Staff Development Improvements

       
                   To describe my ideal personal development plan it would ultimately be designed for my advancement within a five year span. I guess you could say that it would be apart of my 5 year plan as well. I have always been in favor of the advancement for workers through a process of training and assessment. Health benefits, Workplace compassion, and Professional Career Development programs that are all based on levels of rewards over time. I think that it would be the ideal package for anyone.

                 The types of development, from the Resources, that I will advocate for my potential employer would be to provide all staff with a path to advancement. In the presentation, I advocate for Career Development Opportunities, which would be optional for each employee to choose. The presence of Positive Meaning is very important to me, because I want to make sure that everyday is building towards a better tommorow. Positive Meaning has been described as "… a universal human need, and well-established relationships that exist between engaging in meaningful work and positive outcomes..." (Pace, 2010). I also like to remind the employer of the importance of employer relationships. In the presentation, the U.S Steele organization is shown as an example of how not to deal with employees. When a pleasant environment is presented, the workers should have a form of kinship. I also advocate for the ascending level of health benefits by year. When workers have the time to spend with their families then they can feel better about the work that they do. I would appreciate the time off in my professional development plan. Workplace compassion is rare in the workplace. I would love to work in an atmosphere where co-workers can give me days of their vacation for my maternity or bereavement is a great atmosphere! If someone were to lose a loved one, they could be given some days from co-workers and the days would be matched by the employer is an atmosphere that says they care more about the people than the profit.

High Tech Training Trends

With all of the choices out there, which technological training resource should your company be using?

                   High tech training has become the  norm for the world of training. The more that technology advances it has given companies new options for bringing technology to their employees. The traditional setting for training is no longer traditional at all. There are several options for instructional designers to use for implementing training, while utilizing the innovations of technology. The innovations in technology that are being utilized for training are Computer Based Training (CBT), Webcasts/Webinars, Blended Learning, Blogs, and other technological approaches in higher education. The technology introduced to the training setting should be appropriate to the content being taught now we will look at the appropriate use of each technological innovation. 

                

             Computer-based Training is becoming one of the most used formats for training, also known by several other names such as: eLearning, Online Learning, or Web-Based Training. Training delivered using a computer or the web (Noe, 2013). The impact of this form of training is that it has given instructional designers the opportunity to implement training that people can receive without having to be there physically. Learners have access to information at all times, no matter the location or time zone, known as Asynchronous learning. It has been known to cut down on training costs for employers as well, which is why it's quickly becoming a contender for becoming the leader in training technology. Computer-based training will continue to have an impact on how people learn and interact in training and development environments, due to its accessibility to the learners. The implications of this for training is that the traditional face-to-face setting will become less utilized in a global setting.

 Webcasts/Webinars are quickly becoming the alternative for reaching groups of people in a virtual classroom setting that gives them the chance to interact. Gathering people at the same time in different places to learn, known as Synchronous learning , has been used in several other technological training settings as well. The impact  that webcasts and webinars are having on training is that people will have the opportunity to receive information in real time, with other participants/colleagues like the face-to-face setting. This technology also allows companies to reduce training costs on travel, meeting venues, materials, and refreshments.  It will continue to have an impact on how people learn and interact in training and development environments, especially with the creation of more tools. The implications of this for training is that we may see less face-to-face classrooms and more webinars instead. It can also be used in combination with the traditional face-to face setting, known as Blended Learning.

             Blended Learning, as mentioned above, is the use of technology with the face-to-face setting. Training is delivered using a combined technology and face-to-face instructional delivery approach, such as classroom and WBT (web-based training (Noe, 2013). This is a great technology to use in order to demonstrate some hands on training for employees. The impact that this type of technology is having on training is that it allows learners to have a hands on approach  and then work alone to apply the techniques that were taught. It will continue to have an influence on how  people learn and interact in training and development environments, because it's a new version of the traditional classroom. The implications of blended learning for training is that it utilizes technology, while still using the traditional methods of face-to-face learning.

                                     

            Blogs A webpage where an author posts entries and readers can comment (Noe, 2013).  

Blogs are fast becoming the a way to communicate to the masses, especially with the rise of social media blogs. The impact that  blogs have had on technology is distributing information consistently to the masses. It can be used as a tool giving information. Blogs will continue to have an affect on how people learn and interact in training and development environments. Because Blogs allow information to be shared and 

 allows people to interact when they post comments to the blogs an author the implications of this for training. 

               With all of the new advances in technology training can take so many forms in the future. For Instructional Designers it will give them the opportunity to use more resources. In higher education there have been developments in using technology as well http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED498562  Having all of these options available will definitely, help to make training experiences more interactive and engaging to learners. Which new technology do you think will help your organization to train smarter? 

