6
Targeting the Content
What’s Inside This Chapter
This chapter identifies the creation of SMART learning objectives as the first step to gathering appropriate course content, then discusses:
• the importance of using SMART learning objectives
• how to prioritize technical content
• strategies for choosing a learning technology.
Two worksheets to help you write and prioritize SMART learning objectives close the chapter.
6
Targeting the Content
Identify SMART Learning Objectives
At its core, determining what your training content entails begins with identifying learning objectives. These learning objectives are based upon the information you found from your needs analysis and should pinpoint the specific knowledge, skills, tasks, and attitudes that you need from your target audience. This becomes the basis for narrowing down and translating the truly relevant training-related findings from your analysis to learning objectives. Writing SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound) learning objectives will help you identify appropriately related content as well as choose a training technology.
Noted
A key part of writing SMART objectives is keeping their scope to things that can realistically be accomplished. Do not use the word “understand” in a formal SMART objective, as this can mean different things to different people. For example, Steve may think that if Emily “understands” the software, she can run a report and troubleshoot. Jeremy, on the other hand, may think that if Emily can “understand” the software, that just means that she knows the name of the software and its basic purpose. With technical training, the implications of this can be outright dangerous, especially when dealing with high-risk situations. Managers may mistakenly think that because an employee completed one training class with vague objectives that the employee is more equipped to handle a situation than they really are.
Prioritizing Content
Once you have your really good SMART objectives, you can start to make choices about the technical content you need for your training solution, whether it be content for a small microlearning video or a three-week, instructor-led course.
Use the Learning Priority Planner tool to help determine what content should be removed, included, or emphasized in a training course (Table 6-1). To use the tool, first identify your SMART objectives. After you have those objectives, think about the topic, skills, or tasks your target audience needs in order to meet those objectives. List all the topics in the first column on the left. Then take each topic through an analysis. How important is this topic, skill, or task? If it’s very important, give it a 10, if it is not very important, give it a one. Then think about how easy the topic, skill, or task is to learn. If it is likely to be difficult for the target audience to learn, give it a 10; if it is easy, give it a one. Finally, determine how often the target audience will use this topic, skill, or task immediately upon finishing the training. If it is right away, give it a 10; if it is way off in the future, give it a one.
You will start to see different priorities show up in your results. If something has a high score, that can tell you that that topic, skill or task is probably quite important and should be reinforced with activities and referenced multiple times throughout the curriculum. If something has a low score, this would be the first place to look to prune if there is too much information in your training course. The numbers on the chart are not prescriptive—that is, a score of give does not absolutely mean that you need to remove the item, just as a score of 25 does not absolutely mean you need to have a time-consuming activity covering this in the course. Rather, these numbers can provide you with data to make decisions about your content.
Table 6-1. Learning Priority Planner
Think About This
Here are some tips and additional perspectives on the using the tool:
• Ask your SME to complete the Priority Planner on their own, or complete it together.
• When doing this analysis, think from the perspective of your target audience. If you are too much of an expert to remember what it was like to have a lower level of knowledge on a topic, find a member of your target audience to help you understand where they’re coming from!
• As a general rule, it is a good idea to run this information by someone else to make sure that you are thinking along similar lines. If you have a total score of three and someone else has a 29, this could be an issue.
• If you have multiple target audiences, it is recommended that you complete this analysis separately for each one of your target audiences. That way you can see exactly where there are differences and similarities. Again, this tool aids you in making decisions. It does not make the decisions for you.
• When you are using this tool, if you are a subject matter expert, you may find that the totals turn out about as you expected. Imagine, for example, that Lauren is a technical expert developing a class. Lauren knows intuitively that there is too much content in her class. But instead of just saying to her stakeholders, “Hi stakeholders, there is too much content in my class; I just know there is, because I’m an expert and my gut tells me this,” Lauren can say, “Hi stakeholders. There is too much content in my class. Here is what should be removed. Here is what should be emphasized. And here is my analysis and rationale that explains why.” Lauren now has numbers and an analysis to back up her gut feelings. And these numbers and analysis are much more convincing to stakeholders.
