Learning and Development - Workshop Critique - Coursework Example

Learning and Development - Workshop Critique Introduction This paper aims at integrating theoretical skills of workshop design and implementation with the practical skills acquired during the group assignment. As such, it consolidates the group learning through a documentation of the assessed Learning Group Workshop, doing so within a sound theoretical framework availed by the available literature on workshop design and implementation. The paper begins with a description of the rationale that inspired and guided the assessed workshop design. The theories that the group relied upon to facilitate an effective workshop training experience are elaborated in this section. More important, the objectives that led to the selection of the design are elaborated. The section that follows is an evaluation of how the design was implemented and its successes and or failures. This is done by considering achievement of objectives and delivery effectiveness on the design. Most of this section details how the facilitators went about during the brief training session and the effect they achieved as determined by the active feedback of the participants. An important part of this section is the evaluation of the design used and what the literature recommends so as to objectively determining how effectively the workshop was designed and implemented. Thereafter, the third section of the paper reflects on the workshop design used, its implementation and the feedback obtained. Literature recommendations are referred to help conceptualize some improvements that if incorporated in the group workshop, could make it better and more effective. In essence therefore, this section offers suggestions using a revised, more informed session plan that would work better than the one used for the assessed workshop. Finally, the paper terminates with a conclusion in which the major lessons accumulated in the theoretical and practical venture of workshop design and implementation are discussed in brief. This sections helps qualify the experience as a moment of learning for the practitioners, thus providing informed generalisations on effective workshop design and implementation not just for student-based projects but also for organisations at large. The Workshop Design The group settled on a workshop design that incorporated visual aids, participant interaction with the facilitators and the active participation of the learners in the implementation process. To begin with, the group placed importance on choosing the training topic. The guiding maxim was that the workshop would help solve an existing and practical need among the participants. After research, the group settled on Resume Writing as a big problem among most students and thus decided to facilitate a learning workshop for Resume Writing. The group composed Training Need Assessment (TNA) criteria two weeks before the training program, where 10 multiple questions were used to survey a number of students on what they did not know about Resume Writing. This helped the group to appreciate what the training should address. To facilitate visual learning, the group employed a PowerPoint presentation prepared beforehand, to illustrate concepts and show interrelation of phenomena in Resume Writing. The group had three trainers who would all be active in facilitating the workshop, each one handling a specific area of training. During the actual training, the facilitators divided the 14 participants into three groups of 4-5 persons so as to create manageable training units. The first trainer introduced the topic and the objectives of the program. The trainer then embarked on teaching the learners how one can translate skills and duties of a work station into resume entries using examples such as, “ If you have been studying for your degree in the University while simultaneously holding a demanding job, this can be entered on the resume as a strength of time management”. To solicit for learner participation, the trainer asked ten questions on how to translate skills and responsibilities at work into resume entries. The student who got the first correct answer was reinforced and appreciated with a chocolate. All these question and their correct answers were also viewable in consecutive order, from the PowerPoint presentation. The second trainer took the floor with the objective of helping the learners determine for themselves and with trainer’s guidance, the correct resume formats and designs. The trainer used two resumes designed in response to a job advertisement. Each group of participants read the advertisement and decided which among the two resumes was the most desirable and or appropriate. Before asking for the groups to answer, the trainer went through a list of important factors that should be considered when formatting and designing a resume. As such, the trainers asked the participants to act as recruiters and pick which among the two resumes was appropriately formatted and designed. Having taught the basics of resume writing, it was important to assimilate the observations made into practical activities, practical application would help learners translate what they had learnt into abstract concepts such as qualifying a resume from the point of view of a recruiter. As Kolb (1984) emphasizes, the learners could actively test and or experiment with new experiences of what they had observed from the trainer. This perspective was inspired by the learning styles model developed by David Kolb and published in 1984. Kolb's learning theory incorporates four learning styles that are notable among individuals in workshop training contexts and which together, form the Kolb training cycle (Kolb 1984, pp. 93 – 114). Kolb's learning cycle is based on the central principle of immediate and or concrete experiences that provide the basis for learner observations and reflections (Kolb 1984, pp. 93 – 114). He says that learner observations and reflections should always be assimilated into concepts that produce new implications for precise action with which learners can