In applying for an Instructional Design position recently, an assessment was given to applicants to answer in which I applied. They were questions that focused on current or past experiences and the skills or knowledge that I had gained while studying Instructional Design at RMCAD.
The questions are as follows:
Describe your experience with change management programs employed to drive transition.
Currently I have not been experienced in this situation. I have knowledge of Bridge’s Transition Model that is composed of three stages of Ending, Losing and Letting Go, the Neutral Zone and the New Beginning. In the first stage people are resistant in letting go or being forced to let go of what that have been doing and to try something new. Here you have to be patient and empathetic with them and communicate openly with them to relieve any negative emotions they may have. In the second stage people are still resistant, anxious and skeptical so you will have to frequently meet with the people and give feedback and be creative in finding ways to boost morale and let them know their contribution to the change can be a success and lastly after stage one and two are successful in stage three people will find themselves with a burst of energy, willing to learn and wanting to know and finding themselves with a new sense of commitment to their jobs and teams. Management objectives can be used to help keep the people on track along with ways to keep them motivated extrinsically with rewarding them for jobs and hard work well done. The group needs this so not to fall back into stage one and two but you cannot be too soft or too hard on them. You will need to find a good common ground to keep the group still high and accepting the change.
Give an example of training programs to ensure supply of critical skills that you have implemented or facilitated.
The example of training is the training I give the engineers and planners in my group. What I use is the latest printed tips and tricks from the Autodesk Web site by Lynn Allen. For group sessions I use the conference room, attach a laptop to the overhead projector and run through various commands or what is new or what has changed in the software.
Describe two major trends in cooperate learning and development. Please include your experience implementing these examples.
One trend that I have experienced is learning individual’s learning styles, whether they are a hands on person, a visual/audio learner, a social learner, logical learner and so forth. I go one-on-one with individuals and ask various questions about their learning ability to make sure I can cover their style of learning. I also utilize motivation for the group as in having them interact with me an others. This way I feel we all can learn and gain a positive learning experience. It is broken down into the Inclusion or beginning learning activities, the meaning during that maintains attention and motivation and the Conclusion or ending learning activities. I created the course map through my studies of Raymond Wlodkowski’s Motivational Framework.
Please give a recent example of curriculum that you developed. Include your target audience and the reason why the training was requested.
As a school project assignment I created a motivational course map that I plan to use once in the field. Target audience for the map are adults ranging from early 20’s to early 40 or 50’s that want to learn graphic design or computer-aided design. The map emphasizes on more intrinsic motivation than extrinsic although there are some extrinsic qualities given. The map touches the student’s creative side in which will strengthen their talents and abilities.
Describe the difference between Platform Skills verses Training Skills. Do you believe they are equally important to posses? Why/why not?
Platform skills deal with the skills achieved in the development of the training. How and/or what way to deliver the training whereas the training skills are concerned with how to deliver the training, what methodologies or models will be used in the creation of the learning or training material. Both I believe are essential because you need a method of delivering the training but also you need to use a method of assessment, implementation and evaluating whether or not the specific training will meet the needs of the participants taking the training.
How have you helped a company/client maximize the return on its training investment? Please include all relevant information such as needs assessments, facilitation opportunities, post-evaluations, follow-up work. What was the outcome of sustainable change?
In conducting group and individual training in the AutoCAD software, I save my division the money they would spend in sending personnel though training at another facility thus promoting cost effectiveness to the division.
If anyone would like to comment, please do so. I believe in learning from others to make myself better.
“Each One Teach One” I always say.
janetmcphatter 