TRAINING MATERIAL DESIGN PROCESS
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Every course is systematically analyzed to make sure it adheres to the highest market standards and is aimed at trainees' learning as much as possible in a limited time. Training material is designed so that coaches can quickly and easily understand and deliver the content. Clear instructions are provided on how to pace the course, suggested questions and discussion guidelines, all of which saves time, money and stress.
The success of training is affected and depends on decisions made during the design process. Careful planning and creativity during the design phase mean that not only training will be easier and more fun, but trainees will learn and develop their skills much more effectively. Once your course is planned and designed, all that is left is facilitating the daily tasks and sessions. |
Course Design Overview
There are 3 phases in the design of our training materials:
Phase 1. Pre-design Analysis
At this phase, we identify and analyze the corporate training market. This is like conducting an extensive Training Needs Analysis. We are then able to highlight the gaps and where specific life and management skills are most needed.
To design effective training material, we do the following:
Adjust time and logistics to suit your audience:
We take into account that trainees are intellectual, social and emotional beings and design the course to include all these factors.
Prior Knowledge
Strong foundations are essential to acquiring new information, so it is important to assess the trainee’s prior knowledge and iron out any inaccuracies, misunderstandings or flawed assumptions of context and conditions and how to use particular skills. The simplest way is do a diagnostic assessment in the first week – identifying a lack understanding or skills early on allows you to adjust the pace or content and ultimately save time. A well-designed pretest can identify areas of robust or weak understanding. If mastery of prerequisite skills is poor across the majority of the trainees, you may have to adjust the pace or scope of the course accordingly.
Understanding Concepts
Instruction has to be designed with an understanding of trainees’ conceptual development and depth as this will have an impact on the style of instruction, as well as content and discussion. Below is a brief overview of concept development.
Commitment
Here, we take into account the various influences on the choices and decisions trainees make. For example different cultural backgrounds. While all cultures value learning, we take into consideration the kind of learning valued in particular cultures, the manner in which learning is believed to best occur, and the ways in which the roles of students and trainers differ. We always use 'safe', clean language and images which will be easily interpreted and acknowledged by participants who come from different cultures or for you, the instructor. This is important in terms of engaging multicultural trainees who come from different backgrounds and allows* for smooth group dynamics and learning.
Experiences and Expectations
Different pasts and expectations influence the behavior and attitude of trainees to being coached, how they approach new information and their role as trainees and peers.
Concept Development
Dualism: Some trainees will see the world in dual terms, good or bad, right or wrong. This concept of knowledge as unambiguous and clear and learning as a simple matter of information being imparted and learned will influence the training method.
Multiplicity: Some trainees realize that experts can disagree and facts can contradict one another. At this stage of development, everything becomes a matter of perspective and opinion, with various opinions accorded equal validity. Participants feel more empowered to think for themselves but they are not necessarily able to evaluate different perspectives or marshal evidence to support their own. They may also view an instructor’s evaluation of their work as purely subjective.
Relativism: Trainees begin to recognize the need for evidence to support their opinions. They accept that reasonable people can disagree, but understand that some perspectives have more validity than others - even expert views should be analyzed critically. Your audience here may have strong views, but these views are grounded in examination and reflection. They begin to perceive the role of the trainer differently: as a knowledgeable guide or conversation partner, not an infallible authority but also not “just another opinion”.
In phase 1 we identify the situational constraints which include:
Flexibly to accommodate small and large groups
courses with many or few training hours, if pre-course training assessments are needed and what functions they serve, if there is certain material you must cover for the training, and corporate or individual goals that affect the training.
Clearly articulated learning objectives
Ensuring that the objectives are measurable, trainee centered, scalable and relevant. We focus on strategies and knowledge that develop complex skills, while measuring these skills at each stage to check progress and improvement before moving on.
Identify appropriate instructional strategies
We design customizable material to match your needs and accommodate any instructional model, namely, interactive training, seminars, phone trainings, webinars, meetings, lectures or even discussions. We provide plans that are easily customized to scale, and with flexible course content and schedules. The course structure refers to the choice of topics and the organization and sequencing of course content. Our training materials design process ensures that the choice of topics and their organization should always support the learning objectives of* the course.
Phase 2. Design Course Structure and Content
At this phase, we determine the learning objectives, trainees' expectations, desired development skills and performance. Based on this, we merge the required resources using text, infographics, images which are to be used as anchors to elaborate basic and crucial concepts. We make every effort to include a well balanced range of topics but not too extensive – too many topics can actually impede student learning by crowding out opportunities for students to practice applying the skills and knowledge they gain. It is important to determine a reasonable scope for your course which includes essential content, but, which also provides opportunities for students to engage actively with this content so *that understanding is deepened and internalized.
There are clear guides on how to use all the content.
Timing Management Factor
We conduct thorough timing and pacing analysis while designing our training material to make it easy for trainers to accommodate the needs and number of trainees they have. For example we offer a large collection of easy-to-merge activities for larger groups which probably need more games, icebreakers, case studies, assessments, positive affirmations, etc. These training activities are optional add-ons which can easily be added to any course and scaled to meet requirements and satisfy clients.
Course Reduction Flexibility
On the other hand, we also make it easy for coaches to modify the content of any courseware to deliver shorter courses, seminars, meetings, etc. Trainers can also contact TRAINER'S BOX help desk, or join our live chatting services for free and professional advice on* modifying their purchased material.
Memorization of Facilitated Knowledge
Effective learning theory requires smart, indirect and continuous repetition using creative and professional techniques. Image anchoring and neuro-scientific techniques are used to enhance concept repetition to energize participants' and make it easier for them to develop skills and absorb the content.
You will notice that we also include use a large portfolio of mentally engaging, sometimes humorous exercises and activities to allow participants to relax, restore energy, develop mental alertness and the capacity to learn and acquire the necessary skills and knowledge. We include guides and instructions for you to conduct these activities easily. Next, we sequence course content, interactions and activities so that skills build upon one another. We also add various types of evaluation methods for trainers to assess trainees' progress.
Phase 3. Training Material Evaluation
During this phase we test our products to make sure our material was up to your expectations. Feedback from our customers, peers, trainers, partners and delegates are constantly collected and analyzed. We collect information on delegate satisfaction, expectations, acquired skills, trainer feedback, pacing, ease of delivery, ease of exercise execution and many other key parameters. This information is collected and is fed back to our professional training designers to continuously improve our services and ensure that you get only the best training material quality.
