Instructional design/Strong Learning Checklist/RevID

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Introduction

Avoid Boring Training Ask Your Learners To Do Something
 * Motivation for the SLD Checklist
 * Overview of the SLD Checklist

Review Your Training Use the Strong Learning Design Checklist
 * The SLD Checklist Structure
 * Action-Oriented Training
 * Information Dump Training
 * Your Turn: Practice

Assess Your Skills
 * Final Exam

Go Forth! Create Great Training
 * Lesson Review
 * References and Materials


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=Information Dump Training=
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What is Information Dump Training?
Training materials that Cathy Moore would label as "sad information dumps" merely provide learners with long descriptions of boring text. Information dump materials DON'T engage learners by asking them to formulate an answer, practice a skill, or think critically about a specific subject. Simply put, information dumps put learners to sleep.

Information Dump Examples
This section contains some examples of training materials that are information dumps.

Objectives
The following is an example of learning objectives that represent "information dumps." Note that these objectives DON'T ask the learner to do anything:

Materials
The following describes training materials that DON'T allow the learner to actually practice what is being learned. These training materials subject the learner to an "information dump":
 * You are learning to use new software such as SPSS statistical software. This software package comes with a printed manual with descriptions of each of the features of the software. Your company asks you to attend a day-long training session that reviews the information in the training manual, but the room only contains a workstation for the instructor. You therefore aren't given an opportunity to actually use the software during the training.

Activities
The following describes activities in a training session that DON'T provide the learner with a powerful learning experience. The learners are subjected to a day-long "information dump":
 * You are attending a course on fire safety. You listen to the instructor who gives an example of a fire in the kitchen. He says that in order to put out a fire of this kind, use a fire extinguisher and call 911. You listen to a 90-minute lecture on flammable materials, causes of fire, fire prevention, and how to extinguish a fire. The training does not include pictures, video, or demonstration of the use of an actual fire extinguisher.

Tone and Esthetics
The following describes training materials that do not respect what the learner already knows. This is clearly an "information dump" that DOESN'T motivate the learner:
 * You are the new manager at Star Times, the leading newspaper in your city. When you arrive on the first day of work, you are given several manuals to review. Your leader asks you to read all the manuals because they tell you how to be an effective manager. You start with the first manual and you find that it is 10 years old and it contains pages and pages of outdated management philosophy.
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