References:

Noe, R. A. (2013). Employee training and development (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED498562

The Truth About Training

             

           If I had just 2 minutes or so to give someone an "elevator speech" regarding the "truth" about training it would sound something like this and don't worry It only lasts for approximately 90 seconds!

     
           

           Eventhough you may be a person that does not believe that training is important, will start listening when you start talking about money. For some employers who think that training is hard to get employees engaged in, think it too complicated or even unnecessary I have news for you! Training is well worth the investment in the long run. Primarily because, according to the Internal Revenue Service Publication 970 states that:

       "employees can deduct training costs if the workshops, seminars or course allow individuals to improve and develop their job related skills, especially if the employees require the training to remain in their roles" (IRS, 970). 
           
         So if you don't think that you can motivate your staff to participate in staff training, maybe a refund for their effort on their tax returns will help some. For those employers that don't see training as necessary, they should consider the fact that when they invest into their employees that they are also investing into the company. Training is the best way introduce the proper Customer Service standards that a company requires of their staff. Also, when companies are investing in training they are also tapping into an asset called Employee Engagement. Employee engagement is what keeps your employees motivated to stay with your company and retain capable employees.

       But what if I'm self-employed? For the self employed workers there is also a benefit for you! The IRS allows you to deduct training costs as well. Self employed workers, such as freelance Instructional Designers may find it helpful to know that attending a Learning Solutions Conference can be an investment in their skill set as well as a tax deduction. You may also be able to deduct some transportation fees occurred when transporting for the training. You may find surprising and/or interesting that a  flight for the trip to Las Vegas for the Learning Solutions Conference is deductible as well. So what's your excuse for not retaining training today?

Training and Development

Welcome to my Blog Page!

                            Welcome classmates of  Walden University's course EIDT 6501 Training and Development! Here I will be discussing the important aspects of Training and Development. Here we will discuss issues that concern the competency of individuals who work for businesses, as well as issues concerning productivity, and the effectiveness of employee training. I look forward to discussing the most effective training designs for Instructional designers. I will discuss the trends in training as well as highlight the advantages of distance learning programs, in the self-paced asynchronous format and interactive setting! So welcome, welcome, welcome to my page!

Scope Creep Campaign

Project Scope Creep 

  

     

        I once worked on a project, where the scope creep was an ongoing problem lurking around the corner. The initial scope for the project consisted of creating educational webinars that inform the group members about mentoring opportunities and scholarship program qualifications. Then as time went on, the discussion from the stakeholders became more about adding videos of the mentors to be included in the newly added virtual classrooms.  

     

           The client in this scenario gives many requests for additions to be added to the original project plan, which was to create webinars. While the project did have a budget that could absorb the duties that were being added the project, the timeline didn't change. The project manager was constantly giving deadline reminders to use at weekly meetings and emails. The extra requests were addressed by the stakeholders and Scope of Change documents were signed off on, but remained the timeline remained the same. The client was animate that July 5th was the live date and wouldn't bend on this date, though we only had nine months to create, change or rewrite the entire project.  

    

       I wished that the project leader wasn't such a pushover and was regarded as a friend of the team. But instead, the P.M was overpromising to the client and stakeholders, and under delivering on quality. In the end, the client wasn't concerned much with the lack of deliverables as much as he was excited about meeting the deadline that never moved. If the PM would have not agreed to so many additions that weren't going to get timeline consideration, then the project would have been much simpler.  

Post-Mortem

    In my past experience, there can be many aspects that go into planning a project that can go wrong due to a break down communication. When working with others on a project, it is valuable to have the entire team on the same page. If all of the team members have the same goal, then the project should meet the proposed objectives set forth. Once I worked with a group of teachers, on a grade level, for choosing which curriculum that we would vote to implement in our district for the following year. It was the longest two weeks of my professional career!

    When dealing with a grade level leader, that relinquishes her authority to whoever challenges ideas, is a step in the wrong direction for any project. The grade level chairperson/ project leader didn't realize her role as a leader or driver " Drivers are people who have some say in defining the results that a project is to achieve" (Portny et.al, 2008).  So since the grade level leader wasn't assuming control, the project became harder to follow the guidelines that we were given by the administration. Eventhough we were given clear instructions to view the content and rate it accordingly it wasn't getting accomplished as a team.

    Finally, the group decided,  that we would split up content. This conclusion only came when the team realized that we had reached the timeline and had to do something and fast. The things that did work were realization of a timeline and delegating work in increments to others in the group.

References:
Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.