Running Head: Training Plan 1

Theoretical Foundations: Training Plan

Sara Richards

McDaniel College

Training Plan 2

For my second Theoretical Foundations submission, I have chosen an

educational entry from the Instructional Systems Design class taken as part of the

graduate program at McDaniel College. My submission is a lesson plan I developed for

an online training program called “Preventing Workplace Harassment”. In this course, I

learned the importance of the selection, implementation, and evaluation of various

training methods. This lesson plan demonstrates my understanding in theoretical

foundations by showing my ability to design a lesson plan with all necessary

components.

The attached lesson plans demonstrate my ability to create a training program

with all the appropriate action items included: 1) implementation, 2) gaining attention, 3)

direction, 4) recall, 5) content, 6) application feedback levels, 7) evaluation, and 8)

closure (Babbie, 2004). One of the most important things I have found throughout my

career is to include a level of revisions to the programs as many lesson plans evolve

over time. In essence, “a lesson plan is a living document; it is constantly evolving,”

(Toney, 1991, p.15). After finishing my class work for my graduate degree, I now feel

there are other factors that I should have considered in my lesson plan, and those will be

detailed throughout this paper.

As a new Human Resources department, I looked at the Harkins training

program with a new pair of eyes, viewing the matter from a different paradigm than a

construction manager. Previously, all training focused on construction-specific skills,

with managerial and compliance training being woefully lacking from my perspective. I

chose to focus on harassment training as a jumping off place. Since I viewed

harassment training as compliance training, I wanted to be able to regulate the content

and ensure each employee received the correct information. In a business setting,

training plans are deemed effective on more than one level. While the lesson plan must

Training Plan 3

be solid, efforts must also be taken to control costs, and the subject matter must be

relevant.

To provide the training, I chose a plan centered around an online environment for

several factors, including the nature of Harkins Builders, my current employer. Offering

the class in an online model fit this requirement well as each employee received the

exact same training and there was no disparity of the message from one session to the

next. The majority of Harkins employees are located at various job sites throughout

Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Arranging for employees to come to corporate for

a training class is overly burdensome and expensive, not to mention reduces

productivity. “By implementing an online training program, facilities can provide more

training for staff, ensure consistency of content, realize time and money savings and fully

automate all training records,” (Gaver & Berge, 2010, p. 49). Online training also gives

freedom to employees to choose the most productive time to view the training. For

example, a rainy day for construction field employees is a great time for online training

as the weather limits their workplace activity choices. With regard to implementation, the

only equipment necessary is a computer with access to the company internet, products

and services that are standard throughout Harkins and which required minimal set-up.

Each jobsite trailer has a computer onsite, and most employees are given a personal

laptop as part of their company provided equipment. As such, I would not change how I

chose to hold this training, and would facilitate such trainings at Harkins in the future.

This type of online implementation also allowed a coordinated manner to gain the

attention of the attendees through a series of summaries of infamous sexual harassment

cases. Again, there is very little I may do differently in this regard other than to possibly

search out and/or incorporate a short training video or other media content as a part of

the presentation to help it seem more interactive.

Training Plan 4

Direction of this project is fine in my opinion and I would concur with my original

plan that a short series of slides, or perhaps even just one, would succinctly allow the

employees to understand the scope and purpose of the training. Likewise, I would

emphasize specific points of recall with similar slides and once again do not see the

need to revise the original plan.

Content development is an area where I would go back and evaluate the

effectiveness of my original plan. According to Gaver (2010), “When considering the

process of developing online training, organizations are challenged to continue thinking

in terms of expanding the learning experience” (p.49). Prior to this training, Harkins had

solely used classroom style training and the content of this presentation would need to

be engaging and fulfilling. I believe that information-wise, my original plan is sufficient in

terms of information; however, I would likely now seek out peers for input into training

resources and development tools, gathering feedback into particularly effective content

for their training sessions. For instance, have Power Point presentations gathered good

feedback and why or why not? Likewise, in regard to developing the training, I would

incorporate some review from current Harkins employees prior to company-wide

implementation, perhaps using several employees at corporate as a sort of focus group.

As a sidebar, I would also be sure to not provide all of the content in one continuous

session and “chunk” the information into several main topics to enable learning several

small, specific points, rather than one long lesson.

The biggest weakness in my original plan was in my assumption that input

regarding Application Feedback would be unavailable in an online setting. At this time, I

would go back and provide application feedback on three levels – the instructor-lead

portion, any peer to peer interactions, and any independent work. I feel that one way to

accomplish Level 1 feedback would be to allow the submissions of questions

Training Plan 5

anonymously that may be answered at a later time. With regard to Level 2, I would

envision incorporating small quizzes into each chunk of the training. In this manner,

knowledge can be reinforced along the way and users have an activity to perform to

keep them engaged throughout the training. Finally, in regard to Level 3 feedback,

incorporating some sort of a challenge into the training could be a way to engage

participants and turn the training program into a fun activity, rather than a chore. For

instance, I would institute a small reward program for the highest scorer on the collected

quizzes, with the goal of making this reward attainable for every employee that actively

participated in the training. I also believe that there should be a way for an incorrect

answer to become a correct answer through corrective phrasing in the training. The

user could therefore be directed to the right answer and the proper information

reinforced.

I feel that an evaluation is vital and I would provide this by way of a short

evaluation survey that was a requirement to completing the training. I do believe in

short, concise feedback surveys but also feel that a narrative box may allow for

additional suggestions to improve the overall course. I believe that content, the length of

the training, and the ability to engage the trainee should all be measurements.

Finally, my original closure section is adequate. I strongly believe in a last

reinforcement of ideas, particularly why the training happened. A sincere appreciation

should be expressed and I stand by my original plan that all participants should be free

to contact me for additional information. Online training gives me the ability to get

attendance through sign-on information, and the results of each employee’s quizzes can

be sent to me electronically to create documentation of compliance for every employee

personnel file.

Training Plan 6

With my graduate coursework behind me, it has become very clear to me that

each of the competencies learned in the Human Resources program feed off of one

another. When working within one competency, if one takes the time to consider the

ramifications in other areas, only then has one truly mastered the skills in that

competency. By taking what I learned in my Instructional System Design class, and then

expanding on that knowledge with lessons learned from other classes, I feel this

submission shows my accomplishment of Theoretical Foundations. I also believe the

environment an HR professional works in is constantly changing, and what we know

today will be drastically different than what we need to know tomorrow. According to

Driscoll (1998), “with the rate of technical change, online learning is likely to become an

essential competency of training pros in the not-so-distant future” (p.45).

Training Plan 7

References

Babbie, E. (2004). The Practice of Social Research (10th ed.). Belmont, CA:

Thomson Wadsworth.

Driscoll, M. (Nov 1998). How to pilot web-based training. Training & Development,

52(11), 44-46.

Gaver, J., & Berge, ZL (Jan 2010). The role subject matter plays in the decision to offer

online training. Distance Learning, 7(1), 49.

Toney, MR (June 1991). Lesson plans-strategies for learning. Training & Development,

45(6), 15.