1. 2-1 At the conclusion of this module the participant will be able to: Explain the five characteristics of adult learners. Discuss three of the five barriers to learning from instructors. Diagram or discuss the learning cycle including the impact of including activities or exercises in a presentation. Discuss how an audience analysis can assist in the development and execution of a training workshop. Discuss methods a trainer can include in the post-training process. Objectives: What is Training?

2. 2-2 What is Training? Adult Learners Unlike teaching in a more traditional academic setting, your audience will be composed of adult learners. Adult learners tend to exhibit certain characteristics that separate them from a traditional college or high school student. These characteristics include: Life experiences – Adult learners have had more ‘time in life’ as it were, and these experiences will dictate how they approach new material. These life experiences also dictate a participant’s attitudes and values, which form the emotional framework they operate under. Be aware that these attitudes and values may differ from yours. Take caution to avoid offending anyone, especially if they speak out with a different opinion of the topic at hand. Acknowledge their opinion, but do not berate them for it. Learn by doing – Adults tend to prefer to learn through hands-on activities. While you will have to have a certain amount of lecture material, don’t forget to break it up with activities that will give participants the opportunity to put into action what they have just learned.

3. 2-3 What is Training? Application to reality – Your participants are busy folks, and therefore want training that applies to real situations. Time spent on non-relevant topics could cause you to lose the attention of some participants, and reduce your credibility as an instructor. Guidance, not grades – Adult learners are not interested in getting a ‘grade.’ Instead, they want guidance on how best to address this new skill they are learning. Don’t be inflexible with your class. Allow them to explore, within reason, aspects of the topic at hand that they feel are relevant. Adults are self-directed – Overall, your participants will be self- motivated and as such, will not need much encouragement. Some will work faster than others. Your challenge will be to recognize when your pace is either too fast or too slow, and adjust accordingly. How is this relevant? Adult Learners Unlike teaching in a more traditional academic setting, your audience will be composed of adult learners. Adult learners tend to exhibit certain characteristics that separate them from a traditional college or high school student. These characteristics include:

4. 2-4 Barriers to Learning – The Instructor As with any teaching situation, there may be several barriers to learning that need to be addressed in order to provide effective instruction. As an instructor, some barriers that you have control over include: What is Training? Communication – The ability of the instructor to effectively communicate with the participants is critical. Not only is clear and proper speaking important, but the visual aids used must be simple and effective. We’ll address the issue of visual aids a bit later. Instructional Pace – New trainers tend to be nervous, and that nervousness often leads to a pace that is too fast for effective learning. On the flip side, a slow pace will lead to a drop in a participant’s attention level. Take heart. It takes time to get a feel for the proper pace. Practice your timing on colleagues. Connecting with the Participant – It is vital that you find a way to connect with your participants. Talking with each participant during breaks and other down time can help establish this connection. A lack of connectivity could lead to a loss in educational opportunity. Poor Presentation Skills – We have all been there, that workshop or presentation by a person who has no business standing in front of a group of people. Practice, and mentoring by others, such as through your local Toastmasters club, can help you overcome any deficiencies in your presentation skills. Lack of Confidence – Like a predator can smell fear, your participants can detect your lack of confidence. Once again, know your material, and practice, practice, practice.

5. 2-5 While you can control some of these barriers to learning, others you cannot. The participants of your workshop have to take responsibility for their own learning. The items listed here can be discussed at the beginning of the workshop if you feel it necessary, but be careful how you approach them. Keep a positive spin on your presentation. What is Training? Attendance – If the participant is not there physically, it’s impossible to learn. Stress the importance of showing up on time, both at the start of the workshop and at the end of breaks. Commitment to Learn – As we mentioned earlier, the participants at your workshop usually come because of their own interests. They tend to have a greater commitment to learning the material, but it might help to mention the benefits of completing the assignments in the workshop, as well as participating in the workshop through asking questions where appropriate, and engaging in discussion with others in the class. Distractions and Concentration – Depending on the setup for your training, there may be various distractions that will fight for the attention and concentration of you participants. Some of these you can control, some you cannot. At the beginning of the workshop, discuss some of these distractions, such as use of cell phones and checking email during class. Ask that participants turn off the ringer on their phones, and wait until the break to check and reply to email. Nothing is more distracting than trying to lecture on a particular topic only to have someone pecking away at a keyboard in the back of the room. Barriers to Learning – The Participant

