AEmeritus Relevant Training

A lighter look at ROI

Virtual Island, Sound Investment?

(from business2blogs) The online videogame player who bought a virtual island a year ago for $26,500 has reportedly recouped his investment.  From BBC News:

The 23-year-old gamer known as Deathifier made the money back in under a year. The virtual Treasure Island he bought existed within the online role-playing game Project Entropia. He made money by selling land to build virtual homes as well as taxing other gamers to hunt or mine on the island.

Now that guy who bought the $100,000 space station on Project Entropia doesn't look so crazy after all.

Training Session

Relevance

Let's assume I have the answers to those three questions:

• What does the participant know about the topic?
• What do they want to learn?
• Why do they want to learn it?

This is where we apply the CRI principles: The goals of the training (or syllabus) are adjusted to the goals of the trainees and become a contract between the trainer and trainees. Each participant may have different goals.

Now the question is: How to best deliver the training?

• First, what facilities are available?
• Is the training to be delivered on an inhouse network?
• If so, does that network have access to the Internet?
• Is the training to be delivered from manuals? Are the manuals customized, or customizable?
• Do the manuals have to be developed separately?
• How many participants will be in the course?
• Will the course be synchronous or asynchronous? -- or a combination?
• Will there be a fixed time period for each session or course?

The answers to those questions define the preparation for the course, session, or sessions.

A Journey ..

... of a thousand miles, begins with a single step.

Another way of putting it might be: If you think making a business plan is just filling in the blanks, you're in for a surprise.

Awkward Beginnings I began this journey really about halfway through my online course in Training and Assessment. Accredited Online Training offered a Cert IV course for about half of the least expensive classroom price. It was more attractive to me since I have done a lot of work online as a researcher and web designer.
After finishing all the modules online, AOL wanted me to send the two tapes: one of me training; another of me doing an assessment. Finding a digicam or camcorder and a few mock trainees proved to be problematic. After borrowing a camcorder for three weeks, then a digicam for a couple of weeks, I finally seduced a few friends into a computer lab to produce the training video.
What I produced was a perfect example of how not to train anyone. My friends came in with bags of potato chips, soft drinks, and sandwiches, then spent most of the time kidding around. If I had sent that tape in, they'd blacklist me from the profession!

First Lesson learned: If it's important to your business, get it for yourself.
The second lesson I'd learned long ago: When in doubt, fall back on your strengths.
I contacted a tutor at AOL and asked if I could produce a website to train and assess instead of a video. Since they'd been struggling to establish the credibility of online training, that request was enthusiastically granted, with a proviso: Add an Introduction to the course including the requirements of the Australian ANTA (now a part of DEST.) -- No problem. After all, it just meant putting in more content from the course.
So instead of a pair of training videos, I produced a website that introduced the goals and requirements of my course, a few pages to illustrate a couple of different ways to design and present material, and an assessment page.
Simple, effective and it got me three emails with words like "superb" and "excellent" all over them.

CRI Template

Introduction

I’ve been asked to prepare a course template based on the concepts of CRI (Criterion Referenced Instruction). As you’ll quickly realize, KnowPlace is already applying most of these concepts in its courses, such as the ADDIE model.
The goal of this template is not to retrain the trainers, but to standardize the Look and Feel from this point forward. Another important goal is to help develop a marketing position for KnowPlace. CRI is an internationally recognizable standard that’s already well documented and researched.
In developing this template I’ll avoid referencing the psychological theory behind CRI, and refer often to the superb articles in the eLearning Guru newsletters .If anyone wants to delve deeper into the theory, a good starting point is the Theory into Practice database.

It’s already been discussed that when KnowPlace Instructional Designers become proficient at applying this template and the other concepts of the CRI model, a course will be developed to train trainers in CRI and Rapid Prototyping. A few consultants currently offer a course for $2600USD ($4000 AUD) over 10 days as blended learning.

Introduction

I’ve been asked to prepare a course template based on the concepts of CRI (Criterion Referenced Instruction). As you’ll quickly realize, KnowPlace is already applying most of these concepts in its courses, such as the ADDIE model.
The goal of this template is not to retrain the trainers, but to standardize the Look and Feel from this point forward. Another important goal is to help develop a marketing position for KnowPlace. CRI is an internationally recognizable standard that’s already well documented and researched.
In developing this template I’ll avoid referencing the psychological theory behind CRI, and refer often to the superb articles in the eLearning Guru newsletters .If anyone wants to delve deeper into the theory, a good starting point is the Theory into Practice database.

It’s already been discussed that when KnowPlace Instructional Designers become proficient at applying this template and the other concepts of the CRI model, a course will be developed to train trainers in CRI and Rapid Prototyping. A few consultants currently offer a course for $2600USD ($4000 AUD) over 10 days as blended learning.