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  • 1.  Course Learning and Development

    Posted 08-23-2016 07:12
    Hello,

    This semester I teach a learning and development course to undergraduates. The course handbook that was assigned to me is “Effective training: systems, strategies and Practices”. I have 15 weeks of 2h40 minutes.

    At first sight, the handbook reads quite difficult and is too abstract and vague for the students. It is hard to translate the theory into exercises or them effectively being able to deliver a training.

    Does anybody have any tips on how to teach Learning (or training) and development? Some good group exercises or clear examples on how to put theory into practice?

    Thank you!


    Stijn Decoster ستيجن ديكوستر
    Assistant Professor أستاذ مساعد
    College of Business كلية الإدارة

    P.O. Box 19282 Dubai, U.A.E | T:+971 4 402 1472 | M:
    w w w . z u . a c . a e

    Accredited by Middle States Commission on Higher Education

    Disclaimer:This e-mail and the files(s) attached to it are confidential and belong to the intended receiver (unit) only.In case you are not the intended receiver of this letter, or if you have received it by mistake, please advise the sender and delete it along with its attached file(s) from your system immediately. You do not have the right to copy, print or distribute this e-mail or any part thereof, or to release its contents to any other party whatsoever, except with prior approval from the sender.If you violate the above, you will be legally accountable.


  • 2.  Course Learning and Development

    Posted 08-24-2016 00:24
    Dear Stijn,

    I have taught the same course. I take this course in a part-workshop mode where students work on a project. Students identify an organization/a set of employees and create a training module for the target population using the models and templates given in the book. They discuss their data and progress in class regularly and I provide them feedback and direction as required. You could also provide some templates to them to help them with TNA data collection and session plan development. I also give small practical assignments for TNA, and session plan development for practice. This course works better when students can apply the concepts and experience the challenges of creating training, and there is intensive feedback. You could also ask them to conduct one session from their project in class and followup with a discussion on trainer skills. Some practical industry inputs on how training is conducted would also be good. The book is quite detailed and is a good guide for the students when they need to know what all to do to apply concepts of training. 

    Hope this helps.

    Best wishes 
    --
    Ankita Tandon
    Assistant Professor,  
    Foundation for Liberal and Management Education (School of Business),
    Pune, Maharashtra  
    Ph: +91 - 9763065146; +91 - 9946522205
    Linkedin: in.linkedin.com/in/ankitatandon/

    On Tue, Aug 23, 2016 at 4:41 PM, Stijn Decoster <Stijn.Decoster@zu.ac.ae> wrote:
    Hello,

    This semester I teach a learning and development course to undergraduates. The course handbook that was assigned to me is "Effective training: systems, strategies and Practices". I have 15 weeks of 2h40 minutes.

    At first sight, the handbook reads quite difficult and is too abstract and vague for the students. It is hard to translate the theory into exercises or them effectively being able to deliver a training.

    Does anybody have any tips on how to teach Learning (or training) and development? Some good group exercises or clear examples on how to put theory into practice?

    Thank you!


    Stijn Decoster  ستيجن  ديكوستر
    Assistant Professor     أستاذ مساعد
    College of Business     كلية الإدارة

    P.O. Box 19282 Dubai, U.A.E | T:+971 4 402 1472 | M:
    w w w . z u . a c . a e

    Accredited by Middle States Commission on Higher Education

    Disclaimer:This e-mail and the files(s) attached to it are confidential and belong to the intended receiver (unit) only.In case you are not the intended receiver of this letter, or if you have received it by mistake, please advise the sender and delete it along with its attached file(s) from your system immediately. You do not have the right to copy, print or distribute this e-mail or any part thereof, or to release its contents to any other party whatsoever, except with prior approval from the sender.If you violate the above, you will be legally accountable.




  • 3.  Course Learning and Development

    Posted 08-24-2016 08:53
    Stijn,
    A year from now, I hope to have a book completed of training-related cases and exercises, but unfortunately it is not competed now.

    One recommendation for cases is "Performance Consulting" by Dana and Jim Robinson.

    You can also trying looking for the "Science of Learning" on a search engine.  Researchers in that field are doing a great job of explaining how we learn and how that translates into effective instructional practices.

    Here is my favorite exercise to illustrate the difficulty in training.  You would have to decide if it would work for you. It requires the instructor to act somewhat silly; there is relatively low power distance in the U.S., so students are comfortable with that.

    You stand in front of the class with a sport coat in your hand. You tell them you have never worn one (or maybe you are an alien, never worn one).  You ask for a volunteer to help you put it on.  
    As the student gives directions, you take them very literally and anything they say with is not specific (which will be a LOT) you do wrong:
    "Put your arm in the jacket"  - you place your arm somewhere in the body of the jacket
    "No, I mean put your arm in the HOLE" - you pick the wrong sleeve
    "No, I mean the right sleeve" (It's not clear to you which is the "right" sleeve, so they will have to tell you how to hold the jacket to know"
    "Yes, that sleeve, put your arm in it" - you can put your hand in the hole by the cuff.
    "No, the other hole" - you hold the coat open, so the inside of the back of the coat is facing you, and insert your hand in, so you are putting it on backwards.

