Project: Design, Develop, and Teach “Training Interventions”
Custom Course Design & Facilitation
Training Interventions
Teaching future organizational leaders how to systematically design meaningful and effective training.
Challenge and Opportunity
Project
Design, Develop, and Teach ISD 320: “Training Interventions”, a new course that would provide future organizational leaders with experience in designing and developing facilitator-led training interventions focused on improving performance in various organizational contexts.
Project Background
Analysis
The course would be part of the newly offered, fully online bachelor’s in organizational leadership program at The University of South Alabama - through the Department of Integrative Studies.
The organizational leadership program includes courses that help prepare its students to take on leadership roles in a variety of organizational settings. The courses were strategically chosen to provide students with learning experiences that will help them build foundational knowledge and skills in the different areas that affect an organization. These include courses in management, leadership, human resources, finance, legal, ethics, performance improvement, training intervention design, evaluation, conflict resolution, and more.
This course would be one of the three instructional design courses included in the program.
Instructional Goal
The following Course Description was provided:
This course will provide students with experience in designing and developing facilitator-lead training interventions focused on improving performance in various contexts. Students will interact with a client in a professional manner and create a professional training session incorporating motivational strategies, instructional delivery methods, and appropriate assessment measures from initial contact needs assessment to final session evaluations.
Instructional Content
A course by the same name existed many years before but had been part of an undergraduate instructional design program. Little to no existing materials remained. The prior course shell was shared. However, the site consisted of old rubrics and one page of content on learning outcomes.
There was no mandatory textbook or learning objectives. Therefore, the project challenge was to create a brand new course, customized for this specific program, for these specific types of students. In short, the course would need to be designed and developed from scratch. In addition, I would be teaching the course.
Learners and Contexts
Students in the program would come from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences and would have varying contexts in which they would ultimately use their degrees. The course would be offered fully online through Canvas LMS.
Unique (Custom) Solution
Design & Development
Course Structure
A custom, 8-week course was created. The course was structured around two key frameworks: ADDIE learning design process and the components of a professional training design proposal.
➤The intentional choice of these frameworks provided the following benefits:
Ideal instructional sequence
Introduction to a basic, easy to understand framework for designing learning
Introduction to select concepts of learning design from each phase
Effective learning path for achieving the course goal
Creation of two professional, real-world products:
Strategically designed training intervention plan
Professional training proposal
The table below demonstrates this alignment:
Course Description (formal)
This course will provide students with experience in designing and developing facilitator-lead training interventions focused on improving performance in various contexts. Students will interact with a client in a professional manner and create a professional training session incorporating motivational strategies, instructional delivery methods, and appropriate assessment measures from initial contact needs assessment to final session evaluations.
Overall Course Objectives
The following overall course objectives were determined:
Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:
Explain the role of training and training interventions in organizations
Define and describe the ADDIE approach to training design and development
List, define, and describe the components of a training proposal
Using the ADDIE approach, design and develop a professional, facilitator-led training plan and proposal for improving performance in an identified organizational context.
The plan and proposal will incorporate key aspects of training design (clearly stated training goal, clear and properly formatted objectives, appropriate assessment measures, relevant training content, motivational strategies, optimal delivery methods, and evaluations) and will be based on an initial assessment of need(s).
Explain why an organizational leader should understand training and training interventions
Explain the benefits of using a structured approach to improve performance in the organizational context
Explain why ADDIE or an ISD approach is an optimal framework for addressing organizational performance problems
From these overall course objectives, unit-specific (weekly) objectives, derived from and mapped back to these overall course objectives, were created to anchor and direct weekly content.
These weekly objectives, through intentionally chosen learning outcome levels, were used to guide learning content, practice/application activities, engagement strategies, and weekly assignments.
Weekly assignments were strategically designed to build toward the final assignment.
Within these weekly units, students were asked to perform 4 consistent tasks: review the week’s content, complete a quiz, participate in discussion, and complete an assignment.
