Not so easy as pie
Don’t you just love it when things just work out; for example, when you can say, it’s as ‘easy as pie?’ But even baking a pie takes some effort. In retrospect, the Sakai Conversion process seemed to work well. At least the conversion, training and preparation part of the process seemed to go smoothly. I firmly believe that much of this success wasn’t due to perfect planning but to two things: we had a very clear idea of what we wanted our Perfect LMS to do (requirements) and we were extremely flexible when it came to ‘bumps’ along the way.
The development of our training program started very early on during the Usability Testing phase. It was during the usability testing that we clearly defined our users and user tasks and determined the problem areas (tasks) that required training.
Still, providing perfect or even adequate training doesn’t mean providing students with just handouts or well-written documentation and instructions. It requires a bit of attention to user/learner needs and perceptions.
As I mentioned before we lifted the blueprint for our training tutorials and our practice course from our Usability Testing lists and results. However, we designed our training process with a number of other key conditions in mind:
- We had a deadline of roughly by the end of the year
- Our training audience (students) was virtual. There would be no face to face training
- We were dealing with a huge change in system and challenging people’s comfort levels; therefore, change management would be a major issue
Meeting our deadline and meeting our needs
Our deadline for implementing Sakai was beginning of the year 2009. By the middle of 2008 we had our work cut out for us. our Sakai vendor offered a two hour ‘walk-through,’ but we realized that that wouldn’t be enough training to thoroughly prepare our staff for a smooth transition.
As we worked in partnership with the Sakai vendor team to configure our new LMS, we designed our training plan. Students would receive a packaged, self-directed training including tutorials at the beginning of every course. They would also receive guidance from our instructors. Therefore, developing a quality facilitator training was high on our priority list.
As our facilitators are located all over the country, we knew that our training needed to be blended-virtual training. This meant we would provide the following:
- Introduction to the system and live guidance
- Hands on tutorials
- Practice sessions in a live environment for instructors that specifically targeted needed instructor tasks and skills
Since we had the task lists from the usability testing and feedback from our pilot courses we began with the task lists and developed training simulations from them once the new system was configured. We shot each simulation in Captivate, and packaged them by user role (Facilitator & Student). Also, we developed careful documentation of each task and step to be part of the Facilitator & Student Guides.
Our vendor provides a basic introductory training so we decided to use this training and supplement it with the tutorials and an opportunity to practice. Students would have access to the tutorials before and after the rSmart training. Later they would practice their training tasks in a live environment or sample Sakai course, with other instructors. We developed nine duplicate practice course environments or ‘playgrounds’ for our instructors limiting participants to ten people a course. In next week’s post April will discuss how our training went.
Change isn’t easy
Changing user interfaces or the software and tools you work with can be analogous to working in a toy factory that creates wooden toy cars and suddenly switching tools and materials to make die cast ones. Change management can be far more challenging than developing and implementing training because as a change manager, you handle emotional responses to change such as fear and repulsion due to uncertainty. You have to find a way to ease people’s fears but still get them to move forward and adopt the change.
A challenging path offers rewards
Our change management strategy really began when we were searching for our ‘Perfect System.’ In reviewing and selecting our tools, usability was one of our first priorities. Arguably, if the system is somewhat familiar and fairly easy to figure out, the battle for user adoption of the system change is half-way won. In addition, a usable and intuitive system reduces the need for intensive training.
We structured our initial training program so that people had a chance to both introduce themselves to the new system, practice in guided tutorials, and the practice their new skills in a safe environment. We also will continue to support facilitators by providing them with a virtual Facilitator Zone, where they can learn collaboratively by communicating their learning and asking questions of each other. Facilitators can also rely upon the guidance of their course mentors.
Finally, we wanted our facilitators to have the luxury of time. They needed time to both learn & acclimate to the system. At the same time, they needed many opportunities to practice and be successful in using the system.
Handling change is like traversing a rocky mountain path, but once at the top you can reap the rewards for your efforts.
