Personal Development Plan

Personal Development Plan

The four types of development that I will advocate for my employer to provide or that I will pursue on my own are as follows:

Formal Education

Short courses offered by consultants, executives and universities. I plan to pursue the field of eLearning design more in depth. I plan to obtain a certificate in that area by taking formal classes.

Tuition Reimbursement

A benefit used to encourage employees to develop on their own. I will use this benefit to fund my eLearning classes.

Mentoring

An experienced senior employee who helps develops a less experienced employee. We have a couple of eLearning developers at our company that I am going to ask to assist me in gaining these skills.

Job Experiences

These are the relationships, problems, demands, tasks or other features an employee faces in their jobs. I plan to ask for tasks from my mentor that will give me firsthand experience with developing eLearning courses.

High-Tech Training

Blended Learning
Blended learning combines online learning, face-to-face (F2F) instruction and other methods for distributing learning content and instruction.  Blended learning courses provide learners with the positive features of both face to face instruction and technology-based methods such as online learning, distance learning or mobile technologies like tablet computers or iPhones.  It also minimizes the negative features of each.  Blended learning uses the classroom to allow learners to learn together and to discuss and share insights, which helps make the training more meaningful.  It has been found to be more effective than face to face instruction for motivating trainees to learn and for teaching declarative knowledge or information about ideas or topics.  The most significant issues with blended learning is the fast-changing technology, insufficient management support and commitment to blended learning and a lack of understanding of what blended learning really is and how to implement it. 
E-Learning (Web & Non Web)
E-learning programs can be divided into two categories.  The computer based that require no internet tools include video (DVD), cable/public television, satellite video conferencing, teleconferencing and whiteboard.  The computer based web tools include web browsers, chat rooms, Real Player http://www.real.com/,  QuickTime http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/,  Windows Media Player http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-media-player,  broadband video conferencing, WebCT-Blackboard http://www.webct.com/,  LearningSpace http://learningspacetoolkit.org/, Microsoft NetMeeting  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=23745.  These computer technologies encompass a wide range of technologies that include computer conferencing, email, group conferencing systems, groupware, and the Internet.   E-learning is expanding due to shrinking budgets and decreased interest in travel since Sept. 11, 2001.  Meetings and training sessions which depend on airplane flights, hotel reservations and time away from home are being replaced by e-learning. ‖
Distance Learning
Distance learning is used by geographically dispersed companies to provide information about new products, policies or procedures as well as deliver skills training and expert lectures to field locations.  Distance learning involves the use of the following capabilities: projection of still, animated and video images; instructor-participant audio discussion; sharing of computer software applications; interactions using instant polling technology; and whiteboard marking tools.  Distance learning features two way communications between people and involves two types of technology.  The first is teleconferencing which refers to synchronous exchange of audio, video and text between two of more individuals or groups at two or more locations.  The second is a virtual classroom which refers to using a computer and the internet to distribute instructor-led training to geographically dispersed employees.  The major disadvantage of distance learning is the lack of interaction between the trainer and the audience, technology failures and unprepared trainers.
Social Media
Social Media are online and mobile technology used to create interactive communications allowing the creation and exchange of user-generated content.  It includes blogs, wikis and networks such as Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn.  It also includes micro blogging sites such as Twitter, and shared media such as YouTube.  A blog refers to a webpage where an author posts entries and readers often can comment.  A blog is effective for training when the content is related to the learning objectives.  A wiki refers to a website that allows many users to create, edit and update content and share knowledge.  A micro blog refers to software tools such as Twitter that enable communications in short burst of text, links, and multimedia either through stand-alone applications or through online communities or social networks.  Shared media refers to audio or video such as YouTube that can be accessed and shared with others.  Social networking tools are being used to help employees learn informally and share knowledge both on an as needed basis and as part of formal training courses.
References
Noe, R. A. (2013). Employee training and development (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill
Singh, A. K. (2012). Technology in education and training. International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications, 2(6), 434-461

