Mapping the Program Flow

Learning Point

Participants are more likely to become involved if they are able to position their needs within the context of the seminar.

Overview

The material to be presented during the seminar is related to current knowledge and an expected outcome

Timing

One hour, early in the seminar.

Background

Information on a subject can be categorised as:

            Should Already Know - the expected level of prior knowledge of the seminar participants

            Need to Know - the purpose of the training session

            Nice to Know - associated information, but not directly related to the learning objectives for this program.

The training objectives should be distributed prior to the seminar and included in the participants materials for ongoing reference.

They should show

            Why the training is beneficial;

            Who will benefit - either by attending the course or because those present have attended; and

            What will be different after the subject matter is applied.

Training objectives generally don't cover How the program will be conducted.  There is a need to explain this to the participants early in the program

A program flow chart (see page ##) is useful for this purpose.

Procedure

1.         Use the exercise  What does GOOD look like?   (page ##) or a similar data gathering instrument to allow participants to identify the characteristics of successful and unsuccessful users of the subject matter.

2.         Summarise the characteristics into five or six main headings.

3.         List the summary of the good characteristics on the top right corner of a flip chart.  Describe this as where we want to be.  See example, page ## 11.

4.         List the summary of the poor characteristics on the bottom left corner of the page.  Describe this as where we have come from.

5.         Draw an arrow between the two.

6.         List the issues that will be covered during the program against the arrow.

7.         Ask participants to use the Application Plan, see page ## 12,  to prepare to apply their learning during the program back on the job.

8.         Refer to the flow chart as new information is introduced during the seminar.

9.         The figure above shows a flow chart for the program "A Structured Approach to Problem Solving", for which the exercises are included on page ##s 55 - 86.

Redo then INSERT DIAGRAM 11