Organizational Training Function
Recommendations for Implementation
By: Marcia Hawk
Identifying Different Levels of Training
 Corporate Level Training
 Employees need to know about their organization, its structure, policies, rules,
procedures, and benefits. Examples of corporate training are: New Hire
Orientation, Workplace Safety, Employees’ Professional Conduct, Technology
Usage, etc.
 Employee Level Training
 Leadership and Management Training for Managers.
 New application systems (Example: How to the Use EduBoard Application).
 Succession plans (How to Develop a Succession Plan for a Departing Employee’s
Position).
 Performance reviews (How to Conduct an Employee Performance Review).
Conducting Organizational Training Needs
Assessment
 Identify functional departments (Business Development, Information Technology,
Product Support, etc.) within XYZ, and document the function/services that each
department manages.
 Identify key stakeholders, managers, supervisors, leads, etc., and conduct a Training
Needs Assessment (TNA) for each function.
 Identify and select a data collection tool(s): surveys, focus groups, interviews, etc.
 Perform a Training GAP Analysis (TGA) for each department to identify gaps in
training, and opportunities for training. Example: Human Resources—are there
policies and rules that all new employees are required to know?
 Identify existing training and assess need for enhancements. Example: Human
Resource—what, if any, training currently exists but might be better delivered in
another format such as eLearning or Instructor-Led.
 Begin developing an implementation plan for the training function. Planning should
be based upon results of Gap Analysis.
Implementing the Training Function
 Develop the mission of the Training & Development Division (T & D) of Southeastern
Data Corporation. A mission statement energizes and motivates employees to fulfill
the mission of the function. Develop an internal website to promote and support the
training function. It doesn’t have to be fancy!
 Adopt an Instructional Design Model: Addie, Spiral or SAM. ADDIE is the most
commonly used, so it makes sense to use this model since it’s a standard for most
companies and most instructional designers use this model.
 Develop a staffing plan to support each phase of the training deliverable.
 Select an authoring tool—for the eLearning development.
 Select a Learning Management System to manage training content, deployments,
assessments, evaluations, participants’ enrollments. etc. It’s a good idea to have a
dedicated training server for the training function.
 Identify a Systems Development Life Cycle process (Agile, Waterfall, RAD, etc.) for
managing project deliverables, estimating cost, dealing with issues that might delay
deliverables. Agile is a commonly SDLC short sprints—quick delivery.
 Create a committee to prioritize training projects based upon potential Return on
Investments-ROI.
Adopting an Instructional Design Methodology
 Along with a Systems Development Life Cycle used to manage projects,
an Instructional design methodology facilitates the design and
development of Training programs. The five-phase Addie model is the most
widely used and accepted within corporate settings.
Addie 5 Phase Model
Analysis
Evaluation
Implementation
Design
Development
ADDIE Model (Cont’d)

Analysis Phase: The analysis phase clarifies the instructional problems and objectives, identifies the
training environment, learner's existing knowledge and skills.

Design Phase: The design phase deals with learning objectives, assessment instruments, exercises, subject
matter analysis, lesson planning, and media selection. The design phase should be systematic and
specific. The design should be reviewed and revised according to feedback from SMEs and other
stakeholders.

Development Phase: In the development phase, instructional designers/developers create and assemble
content to create the learning product. IDs also integrate technologies. QA test the learning/training
product. The product should be reviewed and revised according to feedback from QA, SMEs and other
stakeholders.

Implementation Phase: In the implementation phase, procedures are developed for training. Train-theTrainer sessions may be needed to cover training outcomes and instructional strategies. Preparation for
learners includes student registration, and identification of any tools that will be needed for the training.
Implementation includes evaluation of the design and may result in revision of the learning product.

Evaluation Phase: The evaluation phase consists of two parts: formative and summative. Formative
evaluation is conducted during each stage of the ADDIE process. Summative evaluations focus on
whether Training outcomes have been met. Based upon assessment results, did students successfully
meet the course goals and objectives? Evaluation may also result in revision of the learning product.
Staffing the Training/Training Function

A Training/Learning Development function is ideally staffed with employees to fulfill certain roles:
 Instructional Designers (ID) work with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to conduct needs
assessments, and identify instructional needs. They gather instructional requirements, design and
develop instructional plans, design assessments and storyboards. IDs also conduct train-thetrainer sessions during the implementation phase.
 Project Managers manage the deliverables for an instructional project.
 eLearning Developers develop/author instructional modules. Not all instructional designers know
how to use an authoring tool. Depending on the complexity of the training module, an
eLearning Developer might be needed to develop instructional modules and assessments.
 Subject Matter Experts provide expert subject guidance to support the development of
instructional goals, objectives and assessments.
 Trainers deliver/facilitate training.
 Quality Assurance tests all instructional modules developed. An SME, Project Manager or
Instructional Designer could also assume a QA role.
Other Instructional Design Models
 The Spiral Model of instructional design is similar to the ADDIE model but
combines the features of the Rapid Prototyping model and the ADDIE
model. Phases include define, design, demonstrate, develop and deliver.
Define
Deliver
Develop
Design
Demonstrate
Selecting an eLearning Authoring Tools
 Adobe Captivate
 Great for product-based instructional design. ID is able to build out demo and training
simulations.
 Great themes and layouts for instructions and assessments.
 It’s an Adobe Developer product with steeper learning curve than Articulate Storyline or
Camtasia Studio. Integrates well with other Adobe products such as Flash (for
animations) Connect for live training delivery; Photoshop for image enhancements).
 Articulate Storyline
 Very intuitive and easy to use; perhaps the most popular eLearning development tool.
 Great themes and layouts for instructions and assessments. Great assortment of
characters for scenario based learning.
 Camtasia Studio
 Similar to Articulate; a product within the TechSmith suite of products.
 M.S. PowerPoint
 Great for non-interactive and limited-assessment training modules. Users can develop
presentations in PPT and convert to Articulate, Camtasia or Captivate.
Implementing a Learning Management System

A Learning Management System should be implemented to effectively manage the training
function. LMS allows organizations to:
 Provide a centralized repository for training content.
 Enroll students in training courses.
 Manage instructors’ profiles.
 Track students’ participation or progress.
 Provides regulatory compliance.
 Reduce training cost.
 Provides reporting of summative assessment data that can be used to assess the quality of
instructional modules for eLearning, Instructor-Led or hybrid courses. Many LMS systems come
with a data analytics feature.
 Conduct and manage the results of formative assessments.
Selecting the First Project to Implement
 Start with a small project that will be easy to implement. HR Policy training
might be a good candidate for eLearning.
 Decide upon an SDLC – Agile, RAD or Waterfall
 Implement a project plan for each phase of the delivery phases:
 Analysis
 Design
 Develop
 Implement
 Evaluate
 Conduct lessons-learned follow-up meetings to examine what worked well
and what didn’t. This would be valuable for all of the project phases.
 Revise Training Function, SDLC, ID methodology as needed.
Project Templates and Other Information Needed
 Every training project should have standards and templates to facilitate training
development.
 Instructional Design
 Instructional design document; assessments, storyboards, evaluation checklists, etc.
 Design/media assets and templates -- XYZ Logo, pictures of employees, trainers, etc.
copyright info., etc.
 Design theme that matches the company’s website; style guides.
 Organizational Needs Assessment and GAP Analysis
 Organizational Needs Assessment (high level)
 Organizational Gap Analysis (high-level)
 Sample Project Plan based upon SDLC
 Agile – Sprints
 Waterfall
 RAD
References and Links to Resources
 http://blogs.adobe.com/captivate/2012/04/training-rapid-instructionaldesign-for-agile-software-development.html