Training users
Preparing and running a hands-on session: observable objective, methods, running order, materials, checking understanding and evaluation.
- 23 cards
- 5 topics
- Free
The outline, topic by topic
Each topic is weighted the way the exam weighs it.
- Concepts
- Questions
- Sort and link
- Scenarios
- Understand
A few cards from the deck
Learning objective: what is it?
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What participants will be able to do at the end of the session, stated with an observable action verb.
“Understand the software” cannot be observed; “create an invoice and email it without help” can. That difference is what later lets you evaluate the session.
Which objective for an invoicing software session is correctly worded?
- Issue a credit note on an invoice in under three minutes
- Become familiar with the main functions of the software
- Discover the interface and menus of the installed version
- Become aware of the benefit of invoicing with this tool
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Issue a credit note on an invoice in under three minutes
Only the right answer has an observable action verb, a result and a criterion (in under three minutes). Becoming familiar, discovering or becoming aware describe an intention: at the end you cannot say who reached it.
A learning objective starts with an observable …: create, find, export.
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A learning objective starts with an observable action verb: create, find, export.
Verbs like “know”, “understand” or “be aware of” describe a state of mind that can neither be observed nor graded.
Bloom's taxonomy: what is it?
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A classification of learning objectives from simplest to most complex: remember, understand, apply, analyse, evaluate, create.
It helps choose an objective's verb: “list” is remembering, “export a report” is applying. Training on a tool mostly aims at application.
After two hours of presentation, all the staff call support the next day. What is the likeliest cause and fix?
- Session too short: extend it by an hour of presentation
- Unmotivated audience: remind them that the tool will be mandatory from next month
- Insufficient material: hand everyone the software publisher's complete user manual
- Purely expositive method: alternate demos with exercises on their own files
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Purely expositive method: alternate demos with exercises on their own files
Nobody handled anything: listening does not make a skill stick. Extending the same format, recalling the obligation or handing a manual of hundreds of pages changes nothing.