CHAPTER 6

How Do You Prepare for Your Delivery Role?

We are all trainers. We are all learners.

Sure you are a trainer; a facilitator of content. But when you are preparing to deliver your learning—whether face-to-face, online, one-on-one, in a video, or through some other method—you are a learner. The more you learn, the more you know about your client, the participants, the content, the expectations, the location, and even yourself, the better you will be when you switch to the role of trainer.

I’ve always felt that the creators of ADDIE forgot one of the most important steps—preparation. I think it should be ADDPIE.

 

 

Not ADDIE, but ADDPIE: Preparation

Few trainers put enough emphasis on the preparation required for a successful training program. When I first started as a trainer, I followed a 10:1 practice rule. That meant that for every hour in the classroom, it was necessary to practice the material for 10 hours. I refer to practicing the presentation only. This does not take into account room preparation, client preparation, participant preparation, or audiovisual preparation. Yep, that’s pretty old school. Today, trainers are lucky to have a ratio of 1:1—and it shows. They may not appear as comfortable with the content, may not have a clear perspective of what the organization requires, and may not be familiar with the participants’ competencies.

The Bob Pike Group believes that 80 percent of being a good trainer and getting participant involvement depends upon adequate preparation. In fact, the Pike 6 Ps remind us of the importance of preparation. The expression is, “Proper preparation and practice prevent poor performance” (Pluth 2016).

The best thing you can do for your participants is prepare for their success. If you do not need to worry about your delivery, you can focus on your participants, which is most important.

Training is like an iceberg. Most participants see the top 10 percent, what surfaces as a result of preparation: the error-free PowerPoint slides, the well-designed participant materials, a welcoming room set up, your professional facilitation skills, and your organized presentation. It all looks so easy! Consider that a compliment to your preparation. This chapter addresses the other 90 percent that’s below the surface, including:

• how to prepare the physical environment

• how to prepare a positive learning environment

• how to prepare your participants

• how to prepare your client

• how to prepare yourself.

Prepare the Physical Environment

Your participants walk into your training room 30 minutes before you start. What do they see? Extra chairs stacked up against one wall? Empty boxes in a corner? Blinds askew? IT staff scurrying around trying to get the projector to sync with your computer so you can display your PowerPoint slides? You searching through your briefcase looking for your remote? Materials stacked haphazardly on the tables? Put yourself in your participants’ shoes. How would that make you feel? Yes, there will always be those times when something goes wrong, but proper preparation helps you eliminate most of the problems.

There are two reasons to spend time preparing the environment:

• Participants will learn more, better, faster if the environment is conducive to learning. That means more than orderly; we’ll address that further.

• You will feel more confident in your ability if you are organized. You will be better able to meet your participants’ needs if you aren’t worrying about the room details.

Room Arrangements

Let’s begin with room set up. What’s the foundation to any training design? The learning objectives. What’s the foundation to how you set up your room? The learning objectives. The objectives will tell you:

• how much participation is required

• whether participants will have the best experience working in one team or working with many different people or a mixture of both

• whether a secondary goal of the session is to get the entire group to work more as a team (that is, as a department or functional group)

• if individual reflection is necessary.

Ideally you want to consider those four bullets, but the reality is that you may not have a choice when it comes to rooms, so you will have to make do with what you have.

Size

The room should be the appropriate size for the number of participants. Too small and everyone will be crammed in, which will make it difficult to conduct activities. And it is going to get really hot! Too large and it will be difficult to build a comfortable, welcoming environment—and do you hear that echo, echo, echo? Watch out for windows placed on a west wall without shades, which will wash out your projected images when the afternoon sun comes streaming in. If the learning objectives require small group work, make sure there’s enough room to form small groups that do not disturb others as they are working. If not, request a breakout room or two.

Location

The room should be in a place that is easy to find and easy to reach. This means both within the building and also by vehicle. Parking two blocks away and walking in the rain is not a good start to a day of training. Ensure that the room is easily accessible to everyone, including those with limited mobility.

