Course Outcomes

This train-the-trainer course for experienced trainers will:

  • Highlight the best practices participants already follow.
  • Examine learning styles models and the extent to which they should influence training course design and delivery.
  • Explore instructional design models.
  • Share techniques for putting participants at the front and center of a learning event.
  • Help participants assemble a versatile kit from which they can create activities in advance or on the fly.
  • Suggest techniques for encouraging dialogue.
  • Offer information about various methods for evaluating a learning event.

Course Overview

This course is designed for experienced trainers who have an understanding of instructional design and solid facilitation skills.  It is best suited for groups who regularly develop and deliver content.  The course covers best practices for designing participant-focused training programs that appeal to a variety of learning styles.  The program also suggests techniques for managing the 21st-century classroom, generating buy-in, and keeping participants focused on the learning objective.  Those who take part in this course will also learn the value of a training kit and how to fill it with everyday objects that can be purposed and repurposed for a wide range of meaningful activities.

Program Objectives

At this program’s conclusion, participants should be able to:

  • Follow various instructional design models to ensure their work is balanced, thorough, and aligned with business objectives.
  • Use several techniques to encourage dialog in the classroom.
  • Shift instructor-focused training to participant-focused learning.
  • Assemble a training kit they can use for a variety of purposes.
  • Apply a range of evaluation tools to their work.

The following outline highlights some of the course’s key learning points. As part of your training program, we will modify content as needed to meet your business objectives. Upon request, we will provide you with a copy of the participant materials prior to the session(s).

Workshop Outline

The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: What You Already Know

This program starts with participants sharing stories of success and tales from the front they’d rather forget.  We will use these stories to create a list of basics, find common themes, and set learning goals for the day.

People Puzzles: Looking at Learning Styles

While there is some debate about the validity of learning styles, great trainers understand that people experience the classroom in a number of ways.  This part of the seminar looks at three popular approaches to understanding learning styles: Walter Burke Barbe’s Visual-Auditory-Kinesthetic (VAK) model, Gardener’s Multiple Intelligences, and Honey and Mumford’s learning preferences model. Once we’ve reviewed the various frameworks, participants will choose a model and style. Next, they will tailor a teach-back exercise that addresses the framework, while using activities designed for a specific style.  Following that exercise, we’ll debate the extent to which learning styles matter, and we’ll examine other elements that can influence a learner’s success: ability, interest, and frame of reference to name a few.

Model Behavior: Exploring Instructional Design

In the third segment of the workshop, participants will work in teams to create their own instructional design model based on what they know from their experiences as trainers. We will then use those representations as a springboard for a discussion about such well-known systems of design as ADDIE, Bloom’s Taxonomy, Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction, Merrill’s Principles of Instruction, and SAM.  The goal of the unit is to marry the academic with the practical and to consider the real-world application of various systems of design.

In the Center: Putting Participants First

If a program is not designed with the idea of participants first, even skilled trainers can find themselves delivering content instead of leading learning.  This part of the course focuses on specific actions course designers can take to leverage what participants already know and put them in the center of a discussion.  In this segment, we will also talk about steps facilitators can take in real time to shift a top-down course’s focus to participant-centered exchange.

What’s In Your Bag?: Building a Learning Kit

Training toys with no purpose can reduce the effectiveness of workshop and hurt the reputation of the trainer who uses them. On the other hand, props can quickly engage participants if they are managed correctly. In this part of the session, we will explore the importance of well-designed learning activities and how to create a portable kit filled with supplies that can be used for a wide range of purposes. 

Let’s Talk: Temperature Checks and Other Dialogues

Great training is a dialogue and not a monologue. In this part of the program, we will look at tips and tactics for managing the modern classroom, engaging the millennial learner, and keeping participants focused in an increasingly distracted world.  Working through a series of case studies, group members will develop solutions to a series of 21st-century challenges.

Was It Good?: Evaluating Training

In this final part of the course, we will examine various methods of training evaluation.  We will work through an exercise similar to the earlier one that covered instructional design models, but this time, we will consider both Kirkpatrick’s and Kaufman’s models of learning evaluation, Brinkerhoff’s Success Case Method, and Anderson’s Value of Learning model. Once we’ve completed that exercise, we will talk about what’s appropriate in the participants’ organization(s) and the resources needed to successfully execute an evaluation plan.

By the conclusion of this course, participants should have a deeper understanding of the scholarly work surrounding adult learning and training and development, and they should be able to take that knowledge and translate it into everyday practices they can leverage back on the job.