actively test their experience during the learning process (Kolb 1984, pp. 93 – 114). By teaching how to translate work into Resume Entries and then asking the learners to do the same, the trainer was trying to create experiences through which they could actively employ their observations (so that they could form new experiences about the observations they had already acquired from the trainer). All the groups made their choice (all of them settling for the best of the two sample resumes) and gave reasons why they thought it was the best, using the factors of resume design already elaborated on. Kolb’s seminal works were used as the basis of the workshop training design where all the three trainers adopted a learning cycle for learners to listen (as the trainer explained), experience (by using active examples of real-life settings), reflect (by being asked to transfer what they had been taught during examination of the resume samples), thinking (to establish what made one resume better than the other) and finally to act (explain themselves and their choices) (Kolb 1984, pp. 93 – 114). The idea behind the workshop design was to create immediate or concrete learner experiences that could lead them to observe and reflect on the resume writing process actively rather than listen to just another lecture (Kolb 1984, pp. 93 – 114). Honey and Mumford developed a learning styles system while at the Chloride Corporation in 1970's. The system includes four distinct stages of learning namely, having the experience, reviewing the experience, concluding from the experience and finally planning the next steps that helped learners try the new ideas they had learnt (Kolb 1984, pp. 93 – 114). This was actually the very design that was employed by the group to design the workshop program, emphasised especially by the second trainer. This done, the third trainer took the floor with the theoretical elaboration on resume writing such as what to include and what to exclude. The participants were shown a video that elaborated why one should not cheat in a resume as explained by the trainer. To conclude the session, the trainer offered three documents that offered a summary of what has been learnt in the program in the form of a checklist for Resume Writing. The training session ended with the trainers collecting feedback from the participants to help in the evaluation of the workshop design and implementation. As can be seen from the workshop design, the group formulated a sequence of events that prescribed Kolb's learning model through the four stages of concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization and finally active experimentation (Kolb 1984, pp. 93 – 114). Implementation of the Workshop Design On the overall, how the workshop was designed and implemented was impressive. This was acknowledged by many of the participants. It was specifically appreciated by learners because it provided very useful information in a way that was not as passive and boring as they are used to in the ‘how-to-write-resume texts’. Judging from the assessment comments and the feedback from participants, the project attained most praise for the way it was implemented and less for the way it was designed. Most of the improvements suggested by the assessment and participant feedback were on the design part and not on the implementation of the workshop. This showed that the workshop was implemented excellently and improvements were only needed for its design. The conveners themselves were impressed by what they had managed to achieve. Nonetheless, there were a host of improvements that they felt could have made the program better and more effective. For instance, the conveners felt that the second trainer should have also discussed what made resume sample B poor, besides identifying what made sample A better. That could have improved the experience of learners in knowing what to do and what not to do when designing their own resumes. The conveners also felt that they could have offered an opportunity at the end for the participants to practice writing their own resumes, something that could have been done using the ten minutes left unused in their allocated session time. The conveners also realized by themselves that the video they chose was not the most suitable since it contained disgusting scenes of bloody knives, something that was not part of the central message it was chosen to communicate. Finally, the conveners realized that the PowerPoint presentation was poor simply because it used a very strong color for the background such that most of the participants could not read it easily from a distance. The best thing to do would have been to use a clear background. From the feedback and assessment as well as from the theoretical guides, there are a number of design improvements that could make the workshop more effective. The design omitted a session plan that could have guided both the trainers and the participants during the implementation. A session plan helps to solicit for ideas from other people while planning the workshop, as well as assisting in time management during the actual implementation of the workshop. Another omission was an elaboration of the objectives of training that learners could use to determine their achievements at the end of the course. These objectives should have been stated outright at the beginning of the course and then revisited and reviewed at the end of the course to determine its success. The conveners however were commended for great interaction and warm up activities introduced before building up to the actual session. Although the design had been based on a sound Training Needs Assessment (as explained in section one), no mention of the TNA findings was given during the implementation, a delimiting omission. The presentation was itself not very active and the trainers were a little bland. The feedback suggested incorporation of more activities such as those specified by Kolb’s learning cycle. Additional; activities would have exploited the ten minutes that the workshop fell short with. The use of a video medium was an excellent