Structure and Furniture

Sometimes the temporary walls in conference centers or hotels are paper thin. If there is a sales conference booked next to you, your participants may have a difficult time hearing. Check out what furniture is available. Do you want round tables, but can only get rectangular ones? You’ll probably need to make do. If you are in a hotel, there will probably be cloths on the tables. Do they “skirt” the tables? This is the extra fabric that is placed around the edge of the table that goes to the floor. Skirts are useful because they cover scratched-up table legs; however, if they get tangled up in your participants’ legs they become a distraction.

If your tables do not have table cloths, check them for cleanliness. I’ve scrubbed some pretty nasty looking tables in my career. How about the chairs? You’ll want to provide the most comfortable chairs possible. And by the way, that’s not the typical classroom stacking chair. The room arrangement should satisfy the needs of your agenda.

Electronics

Ensure that lighting is adequate. Is the light bright enough that your participants will not fall asleep in a dimly lit, romantic atmosphere? Are you using a PowerPoint presentation? Too many trainers dim the lights when they do not need to. The lumens of light in the projectors used today do not require the dimming of room lights. Keep your participants energized and enthused (and awake). Keep the lights on bright. Having said that, be sure that you know where the light switches are located. Check out the location of outlets and placement of the screen. Will you need to jump cords throughout the presentation? Even worse, if your participants are expected to present to the group—as they will in a Train the Trainer class—untaped cords can become a hazard.

Climate Control

A third of your participants will always be too hot, a third too cold, and a third just right. You won’t be able to please everyone, but if you have the ability to adjust the temperature yourself, you can try. When you are setting up the room the day before your session, experiment with the controls. Do they respond quickly? Does one degree make a big difference? Do you need to contact someone to help you? Remember, it is usually best to change thermostats one degree at a time. A room that was too cool can become too hot if you are not careful.

Walls

Do you have adequate wall space to hang flipchart pages? Sometimes walls are filled with windows and pictures, which leaves no space for hanging anything. I have removed artwork from the walls on more than one occasion. The most you will need to deal with is a nail that sticks through a flipchart.

Even if you have adequate wall space, they may not be usable. If they are covered with a felt-like fabric, it may be impossible to hang your flipcharts with masking tape. If they don’t fall down immediately, they will slowly drift down during a time when you are trying to make a critical learning point. Sometimes you can use pins on these walls. Some conference centers will not allow you to use tape on the walls, so for times like those I carry blue painter’s tape. It isn’t pretty, but it is guaranteed to leave the paint intact. Finally, make sure you are using markers that will absolutely not bleed through.

Equipment and Visuals

If anything is going to go wrong, it will probably be something related to your equipment or visuals. The projector isn’t compatible with your computer, the flipchart does not have paper, the DVD player is missing its electrical cord, the extension cord does not reach, your memory stick was damaged in transit. Whatever it maybe, it can prevent you from conducting the session that you had envisioned.

Although these suggestions do not ensure nothing will go wrong, following them will certainly increase the chances of success.

Conduct a Dry Run One Week Before

Set up the equipment, go through every PowerPoint slide, prepare your flipchart pages, and check out the visibility of the screen for everyone in the room. If you have anything tricky, such as an embedded video clip, sound bites, or animation, run through your presentation a few times. If you have never used a flipchart, practice flipping, ripping, and hanging techniques. (Have you ever spent a day staring at a flipchart page that has been hung crookedly?) If you have a new remote, try it out, especially the laser pointer. This is a good time to learn just how far you can stray from your computer while using it.