• This chart represents a baseline. Additional columns can be added as required, based upon your situation and specific organizational requirements.
Learning Strategy Analysis
As a second part of the analysis, you will be making some characterizations about the nature of your topics that will help you determine the best method of instruction. Think about whether covering this topic, skill, or task requires face-to-face peer interaction, immediate instructor feedback, or hands-on practice. This will point you toward different learning solutions. For example, if you do an analysis on the content and find that multiple hands-on demonstrations as well as peer interaction and immediate and comprehensive feedback from instructors are required, you probably are going to lean more toward a physical classroom, rather than a webinar or virtual classroom (Table 6-2).
Basic Rule 10
Prioritizing content helps to determine:
• “need-to-have” versus “nice-to-have” topics
• the best method of instruction.
Table 6-2. Conducting a Learning Strategy Analysis
Choosing a Learning Technology Strategy
Once you have completed your analysis, you can make choices about the appropriate training technology solution for your project. There are different learning technologies related to:
• informal learning
• on-the-job training
• mobile learning
• e-learning
• virtual instructor-led training (VILT)
• instructor-led training (ILT)
• simulation
• virtual reality
• augmented reality.
When choosing a learning technology, remember one of our best practices for effective technical training: Use technology when and where it is best suited.
Use Technology When and Where Best Suited
Training practitioners should let the instructional design determine the method of performance solution, not the other way around. Additionally, it is easy for organizations to get lost in the bling of technology, sometimes using extravagant means when something simple would do just as well. Here are some examples of when you might use different learning technologies (Table 6-3).
Table 6-3. How You Can Use Learning Technologies
Learning Technology |
Example |
E-learning |
Learning requires repetition and feedback. Large learner population. Learning needs to be tracked. |
On-the-job training |
Skills can only be attained over time with experience in the workplace. |
mLearning |
Learning done on mobile phone. Similar to job aid. Just-in-time learning. |
Virtual instructor-led training (VILT) |
Some instructor and peer interactions are necessary; hands-on experiences not required. |
Simulation/virtual reality/augmented reality |
Performance can only be practiced in a virtual environment because of risks, safety concerns, or challenging logistics. |
Instructor-led training (ILT) |
Learners will benefit from face-to-face interaction with other students or instructor. Heavy, scarce tools, etc. are required. |
Informal learning/self-study |
Experienced directly in everyday life. Sometimes simple, stable subject matter that can be learned by oneself. |
Job aid |
Lengthy procedure with critical steps that must occur in the same order with little exception. |
Getting It Done
SMART objectives are the first step to having effective learning content (use Worksheet 6-1 to help write them down). After identifying your SMART learning objectives, you should think about what topics, skills, or tasks your target audience needs in order to meet those objectives. You should then take these topics, skills, and tasks through an analysis (Worksheet 6-2) of how important they are; how easy each is to learn; and how often that topic, skill, or task will be used. You can use the results to help determine which content should be removed from the class and which content should stay and even be emphasized and reviewed. Additionally, analyzing content also helps you to determine the best method of instruction.
Worksheet 6-1. Writing SMART Objectives
Use the following worksheet to help you write SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound) course objectives. It uses Robert Mager’s three performance-based components as a guide.
1. PERFORMANCE: What should the learner be able to do?
2. CRITERIA: To what performance level?
3. CONDITIONS: Under what conditions?
Example:
Based upon particular job parameters as well as the Standards listed in 12.04, create a PXD report that meets all five customer requirements.
Objective #1:
Objective #2:
Objective #3:
Worksheet 6-2. Priority and Learning Strategy Planner
Use this worksheet to analyze content related to your identified SMART objectives. Thinking about your SMART objectives, list the content or task that need to covered in order to meet those objectives on the left side. Then take each piece of content through an analysis. Use the different totals to help you determine priorities within your learning solution. Then continue on to answer questions about each topic, skill, or task identified in order to choose an appropriate learning strategy.
