Visit with Marc Pensky
12 Nov 04
Probably the most practical thought on training from Marc is to engage the learner. His concept was engagement before content. Engagement can be obtained by having a great teacher, one-to-one, community of practice, activities, and/or relating to student's interest.
Relating this to training salespersons. Because of the numbers, and variety in the teaching techniques, the first two could not be ensured. However, self-interest, activities, and community of practice are very good possibilities. The communities of practice are already in place, although learning about a new product launch would not be effective through this channel.
Marc goes on to say, to make e-learning more game-like. There are five ways to help ensure the games will be effective:
1) Focus on engagement
2) Increase the rate of decision-making. This is not found in simulations very often.
3) Provide clear goals
4) Allow user customization
5) Adaptable to increased levels of difficulty
My thoughts move towards the construction of the training. Conceptually thinking, there could be multi-user (synchrounous) scenarios (below game quality), and each scenario involve a number of salespersons, and a facilitator expert. In one company that also includes service engineers for the installation, there could be teams, thus the salesperson is not only learning about the new product, but is also getting feedback from the engineer on installation issues. This ties with Dave's blog in October, and with flight simulators as far as the visuals. The trainer (expert) could notch up the scenario with additional detail, or other applications that the sales team (including the engineer) could experience. A side thought. Similar training could be given to existing products and only training the sales team in their use in different applications.
How to develop training for a new product? To develop the simulation will require observing an actual installation. Thus, several beta sites would be established, and the learnings recorded. The salesperson and the engineer would be observed, and lessons learned come from this experience. This should be done for each primary application.
In closing, Marc provided two quotations:
James Gee: "Without motivation, there's no learning"
Will Wright: "If a learner is motivated, there's no stopping him"
Probably the most practical thought on training from Marc is to engage the learner. His concept was engagement before content. Engagement can be obtained by having a great teacher, one-to-one, community of practice, activities, and/or relating to student's interest.
Relating this to training salespersons. Because of the numbers, and variety in the teaching techniques, the first two could not be ensured. However, self-interest, activities, and community of practice are very good possibilities. The communities of practice are already in place, although learning about a new product launch would not be effective through this channel.
Marc goes on to say, to make e-learning more game-like. There are five ways to help ensure the games will be effective:
1) Focus on engagement
2) Increase the rate of decision-making. This is not found in simulations very often.
3) Provide clear goals
4) Allow user customization
5) Adaptable to increased levels of difficulty
My thoughts move towards the construction of the training. Conceptually thinking, there could be multi-user (synchrounous) scenarios (below game quality), and each scenario involve a number of salespersons, and a facilitator expert. In one company that also includes service engineers for the installation, there could be teams, thus the salesperson is not only learning about the new product, but is also getting feedback from the engineer on installation issues. This ties with Dave's blog in October, and with flight simulators as far as the visuals. The trainer (expert) could notch up the scenario with additional detail, or other applications that the sales team (including the engineer) could experience. A side thought. Similar training could be given to existing products and only training the sales team in their use in different applications.
How to develop training for a new product? To develop the simulation will require observing an actual installation. Thus, several beta sites would be established, and the learnings recorded. The salesperson and the engineer would be observed, and lessons learned come from this experience. This should be done for each primary application.
In closing, Marc provided two quotations:
James Gee: "Without motivation, there's no learning"
Will Wright: "If a learner is motivated, there's no stopping him"
posted by Larry O at 22:00
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