Training material - posting by Gururaj BS on TWIN on 24th December 2003

Hi Sai,

When you prepare a training manual, you need to bear a couple of
important things in mind. Types of learning theories and models and an
appropriate training strategy.

If you don't interact with the audience, it becomes difficult to specify
a learning theory or model a certain theorist belongs to. A learning
model or theory is a mental picture that aids learning, but we will not
see learning. An effective training strategy depends on the learning
situation. As a writer, you must know how to structure
information/learning instructions in your training manual to facilitate
learning.

Of late, people are drifting towards interactive training materials that
decimate the need for a classroom kind of environment and a professional
trainer. Here are a few points to consider when devising a training
strategy.

* Knowledge - You need to set easily perceptible expectations when
identifying your audience. If they already have knowledge of a certain
topic, there is no point in ingeminating that concept.

* Comprehension - Analyze how the reader will try to comprehend the
topic. Devise your communication strategy based on his or her learning
situation and style.

* Synthesis - Describe a new concept in the deduced reasoning style. The
combination of smaller ideas into a whole/complex topic facilitates
learning.

Needless to say, include a lot of pictures and analogies to ensure the
quality of instruction. By the way, search for training manual templates
on the Internet; you will get a lot of them.

Cheers
Gururaj