Each one of these items had an intentional purpose and required them to dive deeper into one or more elements of their training plans and proposal.
The course outline and weekly objectives are noted below.
Course Outline & Weekly Objectives
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Topics
Course Overview
Problem Identification and Background
Objectives
Define training (and training intervention)
Describe the different types of performance problems and identify those that can be addressed through training
Define and describe the ADDIE approach to training design and development
Identify a performance problem in an organizational setting
Provide a brief background of the performance problem
Propose a training (learning) solution to address the identified performance problem
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Topic
1. Analysis
Objectives
Review, conduct, and be able to distinguish between 5 key types of analyses used in training design:
Performance analysis (briefly defined and discussed)
Organizational analysis - modified (vision, mission, values, goals, strategies, and critical issues)
Learning gap analysis (learning needs assessment)
Learner analysis
Context(s) analysis (learning and performance context)
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Topics
Design Part I: Objectives & Assessments
Objectives
Define objectives
State the components of an objective (how to properly format an objective)
Explain the different categories (levels) of learning
Using proper objective format, state the main objective (or objectives) for your training intervention and determine the learning category/level (based on Bloom’s taxonomy)
List the main topics or steps that will need to be included in the training.
List the objectives for each main topic or step.
Assessment content
Define assessment
Describe common types of assessments and their uses
Explain how objectives and assessments are linked in training design
Select the types of assessments that will be used in your training, ensuring that they are aligned with the stated objectives (when appropriate, one assessment may be used to assess multiple objectives)
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Topics
Design Part II: Strategies & Alignment
Objectives
Define teaching and learning strategies
List several teaching and learning strategies
Define and utilize adult learning theory
List motivational strategies
Define and utilize motivational strategy
Explain how motivational strategies are related to learning (and teaching)
Select the strategies you will use for your training:
Learning activities
Learning and/or teaching strategies (and why)
Assessment(s) - review selection from previous stage and revise, if needed, to include teaching and learning strategies that align with the chosen objectives and assessments
Explain choice of strategies (incorporating what was learned in previous analyses about learners, the organization, etc)
Create and use an alignment table to visually demonstrate alignment between organizational needs, objectives (learning outcomes), learning activities, learning and/or teaching strategies, and assessments.
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Topics
Development
Implementation, & Other Logistics
Objectives
Explain what is meant by development in training design
Determine the materials and resources you will need to develop your training (lectures, powerpoint presentations, handouts, computers, game devices, or other needs)
Explain additional considerations that will need to be considered during the development phase of your training intervention (type of media needed; multimedia principles, your skill-level in developing materials, using technology, and facilitation)
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Topics
Evaluation
Outcomes, & Other Considerations
Objectives
Review and restate the performance problem that will be addressed with your training
Review and restate the main objective (or objectives) and learning category for your training intervention (from Week 3)
Review and restate the subtopics that will be covered in your training
Review and restate how the outcomes of your training impact the organization
Review and restate the assessment(s) that will be used in your training
Define evaluation and describe why it’s important for training (and organizations)
Explain how including a plan for evaluation can strengthen support for your training from organizational leaders.
Select and outline an evaluation model/approach for your training intervention
Using the following prompts, justify your evaluation model/approach:
Explain your choice of model
Explain how the model best assesses the stated objective(s) for your training.
Explain how the model will best evaluate (and provide evidence for) the qualities of your training and the organizational impacts of your training.
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Topic(s)
Bringing it all together
Turning a Training Plan into a Training Proposal
Impact of Training on Organizations
You as an organizational leader
Objectives
List the benefits of employee training and development in organizations and how it impacts the entire system of the organization (linking training and development to organizational success)
Create a professional training proposal for your training intervention
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Topics & Objectives
Deliver the Training Plan and Proposal
Set the bar: Raise the standard
Course Development: Strategies & Principles
The course materials were developed, and the final course was created inside of Canvas, the university’s learning management system.