6. 2-6 Analyzing your audience - Benefits One of the most powerful tools you can use when designing your workshop is a pre-workshop audience analysis. This analysis is used to identify certain characteristics of potential participants such as interest, skill level, behaviors, and subject knowledge. The results of an analysis such as this will provide you with information that you can use to design the workshop content to meet the learning goals of the workshop by identifying the primary goals of the learner. What is Training? Why analyze your audience? Here are some reasons this can be beneficial: Ensures appropriate course objectives and objectives are accomplished – Looking at who will be coming to your workshop can help you develop good workshop objectives that will address any specific needs of the participants. Plus, a well-developed list of objectives can be used as a guide to ensure you cover the material required to meet those objectives. Allows for adjustments – Analyzing your audience can help you identify areas in your training that can be adapted to meet particular needs of the participants. If your workshop participants have some experience with metadata, you might be able to adjust your workshop content to cut out some introductory material and use that additional time for more appropriate topics, or to give more time to hands-on exercises.

7. 2-7 What is in an audience analysis? If you have never conducted an audience analysis, here are some questions to consider: What is Training? Demographics – Are your workshop participants manager-types (team leaders, middle or top level managers)? Are they field personnel, technicians, analysts, or students? Are they the ones that are going to be creating the metadata, or are they just responsible for managing others in the creation of metadata? Previous knowledge / experience – What level of subject knowledge are they bringing to the workshop? Are they familiar with the background information? Have they written metadata? Do they write metadata on a regular basis? Do they teach others about metadata? Or have they never even heard of metadata? Relevance – How relevant will the training be to their particular job? Are they attending because of their interest, or were they told to attend? Will they be writing metadata as soon as they get back in the office, or will there be lag time? How much detail to they need? Upper level managers generally only need an overview, project managers need to know what good metadata looks like and what resources are involved in the creation and publication, and technicians might need to know the inner workings of the metadata standard and related creation tools.

8. 2-8 Where does this information come from? There are several sources of potential information on your participants that can be used in your analysis. These include, but are not limited, to: What is Training? Registration forms / pre-workshop surveys – These forms offer the most direct way to ask pertinent questions. Make sure you get the appropriate approval from your organization beforehand. Also, make sure to review your form thoroughly to ensure that the questions you are asking will provide you with the information you need. Other instructors – Often times, other, more experienced instructors have familiarity with various organizations who might be sending participants to your workshop. In addition, networking with other instructors is a great way to get new material, and to have your material reviewed. Previous participants – It is not unusual to have participants from organizations that you have worked with in the past. In those cases, rely on your network to contact the co-workers of the participants that will be attending your workshop to gain some added insight into skill level, job duties, etc. Personal experience – Once you have conducted several workshops, you will have gained significant personal experience that will help you customize your surveys and interpret the results to adjust your workshop content. Common sense – Enough said.

9. 2-9 Learning Preferences and Styles Learning is an individual and personal journey. A successful journey requires the participant to identify the learning style and method that suits them. No learning style is incorrect. Your challenge as an instructor is to be able to address various learning styles that your participants will bring to the workshop. We perceive reality via our senses. The four modes of our perception are visual, auditory, reading/writing and kinetics. To be effective with your instruction, you must recognize that different people learn in different ways, and you should try to adapt your material to address these various styles. What is Training? This stuff is great!

10. 2-10 The Kolb Learning Preferences What is Training? Based on David Kolb’s Learning Styles, 1984 © 2002 Alan Chapman www.businessballs.com If you will be active in training, it might be beneficial to research other learning preferences and styles to aid in preparation for your workshops. Let’s take a look at one model of learning preferences, the Kolb learning styles model. Keep in mind, this is just one model among many.

