project

Project Overview

 

Purpose

 

The purpose of this semester-long Project is to demonstrate that you possess the knowledge, skills, and other appropriate capabilities to design a detailed, comprehensive, and plausible plan to asses and evaluate training in a for-profit organization.

 

Being able to design a plan to assess and evaluate a training program strongly suggests that you would also be able to successfully implement such a program.

 

The Importance of Selecting the Appropriate Training Program to Evaluate

 

The centerpiece of our course is the semester-long Learning Assessment and Evaluation Project in which you develop a comprehensive plan to assess and evaluate a training program of your choice within a fictional but plausible mid-size, for-profit organization. You are not required to create a training program and actually evaluate it. You only need to select and adapt an already existing training program that’s appropriate for your invented organizational context (e.g., a program that “exists” in an article, book, video, organizational archive, or previous course work), then develop a plan to assess and evaluate it.

 

The evaluation model presented in this course (the Kirkpatrick-Phillips Five-Level Model) will also be the model you will use to develop your Project. It is important to remember that this model (at least for the purposes of this course) is not easily applicable to all types of learning/training programs. Though the model can and has been applied to a wide range of learning/training situations, it is best applied to training programs delivered within a for-profit organization for the purpose of improving employee performance. 

 

Therefore, choose an “existing” training program you wish to base our Project carefully, as you may have difficulty applying the Kirkpatrick-Phillips model to, say, community service or public educational programs in which direct monetary benefits from the program are difficult (though certainly not impossible) to quantify. As with every part of this Project, please contact me, your instructor, if you feel you need any advice/assistance in selecting a training program for this Project.

 

Project Context Scenario

 

Though your training program should be of an “existing” nature, the organization context in which the program occurs is a fictional but plausible one—in other words, this organization doesn’t currently exist, but it could exist.

 

Qualifications/limitations of your fictional but plausible organizational context

 

1. Must be a mid-sized (defined as 250-1000 employees) for-profit organization physically located on one campus in one city

2. Based on your interests, you get to define the primary industry for your fictional organization (e.g., manufacturing, business services, professional, retail, etc.)

3. According to SHRM survey data) mid-sized for-profit organization have an average of 1.2 Human Resources staff per 100 employees. For the purposes of this Project, assume that all employees of your fictional organization, including HR, are paid the medium national salary for organizations in your selected industry 

4. You, the author, of this training evaluation plan, are the fictional lead trainer and sole HR employee directly responsible for training evaluation. Heretofore you have assessed training only at the “employee response/satisfaction level” (Phillips and Phillips “Level 1” evaluation). Your fictional organization’s senior management is ambivalent about the importance of evaluating training: some members see value in it, others do not

5. Your selected training program should be a reasonably substantial combination of “standup” sessions (like a F2F workshop or course) and “homework.” The level of effort/time-on-task should be equivalent to a one-credit higher education course, which, according to the New York State Education Department entails 15 hours of “classroom time” and twice that amount of time, or 30 hours, of outside-of-class time. All of which comes to 45 hours of total “learning time”

6. Lastly, the fictional but plausible audience for your Training Evaluation Project (besides me and your classmates) is your hypothetical boss, the Director of HR at your fictional but plausible organization. You need to arm this HR Director with a persuasive case for training evaluation to take to senior management

 

Project Components, Instructions, and Timeline

 

Schedule at a Glance

 

· Project Part 1: Training Program Overview (due Week 5)

· Project Part 2: Measuring Reaction and Learning (due Week 9)

· Project Part 3: Measuring Application and Business Impact of Training (due Week 12)

· Project Part 4: Calculating ROI and Gaining Management Support (due Weeks 15/16)

 

Project Part 1: Training Program Overview

 

· This Part is assigned in Week 1 and due at the end of Week 5

· Total points earned: 10 points

· Not including any appendices, your document should be between 750 and 900 words in length

 

Purpose : To select and describe a training program that will serve as the basis for your Training Evaluation Project.

Instructions : 

 The main body of this Part should include the following subsections:

1. Your Project Scenario—describe the hypothetical scenario you have created for yourself and your organization for the purposes of this Project (1 point)

The hypothetical scenario created for the purpose of Project 1 is of an educational institution which aspires to expand every year with a greater number of schools and new teachers joining them. The institution holds an event called Awareness day where the new teachers are oriented. The orientation aims at providing an exposure to the new teachers about the culture, economy, markets, what to do and where to go. The event also intends to provide the new comers get connected to the existing employees and enhance their connections. The scenario is a well thought plan by the HRD to retain employees and assisting the new entrants.

2. The Purpose and Objectives of the Training Program: adapt and/or develop 4-6 measurable learning objectives for your program. In the real HRD world, outcomes would derive from systematic needs assignment and therefore come before and drive the training program. (2 points)

The purpose of the training program so created had a few clear-cut objectives as follows:

· One of the largest teacher induction programs aiming at providing an opportunity to the new teachers to meet members of the institution’s senior management to the education team

· The education teams were allotted specific slots to share best practices in teaching and leadership

· The idea was to let new members participate in different events like TED Talks, Show and tell, discussion forums, workshops. These are conducted by teachers who are already with the group and nominated by the different schools based on demonstrating excellence in their practices and contexts

· This program is a regular event in the last 5 years and now HRD has come to understand a few more needs, hence this year the stakeholders got few more benefits. Like presentations and guidance to live in the new city. The discussions cover a range of topics including culture, sensitivity, etiquettes, and activities residents can be involved in their spare time.