Course materials were created using intentionally chosen document templates with a consistent color palette, fonts, and visuals to provide a unique and personal learning experience throughout the course.
Deliberate effort went into creating a customized, well-designed, learning experience in each learning document that aligned with quality multimedia principles. These included:
Use of signaling through arrows, bold fonts, and strategic use of colors to align concepts (signaling principle)
Purposefully placing images near its related texts (spatial and temporal contiguity principles)
Careful selection of specific content and concepts for each week, broken down into manageable segments (segmenting principle)
Including an advanced organizer, detailed recap, in the beginning of each week to connect previous learning with new material to be learned (pre-training principle)
Intentional use of both training specific and conversational language and consistent efforts to have them link what they were learning with their own goals of becoming organizational leaders (personalization principle)
Finding opportunities to include the instructor’s (my) personal voice, through personalized videos and using voice or video feedback (voice principle)
Implementation
The course will take place over the second term of the 2024 Spring semester. This second term is 8 weeks in total. The course will be fully online and asynchronous. While the course is mandated to be offered fully online and asynchronously, three dates for optional (voluntary) Zoom class meetings were included, with an invitation to meet at other dates by appointment.
In addition to the learning strategies noted above, multiple opportunities for engaging social presence and instructor presence were included throughout. These included, but were not limited to, multiple activities that required meaningful engagement with other students in the course, an intention to use voice or video feedback on assignments for more personalization and instructor presence, and multiple opportunities to meet with the instructor.
Evaluations
Evaluations will occur in the following forms:
Informal evaluation through direct student feedback
Student ability to engage with content and achieve the performance goals (objectives)
Difficulty encountered by students as they move through the course
An observed improvement in students’ ability to apply concepts over time
Students’ ability to connect concepts and processes learned to personal and professional goals
Student questions and comments during optional Zoom meetings
Formal, end-of-semester evaluations conducted by the university
Extra: Additional Strategies Utilized
Consideration of varying learner types informed the objectives and level of learning selected.
There was no opportunity to specifically determine detailed characteristics of the learners for the course - such as level of prior knowledge on the topic. Therefore, it would be assumed, since they were in an undergraduate program, that they had NO prior knowledge of the topics in the course and would be starting at lower levels of learning and experience.
The creation of ownership by having students determine their own training topics and organizations.
This strategy was intentional in order to increase motivation, create ownership, and have students begin to consider how and where they want to use their skills and knowledge learned in this course and throughout the program.
Intentional alignment between objectives, assessments, activities, and other strategies.
In formal learning design, there is a consistent and intentional effort to ensure alignment between objectives (and their learning levels), assessments, learning activities, and other strategies. This is key for a cohesive, meaningful learning experience.
The intentional choice to create custom content and materials, based on course goal, analysis (assumptions) of the learners, the learning gap and level of learning chosen, and uncertainty of eventual performance context.
Since there was no required textbook for this course, it was my decision of where to find relevant content. After much consideration about possible student types, time constraints, prior knowledge levels, quality over quantity, and more - I decided to create custom content for each week. This would allow me to carefully select and include only relevant concepts that would help them achieve the stated goals, at the desired levels. This would avoid confusion, cognitive overload, or students having to wade through irrelevant material that might not be helpful for their specific purposes. This would also allow me to highlight key concepts through use of signaling and intentionally chosen images. This also allowed me to create a cohesive tone and feel throughout the course by using a consistent template, color, fonts, and more. Essentially, if pulled together, all weekly content could be considered a highly-personalized, custom course book.
The choice to provide custom templates for their weekly assignments, that would later be used to form the basis and most of the content for their training proposals (final assignment).