11. 2-11 What is Training? Based on David Kolb’s Learning Styles, 1984 © 2002 Alan Chapman www.businessballs.com Developed in 1984 by David Kolb, this learning preferences model focuses on two continuums. One is an approach to a task, the other our emotional response. These continuums generally show up as two lines of axis. The east-west axis is called the Processing Continuum, and refers to how we approach a task. The north-south axis is called the Perception Continuum, and refers to our emotional response, or how we think and feel. At each end of the continuums are four preferences, which can also be translated to possible different learning methods. These preferences and possible methods are: Doing (active experimentation) Watching (reflective observation) Feeling (concrete experience) Thinking (abstract conceptualization) Thinking WatchingDoing Feeling The Kolb Learning Preferences

12. 2-12 Learning Styles What is Training? Based on David Kolb’s Learning Styles, 1984 © 2002 Alan Chapman www.businessballs.com and Peter Honey and Alan Mumford, “The Manual of Learning Styles” The combination of where an individual’s learning preference lies on each axis will produce four possible learning styles. Activist (doing and feeling preferences, or concrete-active) Reflector (watching and doing, or concrete-reflective) Theorist (watching and thinking, or abstract-reflective) Pragmatist (thinking and doing, or abstract-active) Thinking WatchingDoing Feeling Theorists think Pragmatists do Reflectors watchActivists feel

13. 2-13 What is Training? Knowing your participants learning preferences will enable you to tailor your instruction to a preferred method or methods. However, it is almost impossible to determine learning preferences and styles ahead of time. Below is a brief description of each of the four learning styles as identified by Kolb. Think about how you could plan your workshop materials to best address these styles. Activists – These folks are pro-active learners that combine thinking and doing during their learning, using their intuition more than logic. People with this learning style primarily learn from hands-on experiences. Reflectors – Able to look at things from different perspectives, Reflectors tend to be creative learners. They enjoy situations that call for generating new ideas and brainstorming, and they learn through discovery and experiment. Theorists – These individuals are concise and prefer a logical approach to problems. Theoretical learners tend to be objective and impersonal, and rely on facts and information to solve problems and make decisions. Pragmatists – Similar to theorists in that they prefer technical tasks more than people and interpersonal aspects of problem solving, Pragmatists are practical and systematic, approaching problem solving by using their ability to find solutions to questions, and make decisions based on those solutions. They like rules and step by step learning. Based on David Kolb’s Learning Styles, 1984 © 2002 Alan Chapman www.businessballs.com and Peter Honey and Alan Mumford, “The Manual of Learning Styles” Learning Styles

14. 2-14 What is Training? The Kolb model is just one example of learning preferences and styles. Other learning models include classifying learners as visual, auditory, kinesthetic, or tactile learners; as left-brained vs. right-brained learners; and as innovative, analytic, common sense, or dynamic learners. As an instructor, your task is to make yourself aware of various learning preferences and styles, and then to consider these various styles as you develop your workshop materials. Time put in to this task on the front end, during the planning and development stage, will be rewarded on the back end, when you deliver your workshop and are successful in helping your workshop participants gain the knowledge and skills your are teaching. Visual Dynamic Tactile Kinesthetic Innovative Analytic Auditory Common Sense Other Learning Styles

15. 2-15 The Learning Cycle What is Training? Presented with new information, your workshop participants will go through a process to assimilate this new information. This process, or learning cycle, will be controlled for the most part by you as the instructor, but some aspects of the training may be more unmanaged. Let’s look at what a typical participant might experience in the course of your workshop through the four stages of the learning cycle. Peter Honey and Alan Mumford, “The Manual of Learning Styles” Reviews the experience and information Draws conclusions from experience and information Plans next steps based on experience and information Experiences new information

16. 2-16 What is Training? Let’s take a closer look at each stage: Experiencing new information – Here the concepts of metadata are presented. This new material is accompanied by activities to reinforce the concepts. Reviewing the experience and information – At the end of each segment of your training, review what has been presented in context of the learning objectives. Allow your participants to reflect and discuss the topic and the activities to share what they have learned with others. Often times, you will find you as an instructor will learn just as much from your participants during these times of discussion. Drawing conclusions from experience and information – At the end of each segment and at the end of the workshop, the participants will begin drawing conclusions about the relative importance of the information presented and skills learned to the work they do. Plan next steps based on experience and information – If the participant decides the information and skills are relative to their job, then they can begin planning on how best to incorporate these new skills and this new information into their workflow. This is the point that you can help them by maintaining an active follow-up network. Peter Honey and Alan Mumford, “The Manual of Learning Styles” Reviewing the experience and information Drawing conclusions from experience and information Plan next steps based on experience and information Experiencing new information The Learning Cycle

