Week 4 People Process Product

I found Khan's article interesting. It was a quick read, but I thought it covered a lot of important ground, and gave good graphics as overviews of the people and processes (and products) necessary to make eLearning work. The interesting thing I found is that a lot of the information contained in the essay would have been completely foreign to me about 4 months ago. Since taking on my new job, I have a much better understanding of the systems. Sometimes I still get a little confused as to what specifically my job details on a day to day basis, but this article did help me to lay it out even mentally.

I can only say I wish I had that many people on my team in order to help me produce my courses! Although, too many cooks do spoil the stew. It is interesting that in my relatively short time in the new field, I can see how all of these parts come together to form a successful training situation. Some parts, like the planning process do take place without much input or knowledge from me, but my company does place a strong emphasis on the evaluation stages. While a course is being built, it goes under large amounts of formative evaluation before being deployed. Courses we build are taken during non-billable hours, so we need to ensure the effectiveness of the courses so employees are not wasting their personal time.

One piece I am a little unsure about in my company is the relatively low level of in depth summative evaluation. We do a lot of work on the front end to make a great course, but questionable levels on the back end. I guess it could be said that if accidents and incidents are reduced, the Health and Safety training has done an effective job. It just seems a little weak based on the level of emphasis placed upon this concept during our previous semester.