
Drill
Fishbowl
Forum (trainees discuss topic and ask questions, either among themselves or including the trainer)
Game
Instruments (surveys, checklists or other forms)
Interviews
In-baskets (trainees must prioritize items, make decisions, handle difficulties, respond to deadlines)
Job Aids (worksheets, checklists, flow charts, sample, procedure guides, glossaries, diagrams, decision trees, manuals). May be in electronic form.
Lecture
Lecturette
Listening team (each team focuses on one part of content)
Mental Imagery (imaginary practice, guided or solo)
Mini-Case: brief version of case study where only one or two key facts are presented and short discussion ensues
Missing Panel: vacant chair that a trainee occupies only to make acontribution to the discussion.
One-on-one discussion: dyad partners discuss topic, generate questions, or answer questions for a few minutes.
Panel: discussion among experts observed by trainees.
Practice Exercises
Question-and-Answer
Quiz
Reading
Reflection
Role Play (e.g. confrontation, court techniques, monologue, triads, role reversal )
Simulation
Skit

Games

Games can be fun of frustrating (sometimes both for different participants).

know your audience! What works with one audience can fail miserably with another.
don’t make games too complex; it’s confusing
make them content-related
they’re especially good for reviews and summaries
have strong introductions and debriefings for games

GETTING IT WHERE IT DOES THE MOST GOOD: IMPLEMENTATION

Beta Tests

Pilots

Implementation Issues

Classroom:

Self-Instruction:

Learning Center Deliveries

Distributed Deliveries

Train-the-Trainer (T3)

T3 for self-instruction:

OJT T3:

Administration and Management Guides

Administration

Management

DID IT DO ANY GOOD? EVALUTION

Why Evaluation?

The Key to Good Evaluation

Evaluating Yourself

Types of Evaluation:

trainee reaction

self-instructional reaction

skills and knowledge mastery and retention

transfer

ROI

Corporate goal fulfillment

Evaluating your evaluations

Evaluating Self-Instructional Programs

sufficiency

usability

currency

compliance

effectiveness

Revising

as-needed

planned

timing

information for revisions

who should do the revising?

controlling revisions

DOING IT FASTER: MORE RAPID DESIGN SHORTCUTS

Software for ID:

Authoring Systems

Conversion Software

Analysis Software

Test Development Software

Training Management Systems

Other Hints for Rapid Design

Use Rapid Prototyping

Use public courses when appropriate

Use off-the-shelf

Outsource to technology vendors

Use EPSSs

Use Problem-Based Learning (PBL)