Planning for a Needs Assessment

Planning for a Needs Assessment
My current company, Varian Medical Systems, Inc. acquired Calypso Medical Technologies, Inc., a privately-owned, Seattle-based developer and supplier of specialized products and software for real-time tumor tracking and motion management during radiosurgery and radiotherapy.  The Calypso® System features GPS for the Body® technology and Beacon® electromagnetic transponders that together currently provide a solution to continuously and accurately track target location to improve precision of prostate cancer treatments.  The transponders are implanted into the prostate or prostatic bed and then tracked with the 4D localization and tracking system so that radiation beams can be precisely delivered to targeted tumors during radiotherapy and radiosurgery with medical linear accelerators. 
Organizational Analysis
The integration of this company brought about a whole set of unique challenges.  One of which is providing technical and operational based customer service to new and existing customers of the Calypso System.  Upper management deemed that Field service engineers would benefit from a formal training program that would provide a basic understanding of the system, its operation and daily service requirements.  I am involved in the task of designing a training program for our current field service engineers on the new technology.  I identified the stakeholders in this process as the following departments in our company: Field Service, Training, Sales, and Manufacturing.  Field Service is the primary stakeholder because they are responsible for responding to customer’s requests for technical service to their equipment.  Training is responsible ensuring that field service engineers have the necessary skill sets to respond to customer request.  Sales is responsible for selling the customer the proper service contract for their installation.  Manufacturing is responsible adequate numbers of parts are available to support the customer’s service needs.  Each of these interests are codependent because they are all required to work together in order to provide a seamless product to the customer. 
Person Analysis
The mid-level field service managers had already decided the criteria of who should be trained.  They provided us with the number of students needing to be trained and the time frame in which it needed to take place.  I assembled a focus group consisting of SME’s, project managers, training managers and instructors to begin laying out the foundation of the training course.
Task Analysis
Through job task analysis we determined the scope of the course.  We then developed the course learning objectives to include knowledge and performance testing criteria. 
Documents Reviewed
We reviewed sales orders to determine the number of units currently in the field along with sales forecasts to determine the upcoming demand.  We reviewed technical documents to better understand the complexity of the training tasks and to prioritize the various tasks.
References
Noe, R. A. (2013). Employee training and development (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill

The Truth About Training

Our companies’ main goal is financial success by that we want to maximize our shareholder’s wealth. Since making money is our primary goal, every business unit is under pressure to show how it contributes to the bottom line or else it faces spending cuts and even elimination. Learning through training and development is critical for winning in the marketplace. To contribute to the company’s success, training activities should help the company achieve its business goals. There are both direct and indirect links between training and business strategy and goals. Training that helps employees develop the skills needed to perform their jobs directly affects the business. Giving employees opportunities to learn and develop creates a positive work environment, which supports the business strategy by attracting talented employees, as well as motivating and retaining current employees.

 

Herbert Bigby

Analyzing Scope Creep

My company bought out a smaller technology company and absorbed all of their assets.  We planned to incorporate their technology into our main equipment suite.  I was assigned as the technical instructional designer on the project and tasked with building the training course for our service technicians.   The majority of the design work was already done because they already had a training course with training materials and supporting documentation.  We conducted a front-end analysis in order to decide if the established course would meet our training needs.  It was decided that it was adequate and would only need rebranding and interface descriptions.

I took the course material and technical documentation and began work.  As I reached 75% completion, I was informed that our technical documentation department had also taken their technical documentation and made major modifications and repackaged them into completely new manuals.  This meant I had to start all over to ensure that our new course followed the new manuals that were being provided to the service technicians.  The concepts remained the same but process and procedures were drastically changed.  It was very time consuming to go back and ensure thing were in the right order and were referring to the right page of the proper manual.  As I reached 90% completion, a software update was released.  All machines were not going to be required to be updated.  This meant I need to go back and include information on how the new software physically and functionally changed the machine.

Had the circumstances been different those two changes of scope could have been detrimental to the success of the project.  Because there was no hard deadline date set for completion, every time something came up more time was allowed for its inclusion.  The preexisting course material was used until I finished the new course with all of the changes.  If I were in charge and there was a hard deadline.  The software update information would have been left out of the formal course material.  The necessary information could have been provided to the students as a handout.

Communicating Effectively

Email

Jane provided Mark with a built in excuse for not getting her the necessary information to avoid putting him on the defensive.  She then went on to explain that despite whatever reason he could come up with, she still needed the information.  It was getting to the point where she was going to look bad based on his inadequacies.  She just wanted the data by any means necessary.

Voicemail

Jane did not use the nonverbal communication trait of voice fluctuation to stress the urgency to Mark.  It sounded like an FYI message.

Face-to-Face

In this scenario, we are not sure if this is the first time she has discussed this issue with Mark or not.  This would be fine for an initial conversation but not for a follow up and surely not for multiple attempts to get the data.

My interpretation of the message was strongest in the email because I applied the stress in my mind.  That is the problem with interpreting emails.  It is almost impossible to convey intent and tone and is the easiest modality for the message to get lost.

Based on Jane’s calm demeanor in the voicemail and the face-to-face meeting, I perceive that she is just giving him a heads-up about the approaching deadline and that it has not truly reached the time critical stage.

Face-to-Face best conveyed the true meaning and intent of the message because it included many nonverbal like body language, facial expression, tone and language that did not convey urgency.

The implications of miscommunication is that Mark could have dropped everything he was doing to get Jane the report immediately only to find out that is wasn’t as urgent as she made it seem.  She would have lost a lot of creditability with him after that.  The other option is she could have not placed the proper amount of urgency on the issue in order to be non-confrontational and they both miss the deadline and start finger pointing at each other.  Either way poor communication can have negative effects.

Welcome EDUC 6145

Hello Group 2,

I look forward to spending the next 8 weeks on line with each of you.