Training Industry Magazine - Content Development 2017 Special Edition - 17

means handling a variety of situations,
put learners in a variety of representative
situations as they practice. If speed is
important, learners should perform at or
better than the speed needed on the job.
If learners will be expected to detect and
correct their errors without help, they
should demonstrate doing so in their
final exercises.
The final lesson should offer the best
representation of the situations or
contexts in which learners are expected to
perform successfully. Learners should have
plenty of opportunities to make mistakes,
especially the mistakes employees often
make on the job. They should have the
same support, options and recovery
methods that they'll actually have on the
job. In short, their last lesson should be the
most authentic performance environment
you can offer on your chosen delivery
platform. Since building an authentic
performance environment may tax your
energy, creativity and resources, this
activity is where you should start.
Don't compromise in this area. It's better to
be restricted to fewer interactive learning
activities for the basics than to be unable
to provide authentic practice activities at
the conclusion of training.
STEP BACK
LAST LESSON MINUS 1
Once you've created an authentic
performance environment that allows
learners to perform as targeted, you
can also use this structure to help them

develop the skills they need for the last
lesson. In the second-to-last lesson in
the course, make sure help will appear in
response to either learner errors or the
learner's request for help. At this point,
you've brought all of the course content
together to prepare learners for the last
lesson. You're expecting that, after this
lesson, learners will be able to complete
the final lesson without difficulty.
LAST LESSON MINUS 2, 3, 4...
Continuing to work backward, you can
now define component behaviors that
work either sequentially or in combination
in the targeted performance. You can use
each cluster of behaviors, and eventually
each component behavior, as the basis for
lessons prerequisite to "Last Lesson Minus
2" and/or for each other.
KEEP GOING
The process continues until time and
money are running out, or, hopefully,
you have covered sufficient content.
Using this approach, it's likely that you
have covered more content in fewer
lessons than you initially thought were
necessary. Providing learners with help
as you ask them to perform components
of the final tasks can ensure that the
course covers all the content they need.
Instead of the context-free, "Trust me,
you'll eventually see why all of this
is important," when learners receive
content as help, they easily understand
why it's important and internalize it
more readily.

THE LAST LESSON
SHOULD BE THE
MOST AUTHENTIC
PERFORMANCE
ENVIRONMENT
YOU CAN OFFER.
CHECK IT OUT
As we continue to back up, the goal is
to provide an entry point that works
well for all learners. The only way to
stop at the most opportune time - no
more elementary than necessary but
far enough that all learners will engage
comfortably - is to test the course with
real learners. You'll need a group of
employees with varying backgrounds
and then more, if initial testing reveals
the need to add a lesson or two.
It's wise to test early. By designing a great
final learning and practice activity and
then providing a few learning exercises to
prepare learners for it, you may find that
you don't need to do much more. If you
do, by testing the course with learners,
you'll know exactly what you need to
address. You might be surprised by what
you do and don't need to include.
Michael Allen, CEO and chairman of Allen
Interactions, has nearly 45 years of professional,
academic and corporate experience in
teaching, developing and marketing
interactive learning and performance support
systems. Email Michael.

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