About Training Content Crafting
In any given learning experience, learners should come out with some solid theoretical foundation: models, processes and practices allowing people to better understand themselves and the world. Learners should gain the ability to repeat on their own positive results from their insights and qualitatively improve of their work and/or life away from the training environment.
A trainer should look at the following questions to decide whether to deliver a session on a given topic:
— how do I feel about it?
— how much do I know?
— how experienced am I?
— how skilled am I?
When a reasonable threshold is met between these various aspects, the trainer can confidently set up a session.
Even for a very experiential subject, it is good to have some basic content attached to provide structure and allow duplication and independence; allowing participants to have elements they can refer to when repeating the experience on their own.
Here bellow are 5 steps one can follow when developing a training session’s content:
- Source of information
- Organize knowledge
- Select Tailored Content
- Transpose to Visuals
- Support Acquisition
Source of Information
Either it’s because one doesn’t know, wants to look for the freshest research, or to confirm what is already known, one of the first thing a trainer should do is to search for information. Looking at what is out there is great before focusing on specifics. Trainers are content curators, therefore it’s a good practice to dedicate time for it, even if it’s just a couple of hours (minutes?), even on a known topic.
The obvious place anyone should start look for information is the Internet; where most of human knowledge is collected today. We won’t stop here though. Know that this post won’t let you scout the vast network without sharing some specifics.
The rabbit hole starts with Google. Sorry to all other search engines, it’s just the current best repository for articles, posts, books, images, etc. As the saying goes: “Google knows EVERYTHING! If you don’t find the answer you seek, it’s because you asked the wrong question.” Our only recommendation is to favor selecting research-based materials. Scientific research uses methodologies that involve reliable and valid observations and measurements and have to meet rigorous standards of peer review. If your material is not, it’s not problematic, just avoid presenting it as gospel.
Youtube is a great place to look as well. You can find great videos explaining amazing concepts, models, showing exercises and/or presentations by authors and experts. For instance, many channels present summarized books (expl. FightMediocrity); you can also find a lot of concept in videos under 5 or 10 minutes one can use to discover new topics and/or rehearse delivery.
You should not overlook your local, or any, library or bookstore. Being physical or online, books are still a great repository for knowledge.
People… Yes, one of the most underused source of information is to actually reach out to fellow trainers, a community such as TrainersForum, a network you might join/be part of, and ask for guidance. The wider your network is, the better to find all kind of information.
Such searches provide quantity. Only you can sort the quality out of it.
A good practice here would be to keep track of interesting references that you find and may use later. Any editing tool can help.
Organize Knowledge
Hopefully, on previous step, you had the sense of saving references of what you found so far. Why? Because now is time to organize the pieces you found.
The objective here is to create an organised plan of the raw data collected. A mind map, sticky notes, or other organizing method can be handy here.
You are not yet selecting the pieces which will make the final cut. Just clustering the different elements into categories and see if there are connections your session topic(s) can make and which might be of relevance for your participants in their future work.
If done diligently, you create your own repository which would grow along your career. No one said that you should use the result of such extensive search only once.
Select Tailored Content
You scouted the topic and collected relevant elements. Now, you should select the specifics you will use on the upcoming session to support the learning objectives of your training program.
It is time to define the elements, the sequence, the structure, the connections and the illustrative examples you will present to #learners.
On a practical note, when preparing a session I tend to create a cheat sheet: it is a raw document collecting the session’s content (definition, models, processes, examples, etc) in one place. Trainers can use it during the session to be sure to accurately present all the key elements, hence no need to learn everything by heart.
Transpose to Visuals
Your selected and prepared the content. Now is the time to transpose it into visuals you will use during the learning program.
At this point, whatever dissemination method the trainer will use (video, slide show, flip chart, etc), s/he should package the information, ideally in context, in ways which will be the most accessible for learners.
At this point, if there is a guideline to follow: aim for maximum interaction.
Support Acquisition
What is left? Deliver the different learning materials in a logic, clear and interactive way.
Many educators cite the ability to effectively summarize key concepts from a lecture as key for long-term retention in learner’s memory. It also facilitates later retrieval of the pieces of information. Moreover, it is rare for an occupation to require individuals to record every single element of learning interactions.
One method to improve learners’ acquisition is providing handouts which eases note taking. Structured documents with main talking points will improve encoding. With better notes, learner will develop recalling of the learned material.
Moreover, we suggest trainer should deliver with a pace that allows enough breaks and down moments. It will allow learners to collect their own notes without rushing and more easily connect content items.
Many conference and large meetings offer a handout containing significant key messages from the speakers to the audience. Clearly, this is because there is a lot of information and it helps the attends keeping track of what the speakers are talking about, make notes within their talking points, and/or retain the handout for future reference. Why should a training be different?