Name: Peter Peterson, et. alInstitution: University of California, Davis
E-mail Address: plpeterson@ucdavis.edu
Format: Paper presentation
Suggested Audience: Training managers, training professionals, information technology managers, human resources professionals.
Presentation Outcome:
1. Understand how self-paced training materials can be used to supplement traditional classroom instruction.
2. Understand how to implement a self-paced learning lab.
3. Understand how to negotiate with vendors and get the most for your money.
Presentation Content:
University training departments are faced with the challenge of delivering quality technology training options to meet the diverse needs of the staff, faculty and students. Computer technology has become integrated into many campus departments, course curricula, and scholarly research. This integration mandates that technical training be made readily available to the entire campus community. Traditional hands-on classroom training is the preferred and, arguably, the most effective training methodology for technology training, but personnel time constraints, budgetary issues and limited training resources do not allow everyone equal access to this training. An excellent alternative to traditional hands-on training is self-paced tutorials.
The University of California, Davis has an excellent staff development program with a large array of technology training courses offered throughout the year. This training covers beginning through advanced operating systems, word processors, spreadsheets, databases, desktop publishing, the Internet, and campus administrative applications. However, this program is limited, with few exceptions, to the UC Davis staff only. An alternate series of classes has been developed for faculty and students covering essential topics such as electronic mail, browsing the Internet and creating web pages. This series is very popular and well attended, but is limited when compared to the breadth of the staff offerings. With the exception of this series, there are very few training options available for faculty and students. In addition, staff members who can not attend traditional classroom training have no training resources available to them. In an attempt to address the training needs of these individuals, the UC Davis Information Technology Training group researched, designed and implemented the ÒInformation Technology Self-Paced Learning Lab.Ó
Outline
- Why Self-Paced?
- The Potential of Self-Paced Learning
- Options, options, options
- Supplementing Traditional Hands-on Training
- Promoting Self-Reliance
- How to Get Started
- Identifying client needs
- Evaluating quality, thoroughness and ease of use
- Choosing the most effective delivery medium
- Negotiating with Vendors
- Leasing versus purchasing
- Discounts and special deals
- Flexibility
- Implementation
- Evaluation
- Conclusion
- Appendix
- Bibliography