HOW DO YOU CREATE YOUR OWN TRAINING CONTENT?

We’ve discussed WHY you should be creating your own training content, but what about HOW to create your own training content?

Every employer is attempting to answer the question: “what are the most effective ways to create training that is both effective and quantifiable?” Let’s find out!

The ADDIE Model

When developing your own training content, consider the ADDIE method: analyze, design, development, implementation, evaluation.

To simplify the chart below, think of it like this: 1) identify your training problem and what is required to fix it, 2) create your learning objectives and intervention to rectify the training problems, 3) create the training tools and determine how you will deliver them to your trainees , 4) deploy the programs and communicate the objectives of the training to your trainees, and 5) continuously evaluate your trainees in order to gain points of improvement and points of strength. Notice the emphasis on how you deliver your training and the importance of continuous evaluation. This is where an LMS often comes in handy. We’ll answer the question of how to find the right one later on!

Robert Gagne’s Events of Instruction

Another great model for content creation is Gagne’s 9 Events of Instruction:

1. Gain attention. Trainees need stimulus to get started. Some ways of creating that stimuli would be to create novelty or uncertainty in your training, or to engage the trainees with each other during the training process.
2. Inform trainees of the objectives. If your trainees don’t know the objectives they’re working toward, chances are they aren’t taking full advantage of the training content. Some ways to inform trainees and make your objectives clear would be to simply describe the end goal of the training, or provide a criteria list for what standard performance is considered. State these objectives throughout the training to ensure your trainees understand them.
3. Stimulate recall. Call back earlier training in tests and assessments in later training. Have them physically do those tasks taught in earlier trainings (if applicable) in order to incorporate those processes into later trainings.
4. Present content. Having multiple mediums of presenting your content helps in later recall. Create assessments, presentations, video demonstrations, and even animations can be useful tools!
5. Provide guidance. Provide instructional support and mentorship. Make sure your learning methods are varied. In your training give examples of what your trainees should be doing as well as what they should not be doing.
6. Elicit practice. Reinforce new skills by having trainees physically complete skills they are learning to do in training. Do this by creating effective tests and assessments that allow you to test comprehension rather than just recall.
7. Provide feedback. Evaluations should be both confirmatory and critical. Tell them what they’re doing correctly and what they have room to improve on. Be descriptive and straightforward!
8. Assess performance. Pre-tests are a useful tool in understanding where each trainee starts, while post-tests help you see how far each individual has come. Give trainees multiple chances to prove proficiency, but also make sure you are stating what proficiency looks like (see step 2).
9. Enhance retention. Last but not least, understand that training is a continuous, ever-present effort. It NEVER ends! This may sound intimidating, but the good news is that once you have your customized training set up with proper methods and mediums, only minor changes are necessary to keep it up and running.

Did we answer your questions about training? If so, great! If not, keep an eye out for some content creation pro-tips in our next article.