Simulations are Safe

Computers are a great way to safely provide experience for dangerous situations. Dangerous can read combat, hazardous materials, or even employee relations in some cases.

The beauty of using computers for simulations is you can get a "do over" or simply try again. The consequences of mistakes are minimized. The challenge has been to make the simulation realistic and easy to use. Thanks to continued advanced in technology that continues to become easier.

See also CLO Magazine.

Natural Learning Curves

Learning is a requirements for life. We learn so much in the courae of our lives. Recently, I brought my third son home from the hospital. He was born prematurely on April 2nd. As I watched him grow, together we learned a lot. One of the things I learned about was the natural leanring curve my son had to go through.

In order for my little guy to come home he had to learn to eat from a bottle. That sounds like such a simply thing until you consider some of the following challenges he faced:

• he had been fed through a tube for more than two months since birth
• he could not speak or understand the spoken word
• he could not read directions or even pictures for that matter
• he had a short attentions span
• he got distracted easily
• he had not seen a demonstration of how to eat from a bottle.

One of the lessons I took away from this observation was again how fundamental learning is to life. As he made progress and regressed I was reminded also of the incremental gains and losses we seen in the various aspects of our work lives. The learning curve is rarely, if ever, a straight line up to perfect performance.

Get a Pro

"If you were to ask Ray Kelly IV to characterize the learning function of most organizations, he might say it was analogous to coins underneath the cushions of a couch: You have to dig around to recover all that money" (As seen at hrotoday.com on 2-17-09). As Andy Teng continues to write for HRO he points out the fact that there are tangible benefits when an organization commits to outsource task and functions.

When an organization outsources or contracts with someone like LearningCurve to create or manage the learning and training functions of an organization they get what they you pay for. They simply know what it cost in hard dollars and see the results. Outsourcing is a viable option to get visible results for an organization that knows it can not afford to cut out learning yet has trouble justifying unaccountable dollars in tough economic times.

In addition to making the cost and benefit of investments in human capital explicit the quality and delivery can often improve making the learning process a positive experience for employees and clients. Does that sound like a win-win?

Rudderless Training?

The purpose of the training should be relevant, real, and applicable. A ship without a rudder can launch out on a journey but has little hope of reaching any specific destination.

The training objectives are the intended destiny for each participant or learner. The purpose of the training in this analogy is the rudder. To use the rudder the purpose must direct the activity and direction of the training. Although there may be many useful and exciting ports along the journey the instructional designer must use the training purposes to provide direction in the creation and execution of the training.

Although this sounds simple and logical; reality requires careful discipline and dedication to the purpose at hand to carry the participants on to the intended destination.

Why are we training?

When you develop training materials one of the most important questions to ask is simply; why train? The sponsor for the program has an agenda. Understanding that agenda is essential. The agenda may be latent and quite simple. However, a successful training instructional designer will have that agenda crystal clear in their mind.

Beware, sometimes a training sponsor suspects training is needed simply because the expected behaviors are not pervasive. If in fact the problem lies somewhere else like in the compensation program; then your wonderful training program still won’t have the impact the sponsor sought out.

Again the need to be crystal clear about the intent of the program and the dynamic factors around the program are essential to successful performance improvements. You need to either buy-in to sponsor’s agenda or coach the sponsor to a more enlightened perspective given your relative expertise.

Simulations are Army Strong

Simulations can be a powerful method for learning complex procedures and steps. As described in the excerpt below as they replicate reality and allow users to discover information for themselves they become more powerful.

As they share the look and feel of a production environment computer application simulations help users learn to use software without exposing access to sensitive data or otherwise risk the data integrity.

Quoted from http://www.workforce.com/section/11/feature/26/08/34/index.html:
The Army’s Training Weapon: Serious Games workforce.com

Simulations “offer a very cost-effective way for clients to reach large, geographically distributed populations,” says Rommin Adl, executive vice president for global sales and marketing for management consulting company BTS. The company, headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, with offices in 11 other countries, specializes in developing customized simulations and discovery learning experiences for clients. “People can test things in a risk-free before they do it in real life," Adl says. "This helps disseminate best practices before people do things."

Engaging Learners

Engaging learners or participate in learning is essential to successful experiences. Unfortunately, death by PowerPoint is in some cases being replaced with death by e-Learning. You see in many cases folks have simple converted PowerPoint Slides to e-Learning modules. Though this can be a quick fix to disseminate information is leave much to be desired.

Engagement occurs naturally when the content is relevant to what they need and realistic. So the short answer is give people simply what they want/need. LearningCurve uses three primary modes of learning. In short they are observe the computer software in use, they interact with the software in a simulated environment with cues and support, and finally they test their skill without the cues in a ‘test’ environment.