Training Industry Magazine - May/June 2020 - 18

motivations and needs of your trainers
and managers as you do for your
learners. Most trainers want to deliver
meaningful and actionable learning
experiences but run out of time, face
budget constraints, struggle to deal
with higher-level politics, or simply don't
know how to sift through and effectively
transform years of content.
Your best bet is to help them identify
their strengths as trainers, content
creators and managers rather than
attacking their approach. Encourage
them to share ideas, actively participate
in changes and compliment them on
what they are doing well.

Solution: Let's play a game
A good way to break up content in
lengthy training programs is to focus
on quick wins, which may come in the
form of agile or iterative deliverables.
When stress levels and expectations
are high, the amount of content in a
training program is insurmountable,
and your managers are resistant to
change, take one area of content and
turn it into a familiar game that breaks
up the monotony.
For example, turn a boring quiz on
medical coding terminology into a game
of bingo. The game board includes
medical coding term names. The trainer
reads corresponding definitions, and
learners see if they can correctly match
names with definitions on their game
board. Because the rules of bingo are
simple and familiar, the learners have
fun while confirming what they have
learned but are not required to learn a
new or complex game format.
You may run into trainers and managers
who resist this version of the game,
because they believe it is too easy.
Just focus on the goal: Get the learners
to actively apply their knowledge in a
stress-free manner. Rather than tricking
them, build comfort and activate recall.
In turn, familiarity and comfort with the
material leads to improved customer
interactions and fewer complaints to
managers - even more critical in a highstress, sales-oriented environment.

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Encourage Practice in a
Realistic Environment
You are the instructional designer and
developer on a consulting project, and
your client is making the major switch
from paper-based change requests to
an online system accompanied with
a mobile app. The online system has
a great user interface and the screens
are easy to navigate, so the client thinks
screen video recordings are enough
training support. You identify a few
concerns and suggestions for improving
the hands-on active learning experience.

Problem: The system is intuitive, but
the process is not
The problem sometimes gets lost in a
perceived solution. In this case, because
the supporting system is developed to
be easy to use, the client disregards
the complexity of submitting a change
request and providing all required
information. They want to point learners
to videos that cover everything in the
order in which the form appears on
screen without accounting for the other
steps in the process. If a learner is stuck
on the third step but the only supporting
content is a video without timestamps,
they waste time, get frustrated and may
make mistakes when they start to use
the system.

Support change: Capitalize on
momentum and success
When an organization takes on a major
technology initiative and begins to see
how quality improves, you can focus
on success and momentum to support
learners in additional ways. When
things are going well, you can remind
the project team that they might be
experts in the process, but that their

learners may only touch the system
once a year (if ever); you can help
the team see how additional context
continues the winning streak.

Solution: Let's click submit
In this case, you can repurpose the
video content, and transform it into a
practice tool where learners enter real
information, click submit and potentially
receive feedback to improve their next
submission. When video content is saved
as slides in a common authoring tool,
you can quickly mimic the actual system
by adding a few collection variables and
a submit button. Make sure the project
team knows the additional development
would only take your time and would not
require any new content development.

Selecting the Right Learning Activity
The type of activity or game you choose to create for your learners should add
value, not just be filler content.
Play to reinforce, not trick. That's the challenge.
Training Industry Magazine - May/June 2020

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