idea in helping create a visual experience for the participants. However its graphic content was not very accommodating to the audience preferences, such as the scene with bloody knives as mentioned above. Martin Thompson developed a list of 15 principles that can guide experiential learning such as workshops. When included in the design and implementation of a workshop, the principles make a positive difference (Thompson 2008, pp. 34 – 42). The most relevant among these principles to the workshop are two. The first one regards creating experiential learning opportunities such as a practice session of writing personal resumes at the end of the course (Thompson 2008, pp. 34 – 42). The second relevant principle expounded by Thompson was that of using realistic and engaging activities to facilitate memorable personal learning for (Thompson 2008, pp. 34 – 42). This could have been achieved by soliciting for participants’ personal examples of job skills that could be translated into their own resume entries. Improvement of the Workshop Design Given the criticism and commendation gleaned from the feedback discussed above and the literature available on the same, the conveners determined that were they to formulate another design as a revision, it would be more effective. First and foremost, the design would include an overt elaboration of the course objectives, the TNA and the session plan which would then be reviewed at the end of the course to determine to what extent they had been achieved (Thompson 2008, pp. 34 – 42). The design would still include three trainers with each of them going through a cycle of learning as elaborated by Kolb i.e. having the experience, reviewing the experience, concluding from the experience and finally planning the next steps that helped learners try out the new ideas they had learnt during the course. The first trainer would introduce the topic and the objectives of the program so as to help prepare the learners for the program. After this, he or she would then proceed to teach the learners how to translate job skills into resume entries. The objective would be to stimulate and facilitate an active participation of the learners in giving their own examples (Thompson 2008, pp. 34 – 42). The reward system of chocolates would still be used given its positive impact during the assessed workshop, where the learners who get correct answers are reinforced and appreciated with a chocolate. All these question and their correct answers should be viewable from the PowerPoint presentation, one without the colored background so as to be easily legible. The second trainer would help learners identify correct resume formats and designs in respect to the job advertisement they are responding to. This time round, the learners would be given different advertisements to respond to and discuss within their groups of what the most appropriate format would be. It should be the learners as guided by the trainer, who actually comes up with the list of factors to consider when formatting and designing a resume. That would be the best way to create learning experiences that the learners can forever remember and apply in their own lives thereafter. At the end of the course, the third trainer would give the theoretical checklist of resume writing skills for the learners to use in writing their own resumes for the last 8 minutes of the session before the course recap is given. The recap would then constitute a review of the course objectives. Conclusion This undertaking was very crucial to the facilitators since it helped illuminate some core concepts of workshop design and implementation that are applicable in all event organization platforms, whether in learning institutions or organizations. The most important lessons learnt and the recommendations made to future conveners of similar courses include the use of a session plan. A session plan should be used to solicit for ideas from other people while planning the workshop as well as assisting in time management during the actual implementation of the workshop (Thompson 2008, pp. 34 – 42). The objectives of training should be overtly expressed by the design and communicated during the design implementation at the beginning of the course and then reviewed at the end of the course to determine the level of success attained (Thompson 2008, pp. 34 – 42). Team building activities, interaction and warm up sessions are an important part of workshop design and implementation and should be included before the core of the course ensues. So too, is the reward strategy during the implementation. A reward strategy should be used to solicit learner participation. Using various media such as videos is a good way of creating observation experiences for learners but the conveners should give thought to the content of such media. The graphical content should not offend some participants. A PowerPoint presentation is a valuable tool to use in the implementation but it should best use a clear background for easy legibility. On the overall, a workshop design should be formulated and implemented as a sequence of events in line with Kolb's learning model. This would ensure that it follows the four stages of concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization and finally active experimentation, for it to be effective as a learning event. Finally as Kolb postulates, a workshop design and implementation should be based on the central principle of immediate and or concrete experiences that provide the basis for learner observations and reflections (Kolb 1984, pp. 93 – 114). The learner observations and reflections should then be assimilated into concepts that produce new implications for precise action with which learners can actively test their experience during the learning process (Kolb 1984, pp. 93 – 114). References Kolb, David, 1984, Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, New York, Prentice Hall, pp. 93 – 114. Thompson, Martin, 2008, “Experiential Learning Activities - Concept and Principles”, New Zealand Human Resources Institute Magazine, Vol. 14 (4), pp. 34 – 42. Read More