Author Archive
Level 3 Evaluation
For the learning measurement wonks (and you know who you are), it seems important to take a jab at the venerable Dr. Kirkpatrick today. For those who aren’t immersed in the learning measurement world, here’s the gist: Dr. Donald Kirkpatrick, way back in 1959, wrote his doctoral dissertation on the 4 Levels of learning measurement. [...]
Demographer Magazine
It’s The Onion, so there’s much to appreciate, but I admit this made milk come out my nose. “Demography Today Magazine targets the demographer demographic.” ~Geek~
Lead the Horse to Water
When you, as I do, find yourself talking about training measurement over and over, themes emerge. Some of these are so important that they get a certain rhythm in the telling…they are almost poetic. OK yes, I’m a geek for this stuff. I actually like talking about measurement in organizations, but still. The poetry makes [...]
Alignment with organizational goals
*Warning: this is a relatively unformed series of ideas (not uninformed…just unformed), so may appear to be rambling.* There is a constant effort to align training with organizational goals. It seems that alignment to organization goals is on a continuum, with training being developed completely in the absence of what the organization is trying to [...]
ADDIE & DMAIC: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Many of you are familiar with the ADDIE model of instructional design, yes? Analyze the audience, any current training or documentation, the organizational need. Design a training intervention…turn process documentation and tribal knowledge into useful training. Develop the intervention you designed…build web-based training, ajob aid, instructor-led training, etc. Implement the intervention…bring it to the people. [...]
Statistics in action
It’s coming, Campers…the 2010 US Census. And the brouhaha is broiling around the place of statistical sampling in the official numbers. Apparently Dems favor sampling the population and drawing conclusions based on samples, and Repubs are opposed to sampling. As we all know, congressional representation boundaries, education funding and a zillion other critical decisions are [...]
Decimate the competition
Where measurement and etymology meet. Getting some refresher info on mutually exclusive random sampling, I came across a definition of “decimate”. Decimation (Latin: decimatio; decem = “ten”) was a form of military discipline used by officers in the Roman Army to punish mutinous or cowardly soldiers. The word decimation is derived from Latin meaning “removal [...]
Measuring the Assumptions
If we assume (and we do), that training has a positive impact on an organization’s goals, then the goal of a training measurement plan is to measure our assumptions about that impact wherever possible. We know that: Training enables knowledge and skill Knowledge and skill enable job performance Job performance enables business process success Business [...]
Speak With Facts
“Speak With Facts” was one of several slogans tossed around while I learned about and helped facilitate the Quality Improvement Program at Florida Power & Light Company back in the dim ages (lighting pun intended). FPL won the Deming Prize in 1989 in no small part because of that slogan and others (then promptly put [...]
It’s ALL about the assumptions
I have to admit that this seems so basic to me and perhaps it comes from my time working with ADHD children when, as a caregiver, you take NOTHING for granted in your communication. I found these kids to be brilliant at finding loopholes (perhaps this is all kids). For those kids and for other [...]