Technical Assistance
Introduction
| Providing
Technical Assistance Overview
Delivering Training Overview
Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6Develop
The next phase is actually developing
the instructor lesson plans, the participant handouts and the media.
While you function as an architect in the design phase, imagine
your next role as a contractor in the develop phase—gathering
all of the materials and building the structure that will contain
the training experience.
Be sure to consider:
- Instructional setting
- Existing materials
- Learning experiences
- Supporting content
- Instructor guide
- Media
Choose the Instructional Setting
Will you choose to provide a workshop for a small group or will
a larger group require a seminar setting? Do you have the option
of delivering the material in small groups or one-to-one? Will you
use coaching, mentoring or network meetings as a part of your delivery
strategy? If more than one day in length is necessary, do you want
to host a training retreat at a camp, a conference at a hotel or
a series of one-day sessions over the course of several weeks? Expand
your options, weigh the pros and cons, then select the best alternative.
|
|
Review
Existing Materials If you can buy an instructional package and adapt it to your audience and objectives, then you will save a lot of time. Do some research. Leverage existing books, resources, media and even other trainers to gain a lot of good ideas and avoid reinventing the wheel. Create and Organize the Learning Experiences |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lecture is only one of many kinds of experiences you can plan for the participants. How interactive should you make your workshop or seminar? A good rule of thumb is to aim for 50% presentation and 50% participation. Presentation includes delivering content through lecture or video. Participation is any interactive teaching method such as role play, simulation, discussion, demonstration or opportunity to practice. Unfortunately, many workshops are 50 minutes of lecture followed by 10 minutes of question-and-answer. From the instructor’s perspective, that is the way to "give them a lot of good stuff." But think of it from the student’s perspective. How much better it would be if the content were delivered in shorter chunks balanced with an opportunity to work it through with an interactive exercise. Some topics will require more interaction to accomplish your training objective and some less.
Develop Supporting Content
What do the learners need to know in order to do the steps and accomplish
the training objective? Instead of writing an objective to fit your
content (content-centered), make sure you understand the need, set
a clear objective and teach to that objective (participant-centered).
If you develop your training this way, you can feel more assured
that your content will be relevant and your session well-received.
Create the Instructor Guide
A lesson plan or an instructor guide includes all the notes and
instructions for the session(s). It allows you to keep everything
in one place so you aren’t switching back and forth between
your presentation notes and an outline of the session. Whether you
are developing a one-hour seminar or a four-day workshop, an instructor
guide will help you stay on track and train more confidently.
An instructor guide should have three or more columns to help you keep on time, present material and remember to use handouts and media at the right places during the session.
|
||||||||||||
Under the Time column, put the time of day or number or minutes for that part of the training session. In the Content column, you place all of your presentation notes. This can be a simple outline with key words to remind you what to say or a highly detailed outline with all of your content in writing. If you are using PowerPoint, you may want to write out your speaker notes and transition sentences in this center Content column. If you have a handout, note it in the right-hand Method/Media column. If you will be showing a video clip as an illustration, note it here, too. This will help you remember to use your media and handouts in a timely manner instead of suddenly remembering a key handout at the very end of the session.
Create Media Supports
Last, create the final version of the media you will be using to
support instruction. Saving this step until later in the development
phase allows you to create something that is engaging and helps
the learners achieve the objective. Refer to your instructional
guide for time allotment, as some media can take up a lot of time
(such as showing a long clip from a video or playing an entire song).
Media can also be expensive. Creating the instructor guide first
will save you from working hard to create a video or other piece
of media that you ultimately decide not to use.
You may be wondering about PowerPoint or another presentation program. Some trainers like to create their sessions on their computer in a presentation program. The software is certainly designed with this in mind and users take advantage of those features. As a trainer, you can do this as long as you are drafting the content and completing the instructor guide before you start tweaking the graphics on the template, building complex charts and adding transitions and animation. Save the special effects that can rob your time and attention until the content is set and you are sure you are teaching to the objective. Then go ahead and make it graphically pleasing.
Seek feedback from others as you are developing your lesson plans and materials. Show it to instructors as well as prospective participants. As you do this, you are allowing others to evaluate your work and comment on what will and won’t work. When you have a complete instructor guide with creative learning experiences, supporting content and media, you are ready to implement your lesson plans.
Introduction
| Providing
Technical Assistance Overview