    You can ask other students to step in and help. Usually, they are all interested. Students learn to be more and more specific and detailed.  Even so, there are really difficult "tasks" to instruct, such as sliding the jacket up your back, and the "shrug" where it is up and over your shoulders.

    This can easily last 15-20 minutes.
    It illustrates:
    - the difficulty of training
    - the importance of breaking large tasks into smaller ones
    - the problem of expertise & automaticity - it can be difficult to train a novice on things we do w/out thinking
    - modeling.  Surprisingly, I have done this about 12-15 times and I think students have NEVER thought to demonstrate how to do it!

    Good luck!
    Kurt

    -- 
    *******************************************************
    Kurt Kraiger, Ph.D.
    Professor of Psychology
    Coordinator, Ph.D. in I/O Psychology
    Director, MAIOP Program

    Department of Psychology
    Campus Delivery 1876
    Colorado State University
    Fort Collins, CO 80523-1876
    (970) 491-6821
    .

    Skype: kurt.kraiger

    Facetime: Kurt.Kraiger@gmail.com
    http://www.linkedin.com/in/kraiger
    Kurt.Kraiger@colostate.edu
    *****************************************************




    On Tue, Aug 23, 2016 at 5:11 AM, Stijn Decoster <Stijn.Decoster@zu.ac.ae> wrote:
    Hello,

    This semester I teach a learning and development course to undergraduates. The course handbook that was assigned to me is "Effective training: systems, strategies and Practices". I have 15 weeks of 2h40 minutes.

    At first sight, the handbook reads quite difficult and is too abstract and vague for the students. It is hard to translate the theory into exercises or them effectively being able to deliver a training.

    Does anybody have any tips on how to teach Learning (or training) and development? Some good group exercises or clear examples on how to put theory into practice?

    Thank you!


    Stijn Decoster  ستيجن  ديكوستر
    Assistant Professor     أستاذ مساعد
    College of Business     كلية الإدارة

    P.O. Box 19282 Dubai, U.A.E | T:+971 4 402 1472 | M:
    w w w . z u . a c . a e

    Accredited by Middle States Commission on Higher Education

    Disclaimer:This e-mail and the files(s) attached to it are confidential and belong to the intended receiver (unit) only.In case you are not the intended receiver of this letter, or if you have received it by mistake, please advise the sender and delete it along with its attached file(s) from your system immediately. You do not have the right to copy, print or distribute this e-mail or any part thereof, or to release its contents to any other party whatsoever, except with prior approval from the sender.If you violate the above, you will be legally accountable.




  • 4.  Course Learning and Development

    Posted 08-25-2016 17:55

    Hi Stijn,


    Apologies for the self-serving nature of the response (I'm crazy about strategic HRD/Talent Dev/L&D). Your students might find the following resources interesting/relevant (in fact, I already used them in the Middle East a lot, and they reported they'd found them appropriate plus applicable to the workplace):


    Tkaczyk, B (2014), 'Daily Check-ins Stimulate Self-Improvement', Talent Development (TD), Vol. 68, No. 8, pp. 72-73. - a practical piece on daily "check-ins"/self-coaching/self-change/micro-transforming, and "L&D by self-insight."


    Tkaczyk, B (2015), 'Leading as Constant Learning and Development: The Knowledge-Creative Enterprise'. Design Management Review (dmi: Review), Vol. 26, Iss. 3, pp. 38–43. [Published in the Special Issue on Organization Development and Design Management] - incl. a mini case study on "strategic L&D."


    When you get the chance, please also check out my Author Site @ ATD. I post more stuff @: www.td.org/Publications/Author.aspx?ItemId=BE5BA3BF78FC4788963A0DC10D89748C 


    Please shoot me an email if you're not able to access the above resources. Happy to help out.


    Stijn, good luck with your exciting and important L&D course!  I'm positive it will be a super 1!


    Cheers,


    Bart


    ---

    KEEP ENERGIZING.

    Bart Tkaczyk, MSc (HRD & Consultancy), PMSC (HRD), MBA (HR), PhD (HMN), Fulbright Scholar (University of California, Berkeley), President & CEO (ENERGIZERS, LLC), Author of award-winning models: Fourfold Leadership Design: Big 4 Leadership Ways™, and Positive Organizational Change: Energize, Redesign, and Gel (ERG)™, Executive Mem. (AOM), Mem. (ATD), Mem. (CIPD)

    Strategic Human Resource Development (HRD) | Workplace Learning and Development (L&D) | Positive Organization Development (OD) 
    READ @ ATD Author Site
    EXECUTIVE BIO - Confronted with some wicked org challenge? Let's puzzle it out: http://files.energizers-boutique.com/DrBartTkaczykMBA.pdf
    EXECUTIVE LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE MIDDLE EAST: www.executive-education.me

    ---

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    On Tue, Aug 23, 2016 at 7:11 AM, Stijn Decoster <Stijn.Decoster@zu.ac.ae> wrote:
    Hello,

    This semester I teach a learning and development course to undergraduates. The course handbook that was assigned to me is "Effective training: systems, strategies and Practices". I have 15 weeks of 2h40 minutes.

