Print resources - Training workshops

Training is not a one-way flow - from tutor to pupil.

• Successful training is dynamic
• Successful training is a two-way process
• Successful training is responsive

Creating interaction and responsiveness is the biggest (and costliest) challenge for an online system; it is not so problematic in a workshop delivering training face-to-face.

Benefits of face-to-face training

Workshops have an advantage over individual study at a distance, because they bring together a range of people with fresh eyes and individual ideas to look at a situation.

Even if you are using workshop training you still need to have a mechanism to capture the new idea that just pops up from the energy of many people concentrating on one issue. Just like a troubleshooting database, tutors need to have a way of recording the good ideas, the warnings of trouble and anything else that might affect the way a business does things.

Too little time, too much information

Workshops, however, have the perennial problem of very little time into which a large amount of information must be crammed. The reaction to this pressure is to spend most of the time 'lecturing' attendees. But this form of delivery only generates a 5% retention rate. (See Checklists.)

The challenge is to decide:

• What must be said
• What must be experienced
• What can merely be handed out as reading material

Face-to-face delivery can utilise the best of both worlds - print and online. It truly can be a blended learning environment with:

• Ice-breakers
• PowerPoint presentations
• OHPs
• Student notes
• Practical and simulated activities
• Group discussions
• Quick review tests
• Video
• Audio
• CD-ROM or online activities
• Written or drawn activities
• Mix and match picture games
• Crosswords, scrabble or card games
• Flash cards
• Role play or role direction games
• Trust games

The list goes on.

Experienced designers

Edutech KM educational designers can help you create a workshop with variety, yet still covers all the pertinent information. With teaching as a background, Sarah and Heather have had a lot of experience in presenting workshops, and tutorials for blended learning environments. This experience is brought into the design skills they apply to creating workshop resources.

No matter whether it is for face-to-face or online delivery, the ADDIE principles are followed:

1. Analyse (from discussions with key stakeholders and deliverers)
2. Design (using feedback from users)
3. Develop (using feedback from subject matter experts)
4. Implement (usually as a pilot with built-in feedback)
5. Evaluate (from feedback; and revise, then develop the next stage)

Learning aids

Workshop learning can range from a pre-course activity with formative assessment right the way through to a post-course activity that must be submitted as a final assessment. The best structure can only be determined at the analysis and pre-design meetings between client and consultant.

Print-based learning aids can be fun and include:

• Crosswords using words that pertain to the subject
• Quizzes for teams or individuals
• Puzzles
• Complete the sentence self-tests
• Mix and match exercises for individual and group
• Group scenarios to plan or map a course of action when the vital information arrives in small parcels (much as it does in real life)

If you want to learn more about the content we have developed for Tutors and workshops, take a moment to send us an enquiry.

Edutech KM Ltd

PO Box 25-241, Victoria Street, Christchurch;
phone: 64-3-337-0234
fax: 64-3-337-0235
info@edutechkm.com
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