Set Up the Day Before

Probably your best hedge against something going wrong is to set up the day before. If something is missing or not compatible or was damaged in transit, you still have time to adjust. Focus all equipment and set the volume appropriately. Check the volume throughout the room—especially if you are relying on a laptop for sound, because they typically do not have the best sound system. Turn on everything to ensure it all works at the same time. Make sure the projector has the correct lens and it is clean. Check that the screen is large enough and mark the location of the projector with masking tape so that it is easy to reset if it is moved (for example, if it needs to be locked up or because someone cleaned the floors). Sit in the seats to ensure that everyone can see the screen, for example, to make sure your flipchart stand isn’t blocking anyone’s view of the screen. If you are using a computer, make sure you have the login ID and password to access it.

Have the Right Materials Available

I mentioned using markers that do not bleed through paper onto walls; water-based ones work best. Also, do not use dry erase markers on paper; they were meant to be used on whiteboards only. Dry erase markers dry out fast and do not allow you to write clearly.

Be Prepared for an Emergency

It’s important to have extra batteries for your remote, an extra bulb for the projector, and an extra extension cord for anything electrical. Also, learn a few troubleshooting tricks for the equipment you use most often. The next time a technician fixes something, ask what was done and why. Pack a roll of duct tape to fasten unruly electrical cords. Be sure that you have the name and contact number (cell phone is best) of the person who will assist you if you are not using your own equipment. And finally, have an alternative plan in case all else fails. All trainers can conduct a successful session without their PowerPoint presentations. You just need to be prepared and think through what you might do ahead of time.

So that takes care of the tangible things you can do to prepare a traditional classroom environment. How about the virtual classroom?

It’s Virtual: I Don’t Have a Room

A virtual training session requires just as much set up, so you should leave an equal amount of time for preparation. Of course you don’t have a room, but almost all of the advice for physical classroom trainers also pertains to virtual classroom trainers: Find out who’s in your session, practice, create your personal checklist, and stay organized during the session. There are a few things that are unique to your set up. You should:

• Meet with your producer.

• Test your audio.

• Write and post marketing content through your selected method.

• Ensure that the registration and enrollment are tracked.

• Distribute materials through email or a central repository.

• Communicate with participants to ensure that they know how to set up and test their computers, disable pop-ups, close their email, post an out-of-office message, and other steps that will allow them to focus on their professional development.

If your organization has a LMS, most of the preparation before the session will be automated, which saves you time. The drawback, however, is what training is built on—personalization and connecting with your learners. There may be times when you want to reach out to your learners, especially if some are new to the technology, if this is the first of several consecutive events, or if your audience is global.

Prepare a Positive Learning Environment

You must focus on your participants and ensure that the environment is positive. Create a learning environment of trust and respect. (Remember Malcolm Knowles’s adult learning principles?) Although the following items are an important part of your session, you should address them ahead of time for a couple of reasons:

• You need to be prepared to make the environment safe and comfortable without thinking about it.

• You need to be prepared so that you aren’t thinking about setting up the next activity or where you left the special handouts.

The better you prepare a positive learning environment (safe, comfortable, and reliable), the more participants will want to talk with you during the breaks. And the more they talk with you during breaks, the less time you have to prepare for the activities after the break. Therefore you need to be prepared.

Make the Environment Safe

Every participant will arrive with a different mindset. Your job is to make the environment safe for everyone. I try to set up the room the day before a training session, and arrive two hours prior to start time on the first day and at least one hour prior to start time for the rest of the program. This is by far the most important advice; part of your preparation is to plan how you can make the environment safe. You should:

• Be prepared early enough to greet participants at the door.

• Display a sign or a PowerPoint slide that tells participants they are in the right location and it is “safe” to enter the room.

• Learn participants’ names and ask them to tell you something about themselves.

• Share the objectives of the training early, so they know what to expect.

• Let participants know what’s in it for them.

• Use names and sincere reinforcement to build rapport.

• Learn techniques to get learners to open up.

• Create experiential learning activities in which the learners discover their own “ahas!”

Make the Environment Comfortable

Plan to arrive two hours early to welcome the learners. Arriving early is one way you demonstrate professionalism. Remember, the learner should be your focus. It is difficult to focus on your learners if you are not fully prepared physically and mentally for them.

