What makes someone a professional? We could say time and experience but neither equates to the development of ability. We need to focus specifically on the skills someone needs to do a task or series of tasks well. Let’s break down the skills of a professional into their ability to manage situations, think critically, problem solve, and make decisions. How do they develop these skills in real life? Usually through trial and error and over a very long period of time. The more time, the more questions, issues, and interactions that occur. The more experience that is developed and the faster answers and solutions can be found to these questions and issues. We are always lucky when we find a good teacher or mentor along the way, but we live in a world that moves fast and with careers with high turn-over and new products that need constant training, we need ways to expedite the process and build rapid experience.

There are many methods used in  rapid eLearning and eTraining. Train the trainer, live events, role play scenarios, simulation, user competition, knowledge bases, and discussions are several ways we can educate and train individuals and groups on how to understand a situation and solve problems. Illumen looks at a simple process, or curriculum in education and training; present > explore > assess.

Present
We can present a problem, an objective, subject material, and statistics, to name a few. Develop awareness of a given subject or product and then begin to add in details. If this foundation is not developed properly, our next step or exploration can take significantly longer to develop proper skills.

Explore
Once a foundation has been set, exploration can begin. Are there interactive tools, challenges, or games that can allow someone to change variables and get unique results? Can they role play different situations with guides and feedback along the way? Can they chat or interact with others learning the same material? Hands on experience will begin to develop skills past being a knowledge base. This is where critical thinking and problem solving begin to evolve into skills that can be used in real life scenarios.

Assess
We must understand that assessment is not just a tool used by a facilitator to grade and measure progress, but can also be used to allow the learner to check themselves. Assessment isn’t a means to an end, it should lead right back to present and explore materials and situations. Assessment does not have to be in the form of a standard multiple choice test. It can be in the form of a tool or challenge. The key is to define what it is that is important to know, properly measure an ability to know, and provide feedback, when needed, on how it can be known.

Each of these three steps are open for interpretation and depend on the end need. Get to know your users and stay creative about learning and training approaches. Once we develop curriculum that present, explore, and assess subjects and materials, we begin to develop the skills nessesary to interact with real world problems and define proper solutions.