17. 2-17 Learning Levels What is Training? Activities will reinforce what is learned. Take a look at the various levels of learning as put forth by Benjamin Bloom in 1956. These levels, referred to as the cognitive domain, are not absolutes, but rather estimates of an individual’s level of learning. These six levels are arranged on a scale of difficulty, whereby a learner able to perform at the higher levels is demonstrating a more complex level of cognitive thinking. Knowledge You can recall data. Application You can apply knowledge to a new situation. Evaluation You can make a judgment as to the value of the information. Synthesis You can build a pattern from diverse elements. Analysis You can separate information into parts for better understanding. Comprehension You understand the information. Bloom’s Taxonomy Complexity of Cognitive Thinking

18. 2-18 Activities, activities, activities! What is Training? At each stage of your training, plan activities to reinforce what has just been presented, and to gauge the level of learning by the participants. Activities that engage your participants will help cement new skills and knowledge. The amount of time you can spend on activities will vary with the type of workshop you are presenting. For example, if you are giving a one-hour introduction to metadata presentation to mid-level and upper-level managers, you may choose an activity that is as simple as a group discussion. More in-depth workshops allow for more involved activities. Whatever the level of training, make sure your activities support your stated learning objectives. Don’t leave your participants wondering what relevance an activity had on their learning experience. Discussions Question and answer Exercises Hands-on applications Activity Examples

19. 2-19 Thoughts on breaking through and improving retention What is Training? Throughout your workshop, you will have numerous opportunities to either drive home your message or lose the interest of your participants. Here are some thoughts to help make sure you are successful in leaving a lasting impression. Communicate – Your workshop will be delivered using multiple forms of communication, including your voice, written material, visuals, expressions, and gestures. In all of these, take care to avoid mannerisms or styles that will detract the attention of your participants. Flexibility - Become familiar with the various learning styles, and be ready to adapt if need be. Goals – State and restate goals and major concepts throughout the workshop. Positive reinforcement – Acknowledge your participants’ accomplishments. When correcting someone, do it in a positive manner. Information transference – Whenever possible, work from the knowledge base of your participants. Pre- workshop surveys can help establish what this knowledge base is, and you can ask informal questions at the start of the workshop and each section. Listen carefully to what your participants are saying, and use their experiences to apply new knowledge. Acknowledge your mistakes – Rectify any miscommunication early. Also, if there is a question asked that you do not know the answer to, say so. If possible, tell them you will work on finding out the answer and get back with them. Park those questions on the “parking lot” for future reference. Breaks – Make sure to give the participants adequate mental and physical breaks. Remember, recall falls rapidly after 24 hours. Highly stressed items are easily remembered!

20. 2-20 Post training tips What is Training? Depending on the nature of your training relationship with your participants, you may have the opportunity to maintain good contact with them through a follow-up network. At the very least, you should maintain email contact with all of the participants. Here are some ideas to consider for after the workshop. Applying new skills soon after training – Discuss with the participants the importance of putting into action the new skills and knowledge they have gained in your workshop. Stress how much easier it will be for them in the long run if they try to incorporate what they have learned into their daily workflow. Provide assistance – If possible, maintain an active follow-up network with the participants. Offer them assistance whenever they need it. Some will take advantage of your offer, others won’t. That’s simple human nature. Some folks are comforted knowing they aren’t walking into this new adventure alone. Encourage management support – If you have the opportunity to interact with the management staff, stress the importance of support from their level. To be effective and to garner the most benefit from your training, participants need time, tools, and training. You provide the training, but they will need management to understand that it will take time to master the new tools and other skills learned in the workshop. Rewards after proof of learning – Reward successful completion of the workshop with a certificate stating the name and date of the course. Some organizations require this proof from their employees. Regardless, it’s a nice, easy way to acknowledge their efforts.