In a traditional classroom you should:

• Turn the lights on bright. There is nothing more depressing than walking into a ballroom where the lights have been left on “romantic-dim” from the party the night before. I like to request a room with natural light. Even on a sunless day, natural light is more pleasant.

• Ensure that the environment looks comfortable. Hide empty boxes, make sure chairs are straight, and place materials neatly and uniformly at each seat. This order tells the learners that you care and went to the trouble of getting ready for them.

• Ensure that everyone has adequate personal space.

• Supply extra pens, paper, and other materials.

• Provide coffee, tea, and water in the morning and throughout the day.

In a virtual classroom, you should:

• Use a preclass communication to connect with your participants to assure them that you are there to help facilitate their learning.

• Confirm that participants received any handouts or other materials they need before the class.

• Help participants manage the environment in which they will attend the virtual session by suggesting that they close their doors, shut down their email, and remove other distractions. This can be included in your preclass communication.

• Do whatever it takes to put all learners at ease about participating in your virtual classroom.

Make the Environment Reliable and Trustworthy

Initiating ways to build trust with your participants makes the difference between simply attending training and absorbing knowledge. You should:

• Plan for small breakout groups to overcome early reluctance to share ideas or concerns.

• Think of how you will use body language to encourage participation—positive nods, smiles, and eye contact all show that you are interested in others’ ideas.

• Remember when I mentioned in chapter 3 that participants learn more when materials and learning are presented in a conversational first- or second-person tense (Moreno and Mayer 2000)? I think it also helps to build rapport with your participants.

• Plan to share something of yourself to begin a trusted exchange of ideas.

• Stimulate discussion among the learners.

• Show that you value their opinions and ideas.

• Pair individuals as sounding boards for each other.

Prepare Your Participants

Touch base with your participants before the session. This makes it easier to develop rapport, build trust, clarify the purpose of the training, and initiate the learning. Other than sending them a reading assignment—which a third will skim, a third will forget to do, and a third will claim they never received—what can you do? The following ideas will prepare participants for the topic and help them accept you as a credible resource:

• Email the objectives of the session. Provide a phone number or email address and encourage them to contact you with any questions. Better yet, send a letter or a welcome card that includes the same information.

• Ask participants to complete an action, for example, interview a few leaders with questions you’ve sent, survey colleagues, or ask co-workers for feedback. For a train-the-trainer session, you could provide three questions to ask current trainers in their work area. Or you could ask them to bring a design project they are currently working on.

• Send a self-assessment ahead of time and ask participants to complete it before attending the session.

• Mail an agenda and attach a handwritten note telling participants how they can reach you. State that you welcome any questions they may have.

• Send a cartoon, puzzle, brain teaser, or thought-provoking question that is pertinent to the session and arouses their curiosity.

• Meet their “safety needs” by sending the logistics of the session, such as the location of the site, room number, telephone number for emergencies, plans for lunch, email access, available parking, available public transportation, a roster of fellow participants, and other pertinent material that will help them feel comfortable and prepared about attending the session.

• Speak with the participants’ managers or supervisors to determine what they want the participants to be able to do when they return to the workplace. Encourage them to speak with their employees prior to the session. You may also wish to include discussion notes for the supervisor to address with the participant.

• Invite participants to send you any pertinent questions or topics they would like you to cover during the session.

• Get participants involved early in adjusting the agenda by sending them a brief questionnaire that focuses on their unique needs.

• Conduct a mini needs assessment on SurveyMonkey.com or Zoomerang.com. Share the results with participants before the session or early in the session.

• Call participants, introduce yourself, and inform them of the objectives and purpose of the course. Ask if they have anything specific they would like you to address during the session.

• Consider assigning reading ahead of time, even though some participants may choose not to read the assignment.

