You are currently browsing the Training and Development weblog archives for the day 3. November 2007.
3. November 2007 by kevinmhuff.
When assessing the need of your training audience, you must do your research. And you must conduct that research using as many research techniques as possible. I will admit, in my own personal experience as a trainer, I have seen the results when the research is lacking or worse, non-existent.
I once was asked to provide system training on a system I knew very well, but the request was immediate with very short notice. An assumption was made by the requester that the system was the same for every user, but that was not the case at all. The training I provided ended up missing the mark completely. If I had been provided the time to survey the audience and conduct at least one interview I would have been able to adapt my training content and delivery to the needs of my audience.
As a trainer I find surveys and interviews, when combined, to be excellent research techniques. Once a survey has been created, it can be administered to a very large audience, especially if you distribute them online. The results can supply you with a large amount of useful data that can be referenced and applied very quickly during the training development process. I will also take survey responses, pull a sample of them, then conduct an interview of those same participants so I can get more insight into their survey response.
Speaking of interviews, those are my favorite and where I have the most fun. I feel this research technique provides the best interaction and often better results as a result (no pun intended).
Research requires thought, from choosing the correct research method to gathering and analyzing the data, but it’s very important you take the time to do it right!
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