· Also included is the question and answer session that helped the attendees to interact with the existing staff to learn about their experiences while setting a role in this institution.

· This has now become a yearly event when the new academic year begins, with every year having some more additions based on the feedbacks taken from the attendees.

3. Purpose of the Assessment/Evaluation: describe what you want to determine through your assessment/evaluation processes and how you might determine them (3 points).

HRD team key objective will certainly focus on assessment and evaluation of the program, especially in this case which will be a yearly event. But not always do they want to expose the evaluation because the cons of the program they planned will be brought to light. However, it is crucial for the team to determine the factors that went well and what are the other areas that need focus. Through the evaluation process the HRD teams is looking into the following aspects more intently in order to have it improvised in the coming years. Those factors that were given an extra attention are as follows:

· Transportation costs and the areas allocated for parking – This created a lot of mayhem causing many attendees arrive late for the program. The delay was caused due to mismanagement and improper planning of the pick-up spots.

· Catering – There are a lot of food wastages that led to incurring some extra costs. So, in effort of cost cutting, this factor is given prominence.

· Handouts and some souvenirs – Poor quality bags ordered as souvenir. This would be a take away from the event which should last with the attendees. Cost cutting cannot be applied here.

The about factors were identified with the help of instant polls, feedbacks, suggestions that were dropped by attendees.

4. Program Content, Activities and Logistics: provide a high-level overview of the program content, learning activities, how and where it will be delivered, etc. (3 points)

· Program content – The team that works the entire year planning relevant programs, put in deep thoughts about the delivery of the same. The programs are in an escalating fashion having a continuity. The reason for this would be to keep the attendees in focus. Program content is not a heavy material, but as simple as it can be for the new comers to register the exact information that is required. An overdose of anything would be harmful or boring too. So, simplicity yet clarity is maintained.

· Activities – Activities like workshops, TED talks, Show and tell, Discussions require huge planning because these are conducted by teachers from various other schools. So, a huge planning goes in to organize this. Many trials sessions were planned prior to the main event, so the presenters were confident about the content they deliver and the confidence to address the attendees too. The HRD teams also ensures the relevance and value of the messages the presenters want to convey.

· Logistics – The institution has a defined team working simply on the logistics which involves firstly confirming the location and the appropriate date/time. Mapping out the entire event, planning the entry/exit doors, meticulously planning the emergency measures, clear chain of command for the onsite staff, create contingency plans to handle electrical failures, traffic jams, fire, etc. The logistics also plan a good communication system through the whole event.

5. Preliminary Budget: sketch a very preliminary budget (use the information contained in Chapter 13 of our Phillips and Phillips textbook) that includes the estimated costs associated with the program. Provided estimated timeline with the budget that shows when the costs are expected to be incurred; this could be an appended chart (1 point) 

 

Cost and budgeting are the basic reason why assessments/evaluation are performed.

Estimated costs associated with the program:

Proposal: Training

Year of the event: 18th -20th September 2019

Planning year: October – August 2019

Expense	Incurring Month	Amount	Total
Decor	Sept ‘19	1000	1000
Food	Sept ‘19	20/per person/170 people/3 days	10200
Helpers	Sept ‘19	100/day / 20 helpers	2000
Stationary	Sept ‘19	300	300
Miscellaneous	August ‘19	500	500
Logistics	Aug-Sept ‘19	1000	1000
Additional tables and chairs	Sept ‘19	500	500
Photography	Sept ‘19	200/per day/ 3 days	600
Others	Oct ‘18 – Sept ‘19	1000	1000
Total			17100$$$

References

https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2018/04/23/health-insurance-costs-texas-teachers/

https://www.niche.com/blog/teacher-salaries-in-america/

HANDBOOK OF TRAINING AND EVALUATION AND MEASUREMNET METHODS ---JACJ J. PHILIPS AND PATRICIA PULLIAM PHILIPS

Dropbox Feedback

Prince, I thought your Project Part generally addressed most every aspect of the assignment. Using the embedded, non-grid rubric in the Part 1 overview as a guide, here are my comments on how or whether your paper achieved the following outcomes:

Your Project Scenario—describe the hypothetical scenario you have created for yourself and your organization for the purposes of this Project (1 point): On the short side given the half-page overview in the Project instructions; but this is something you can "make up" in Part 2. Remember, this organization must be for-profit--not clear that your "educational institution" fits that description, but there are many for-profit schools in the US (think of Strayer and UP)--not sure about their distribution internationally.

The Purpose and Objectives of the Training Program: adapt and/or develop 4-6 measurable learning objectives for your program. In the real HRD world, outcomes would derive from systematic needs assignment and therefore come before and drive the training program. (2 points): Nice job of describing the purpose of this school, but not the content of their training/eduction. By "training program" think of its syllabus (as in our course)

Purpose of the Assessment/Evaluation: describe what you want to determine through your assessment/evaluation processes and how you might determine them (3 points): You completely missed the point her--this is not about costs but rather about your evaluation plan and evaluation instruments you intend to use.

Program Content, Activities and Logistics: provide a high-level overview of the program content, learning activities, how and where it will be delivered, etc. (3 points): Lots of good general ideas, but the assignment calls for an overview of specific learning and assessment activities (think of the instructions for this course).

Preliminary Budget: sketch a very preliminary budget (use the information contained in Chapter 13 of our Phillips and Phillips textbook) that includes the estimated costs associated with the program. Provided estimated timeline with the budget that shows when the costs are expected to be incurred; this could be an appended chart (1 point): This is great!!