Prepare Your Client

Your focus is on the participants, and they will benefit most if there is clear communication among you, the participants, and the client (customer or manager). These ideas set the stage to ensure a transfer of learning occurs:

• Contact your client prior to finalizing the training plans and ask for issues or concerns that your client hopes to resolve with the training. What performance improvement does the client expect? You may be able to use these ideas to personalize the training or to address special issues. Often the information is just what you need to develop a new role-play situation or critical incident.

• Meet with your client to review the materials. Sometimes the participants’ managers may not agree with a new concept or may not understand it. It’s better to discuss this before you conduct the training.

• Discuss with your client his role in supporting and reinforcing the training.

• Ensure that supervisors are verbally supportive. One negative comment by a team leader can damage what’s been learned during the training session (Smith-Jentsch, Salas, and Brannick 2001).

• Offer to coach your client after the training session is over.

• Before the training session, provide a template of a pretraining agreement on which the client and the participant can spell out exactly what the participant is to learn during the session and implement upon returning.

• Invite your client to kick off the session, thereby sharing ideas for her vision for the session.

Prepare Yourself

The better prepared you are, the more smoothly your session will go and you should encounter fewer problems. Even if something does go wrong, your preparation will pay off because you will be better able to address it. You need to know more than your participants regarding the subject because you won’t know what questions they will ask. You also need to be flexible because your participants will lead their own learning—not you. Here’s a general process I follow when I prepare to conduct a training session.

My preparation begins the day I find out I am conducting a training session. At that time I add it to my calendar, open a file, and pull the materials (if I have presented a similar session in the past) or begin collecting books or articles I might use as a resource (if it is a new session). I find out if I can observe the class being conducted and make the necessary arrangements if that’s possible. I also ask if there is a subject matter expert I need to talk to or any background reading that would be helpful.

You will likely have three elements of materials to review: the participant handouts, the facilitator’s guide, and the PowerPoint slides or other media. If the participant handouts have been created and finalized, I read all of them and think about what I read. Then I take a break from it and in a week or so scan the participants’ handouts again. This is the spacing that I mentioned in chapters 2 and 3.

Next, I place the handouts beside the facilitator guide and the PowerPoint slides as I read it. If the PowerPoint slides are professionally done, they should not be filled with information, so they will not be very detailed. However, they will help you organize your thoughts; you can organize your presentation later.

Thus far I’ve been concerned with the details, but now it is time to look at the course from the big picture perspective. I look at the agenda if it has been provided and then print a copy and fill in the actual times that my session will take place. Next, I print a final copy of the schedule on brightly colored paper (I prefer bright yellow) so that I can always find it on my training table. This task gives me a better idea of the general topics I will complete in chunks, which was also covered in chapters 2 and 3.

Finally, I make a copy of my handouts, add my notes, and begin practicing with the PowerPoint slides.

General Preparation to Ensure a Smooth Session

Here’s a quick checklist of what I do to prepare for the logistics prior to every training session:

Review the training session thoroughly and list all the logistical details that need to be addressed. Create a checklist of these details and begin to address the items at least a week before the session.

Create a packing list of all the things you need to take to the training session, such as markers, index cards, prizes, and tape.

Complete all participant material and visuals early enough so that they can be proofed by someone else and corrections can be made. I suggest that you three-hole punch all materials and put them in a binder. You may also need to print evaluations and certificates, and you may need to locate resources (articles or books).

Learn who will be attending your session to help you customize and plan the focus of your training. You might be able to learn their position, their understanding of the subject, the reasons they are attending, their opinions, any baggage they may bring with them, or negative concerns they may have about the content.

Check on your room about a week before your session. Rooms have a way of rescheduling themselves or double booking with other groups if you do not give them enough attention.

Provide a detailed drawing of how you want the room to be set up. Don’t assume, however, that it will be correct. I change my room setup more often than not. It seems that if you ask for a room to be set up for 20, facilities people tend to err on the side of caution and set it up for 25. You do not want extra spaces set up, even though this is the practice at most convention centers and training rooms. Empty chairs make it appear that there were participants who did not show up.

