Instructional Design Workshop

Most instructors and trainers believe the can design good classroom courses. After all, they’ve taken and taught courses, and what can be so hard about it? And, it’s a given that all training designers began as instructors.

However, instructors who design courses without first learning design theory and methods are like carpenters who build houses without blueprints. The results look usable, but don’t have the built-in components necessary for livability or usability. Instructors who primarily identify with their trade tend to focus on delivering as much content as possible and ignore process; those who enjoy interactions tend to downplay the content and competencies to be learned.

We believe that most trainers and instructors can learn to design elegant, efficient and effective courses, but to do it, they need to learn basic training design skills.

We deliver a workshop that will both provide the design principles, methods, and techniques in three days, followed by one or two days of supplemental experiences that will prepare trainers to do the specific kinds of design and development work needed by your organization.

Basic Design Workshop

Our basic training design course is three days long. Participants learn the fundamentals of instructional design as applied to performance-based classroom and lab training. More than half the time involves hands-on the designing of three types of learning in during simulation exercises.

Course Schedule

Participants receive a variety of materials (linked pages will provide details):

•  A workshop notebook with instructions and checklists.
  
  
•  Training Design Manual – provides a checklist and illustrations to a project management process that ensures that all steps from job analysis through production of materials are considered.
  
  
•  Development Packets – provide a total quality control system for the design and development processes, support project management, and support writing during development.
  
  
•  Show-Tell System – is a simple-to-use, extremely efficient and effective way to do a complete task analysis on a computer, and then convert the information immediately into a performance checklist, training handout, and lesson plan. Templates and instructions are provided on a CD.

Designing for your organization

Following the basic workshop, two days of additional supervised design work, consisting of real courses and programs, is undertaken. Typically, participants work in teams of two or three to perform the process of analysis, design and development of courseware, and design and develop of assessment instruments. These materials will be of immediate value to the participants’ organization(s).

Designing assessment systems and instruments

Following the basic workshop, one or more days of which focus on designing, producing and using variety of assessment instruments, appropriate to the need.

•  Behaviorally-anchored rating scales (people-to-people skills)
  
  
•  Show-Tell checklists (for simple and complex procedures)
  
  
•  Conventional process checklists (to meet formatting requirements)
  
  
•  Product checklists (for industrial, technical and computer products)
  
  
•  Written performance checklists (for mental skills, e.g., computations)
  
  
•  Written selection tests (multiple choice, true-false, etc.)
  
  
•  Written supply tests (short-answer, fill-in-the-blank, etc.)
  
  
•  Oral tests (with pre-developed criterion answers)
  
  
•  Attitude assessment (based on performance, not statements)