In keeping with my assumptions about the students in the course, I opted to provide custom templates for the weekly assignments. The weekly assignments were multi-purpose. They were created to provide application/practice activities for weekly content. More specifically, they were being used to have the students perform the specific steps and phases of the ADDIE process, simultaneously building their training plans and the key components of a training proposal. By providing templates, this would allow students a visible structure for how to report their findings from each week, and it would be deliberately building the components of the training proposal, using the exact headings that would be required in the proposal. I felt it was more important for them to focus their time and attention on learning and applying the concepts rather than worrying about trying to search and generate headings. I also felt that by providing them with templates, they would begin to see what a professional document should look like.
The choice to use a consistent format and checklist each week, allowing students to set expectations and manage their time accordingly.
I wanted the students to have a reliable structure each week, so they could spend their time working on important concepts and activities versus spending time sorting through multiple locations trying to understand what was expected of them each week.
The choice to use constant visual cues and reminders of the ADDIE framework throughout, allowing students to have constant visual reminders of the overarching process - even while diving deeply into one aspect.
Throughout the course, in both the naming of the weekly modules and the naming of all assignments, discussions, and quizzes, I made a conscious decision/effort to continuously use the name of the phase/stage of ADDIE as a way to provide visual reminder of the process they were learning and how it all tied together.
The choice to wait until week 7 to introduce the proposal assignment - so that students would focus on building their training interventions through ADDIE first before trying to create a proposal.
Instead of introducing the two main outcomes of this course, I decided to wait until week 7 to introduce the proposal assignment. I felt that it would be overwhelming for the students to consider what would be perceived initially as a “large” assignment near the end of the course. I wanted them to instead focus on learning the process of ADDIE, broken down manageably, week by week. Then, when I introduced the proposal assignment at the end, I would be able to reassure (and delight) them in knowing that they had already been doing most of the work - because, if you recall, the choice to use ADDIE and a proposal outline was deliberate because each one’s components aligned with the other. Now, all they would have to do is use the work they had already been doing throughout the course, with provided templates, and add the few final pieces - culminating into a professional training plan and proposal.
The choice to have them explicitly consider and articulate their desires as leaders, to again make this more personal and to help them imagine the future identities and how this could help them.
This was felt to facilitate transfer of learning to the real world setting, as well as promote the use of projective/future identities - a helpful strategy for learning.
The choice to specifically link this course to the other instructional design courses, to help students situate this course in relation to the others.
Since there are three instructional design courses in the program, with each one emphasizing different areas, I felt it was important to explicitly point out where each course fell in the process of training and performance improvement. This would also serve to better understand why this course placed more emphasis on designing a training than more depth on performance analysis and evaluation (the focus of the other two courses). This would also allow them a chance to decide if they wanted to choose a topic that could be worked on and expanded throughout all three courses - now that they understood how they all connected and that they’d be able to go into more depth in those areas of their designs.
The choice not to introduce specific ID models or to debate the pros and cons of each.
Due to many factors, such as scope of course, time constraints, and assumptions about learners' prior knowledge and professional focus, I felt it would be too overwhelming and distracting to introduce multiple models of learning (training) design. ADDIE would provide an easy to remember acronym and a great way to introduce systematic training (learning) design.
The choice to have them come away with two tangible products
I chose to design the course with two tangible outcomes - a strategically designed training intervention plan AND a professional training proposal. This had many purposes. Beyond what has already been noted, I felt this would also counter any argument that academic courses are not related to the “real world”. The design of this course and the activities within it, would situate them directly in the “real worlds” of their choosing and require them to consistently consider a real organization’s needs and create well-designed professional documents that can be used in these chosen organizations.
The choice of how to lay out the navigation in the site.
The course site was deliberately created in order to provide clarity on expectations and clear navigation. Special steps were taken to remove any confusing directions and to provide the students with a clear learning path through the course site. This required, in some ways, a deviation from course templates that were customary for the university. I felt that some of the template features included things that would take students away from the intentional path I had created for them. Therefore, adjustments were made when possible.