Begin to make contact with those in charge of the logistics at least a week before to confirm that they have your requests on record. Contact them again the day before reminding them that you intend to arrive either two hours before the session begins, or the night before to go over final logistics. Remind them that you will want your AV equipment set up so that you can try it out. Get the name and phone number of the contact person who will be available to let you in the room, as well as a contact for the AV equipment.

Set the room up the day (or evening) before the session; this is part of my preparation. Oftentimes people offer to help, but I prefer to do it myself. This process helps me feel prepared: I know where things are, and I know if I have forgotten something. It is a great way for me to give the room my personal touch and to take ownership of the space and be ready to welcome my guests the next day.

Arrive one to two hours before the session begins to set up materials, finish last-minute details, tidy the room, rearrange furniture, set up and test equipment, and anything else that may arise. After you do this, you will be free to greet your participants as they arrive.

Due to the possibility of last-minute crises or participants who arrive early, be sure you are fully prepared and rehearsed and your materials are in ready-to-go order.

No amount of preparation will avert all the problems, but the better prepared you are, the better you will be able to address them.

Tips for Practicing Your Delivery

Practice makes perfect—or so my grandmother would say. As a trainer you have lots of things to practice. You can start with these:

• Practice setting up and debriefing the activities with colleagues.

• Practice the mechanics, especially if you need to use two kinds of audiovisuals at the same time.

• Practice the theatrics if you tell a story with a punch line that needs certain pauses or inflection. Tell your story to colleagues or your significant other to get feedback.

• Practice aloud to ensure you have no enunciation problems.

• Practice in the room where you will conduct the training so that you feel comfortable—so comfortable that it becomes your room.

• Anticipate questions participants may ask, as well as your responses to them.

• Practice the questions you will ask participants.

• Practice in several different ways:

o in front of a mirror

o with your colleagues

o with your family, friends—even your dog (who will make great eye contact!)

o in front of a video camera or your smartphone.

Practice and preparation can make your training session all that you had hoped it would be. It will help you focus on your participants. It will ensure that you look professional.

 

 

It’s About Time

A few organizations provide guidelines for their employees about the amount of time trainers should spend to prepare for a workshop. For example, the IRS has regulations stating that instructors must spend two to four hours of preparation per hour of training. The University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard Business School Press both recommend two to four hours. I spoke with two vendors who stated that their standard when learning a new course was at least five days of preparation for every day of instruction.

In 1985 Dugan Laird, a pioneer in the learning and development field and member of the HRD Hall of Fame, listed these instructor preparation times based on U.S. Civil Service estimates:

• Course is five days or less: three hours of preparation for each hour of training.

• Course is between five and 10 days: 2.5 hours of preparation for each hour of training.

• Course is more than 10 days: two hours of preparation for each hour of training.

I can tell you exactly how much time it takes me to develop, design, prepare, and practice for every one-hour webinar I’ve completed during the past year. I knew it took me a long time. In fact it was surprising, but each one required an investment of time from 70 to 100 hours. It certainly makes me rethink the profitability of webinars!

What We Know for Sure

Science tells us that we can rely on several proven facts:

• Preparation is important for success.

• Preparation is not just about the content, but also about preparing the environment, the participant, the client, and yourself.

• Preparation takes longer than you would think.

• Negative comments from supervisors can damage what’s been learned during the training session.

• Preparation is valuable for both in-person and virtual training, although there are different tasks for each.

The Art Part

Your success will depend upon how well you adapt to the situation and your learners’ needs. Tap into some of these ideas to help your learners grow, to develop yourself, and to add your personal creative touch.

Find the time. Chances are you will not have as much time to prepare as you would like. Find ways to squeeze it in whenever you can. For example, you might be able to record some of the information you need to learn and listen to it on the way to work. You could maintain a list throughout the day of the questions you think participants might ask you.