    At first sight, the handbook reads quite difficult and is too abstract and vague for the students. It is hard to translate the theory into exercises or them effectively being able to deliver a training.

    Does anybody have any tips on how to teach Learning (or training) and development? Some good group exercises or clear examples on how to put theory into practice?

    Thank you!


    Stijn Decoster  ستيجن  ديكوستر
    Assistant Professor     أستاذ مساعد
    College of Business     كلية الإدارة

    P.O. Box 19282 Dubai, U.A.E | T:+971 4 402 1472 | M:
    w w w . z u . a c . a e

    Accredited by Middle States Commission on Higher Education

    Disclaimer:This e-mail and the files(s) attached to it are confidential and belong to the intended receiver (unit) only.In case you are not the intended receiver of this letter, or if you have received it by mistake, please advise the sender and delete it along with its attached file(s) from your system immediately. You do not have the right to copy, print or distribute this e-mail or any part thereof, or to release its contents to any other party whatsoever, except with prior approval from the sender.If you violate the above, you will be legally accountable.







  • 5.  Course Learning and Development

    Posted 08-26-2016 12:30
    Dear Stijn,

    I teach an undergraduate training and development course. I've found it helpful to have students evaluate simulations and eLearning programs. The students evaluate the programs for homework and we discuss their evaluations in class. I require them to apply relevant theories and concepts in their evaluations. If you have time and break out rooms, you could have the students do their evaluations in class. In additional to learning about simulation and eLearning training, I've found these types of programs to be great for exercises and discussion around training design, transfer of training strategies, and outcome assessment.

    I have found all of the programs I've used by doing a lot of online searching! I've used the following:

    Simulations:
    Partnering To Heal: Teaming Up Against Healthcare-Associated Infections: http://health.gov/hcq/training-partnering-to-heal.asp
    When Do You Take Refuge? http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/mining/works/coversheet1556.html

    eLearning programs:
    Workplace Violence Prevention for Nurses: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/violence/training_nurses.html
    I've also used several eLearning courses from Vivid Learning Systems. Their regular per person rate is pretty low, and they've been good about working with me to get inexpensive access for my class. Also, from time to time they offer free eLearning programs. (Active Shooter Training is free right now.) https://learnatvivid.com/

    Also, in class, I present examples I find online of electronic decision supports and other training tools.

    I also have students do brief cases (mostly from the textbook) for needs assessment, training outcomes and outcome assessment, and training cost and ROI computing.

    I'm always searching for new simulations and eLearning programs to try so if you or anyone else on the listserv come across any, I hope you'll share them!

    Best Regards,
    Jodi

    -----------------------------------------------------
    / Jodi S. Goodman, PhD
    Professor of Management &
    Coordinator, Management Ph.D. Program
    West Virginia University
    College of Business and Economics
    Department of Management
    1601 University Avenue
    P.O. Box 6025
    Morgantown, WV 26506-6025
    Phone: (304) 293-7941
    Fax: (304) 293-8905
    Email: jsgoodman@mail.wvu.edu






    -----Original Message-----
    From: Organizational Behavior Division Listserv [mailto:OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Stijn Decoster
    Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2016 7:12 AM
    To: OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
    Subject: [OB-LIST] Course Learning and Development

    Hello,

    This semester I teach a learning and development course to undergraduates. The course handbook that was assigned to me is “Effective training: systems, strategies and Practices”. I have 15 weeks of 2h40 minutes.

    At first sight, the handbook reads quite difficult and is too abstract and vague for the students. It is hard to translate the theory into exercises or them effectively being able to deliver a training.

    Does anybody have any tips on how to teach Learning (or training) and development? Some good group exercises or clear examples on how to put theory into practice?

    Thank you!


    Stijn Decoster ستيجن ديكوستر
    Assistant Professor أستاذ مساعد
    College of Business كلية الإدارة

    P.O. Box 19282 Dubai, U.A.E | T:+971 4 402 1472 | M:
    w w w . z u . a c . a e

    Accredited by Middle States Commission on Higher Education

    Disclaimer:This e-mail and the files(s) attached to it are confidential and belong to the intended receiver (unit) only.In case you are not the intended receiver of this letter, or if you have received it by mistake, please advise the sender and delete it along with its attached file(s) from your system immediately. You do not have the right to copy, print or distribute this e-mail or any part thereof, or to release its contents to any other party whatsoever, except with prior approval from the sender.If you violate the above, you will be legally accountable.