How'd they do that: modified instructional system

Abstract

This paper explains how we modified our instructional system to improve technical training quality and how we trimmed down-training time. It explains how we accomplished all this with a relatively small staff and a limited budget. At the outset, our vision was to put in place a viable on-site technical training program and one that our faculty and staff would voluntarily choose to attend for their initial or refresher training. Our goal was to produce a sustainable, good and highly interactive technical training program. We knew that to accomplish what we wanted, we would have to use our own design and development capabilities to modify vendor supplied course materials. Unfortunately, most technical training courseware available through commercial agencies usually requires six to eight hours to instruct and is focused primarily on business training scenarios rather than universities like ours. This complicated our problem even more, because, if true, it meant we would need to, at least consider, modifying all courses we would get from vendors.Despite the challenges, we are realizing our vision and we met our goal. Our learners voluntarily attend our training and their feedback is replete with favorable comments about their learning experience. Our small staff perceived these challenges as an opportunity for us to succeed and succeed we did. We'll tell you the story of how we did it as we go along.