Create a checklist. You will never have enough time for preparation. That’s the reality. One thing that will save you physical time as well as worry time is a preparation checklist. Create your own and include everything you know that you need to remember. It could have categories such as “what to pack,” “AV check,” or “room arrangement.” Then under each heading add what you know you’ll need. The “what to pack” list could include such things as DVDs, markers, tape, a remote control, and extra batteries. I have developed my list over the years—often because I’d forgotten something!

Pick a preparation practice. Select one of the ways from the list to prepare your participants. Do it before your next training session.

Be mindful. Practice mindfulness techniques when you begin to feel frustrated.

Art and Science Questions You Might Ask

These questions provide potential challenges for your personal growth and development:

• What can you do to build a strong, trusting, and positive dynamic with the participants?

• Which practice techniques will work best for you?

• What’s your plan to build collaborative and supportive relationships among participants?

• Have you designed good questions that will encourage meaningful discussion among participants?

• What’s unique about your organization that you should consider when you prepare participants?

• What’s unique about your organization that you should consider when you prepare clients?

• What’s the best way to discuss preparation and practice time with your manager?

• What creative ways can you find to practice?

• How can you and your colleagues practice collaboratively?

• What did you learn about being a learner while preparing?

• How are you going to find time to prepare and practice?

How Do You Prepare for Your Delivery Role?

Do you get nervous before conducting a training session? Preparing for your delivery role will lessen the irrational thoughts and make those butterflies in your stomach fly in formation. Practicing and being prepared help to ensure that you are ready for anything.

Remember, preparation isn’t for you; it’s for your learners. This chapter has given you ideas to prepare your learners, your client, your environment, and yourself. We are all busy—too busy. Implementing what you can will be valuable. You are a learner as you practice. You are a trainer once delivery starts. Preparation leads the way to excellence.

Resources

Biech, E. 2014. ASTD Handbook: The Definitive Reference for Training and Development. 2nd ed. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press.

———. 2015. Training and Development for Dummies. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Campos, J. 2014. “The Learner-Centered Classroom.” TD at Work. Alexandria, VA: ATD Press.

Chapman, B. 2006. PowerPoint to E-Learning Development Tools: Comparative Analysis of 20 Leading Systems. Sunnyvale, CA: Brandon Hall Research.

———. 2010. How Long Does It Take to Create Learning? Chapman Alliance, September. www.chapmanalliance.com/howlong/.

Clark, R. 2015. Evidence-Based Training Methods: A Guide for Training Professionals. 2nd ed. Alexandria, VA: ATD Press.

Duarte, N. 2010. Resonate: Present Visual Stories That Transform Audiences. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

eLearning Guild. 2002. “The e-Learning Development Time Ratio Survey.” The eLearning Development www.elearningguild.com/pdf/1/time%20to%20develop%20Survey.pdf.

Huggett, C. 2010. Virtual Training Basics. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press.

———. 2013. The Virtual Training Guidebook: How to Design, Deliver, and Implement Live Online Learning. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press.

Laird, D. 1985. Approaches to Training and Development. 2nd ed. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Moreno, R., and R.E. Mayer. 2000. “Engaging Students in Active Learning: The Case for Personalized Multimedia Messages.” Journal of Educational Psychology 93:724-733.

Pluth, B. 2016. Creative Training: A Train-the-Trainer Field Guide. Eden Prairie, MN: Creative Training Productions.

Salas, E., S. Tannenbaum, K. Kraiger, and K. Smith-Jentsch. 2012. “The Science of Training and Development in Organizations: What Matters in Practice.” Psychological Science in the Public Interest 13(2): 74-101.

Smith-Jentsch, K.A., E. Salas, and M.T. Brannick. 2001. “To Transfer or Not to Transfer? Investigating the Combined Effects of Trainee Characteristics, Team Leader Support, and Team Climate.” Journal of Applied Psychology 86:279-292.