Exploring: ensuring learners apply what they've learned

Follow along as I read! I'm reading What Makes Training Really Work by Ina Weinbauer-Heidel and Masha Ibescitz-Manderbach.

As the subtitle states here, I’ve started reading What Makes Training Really Work: 12 Levers of Transfer Effectiveness by Ina Weinbauer-Heidel and Masha Ibescitz-Manderbach. This is always something that should be top-of-mind for instructional designers, but in customer education especially, I think we are concerned with our training really leading to change in user behavior and greater product adoption (thus, proving our value to our company!) So how can designing our training, as early as developing our objectives, help?

The book is organized into twelve levers: I’m currently reading about Lever 1, which is Transfer Motivation. This section discusses lots of things instructional designers are familiar with with regards to motivation: intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation, for one. But it also surfaces the idea of value and behavior change right away in this section. I think this is really well done, especially because instructional designers will know that the best approach to designing training is to first define your objectives. If communicating value and end-user behavior change in your objectives isn’t part of that…well, it could be helpful to consider!

Objectives as transfer goals

The authors reorient the idea of training objectives as “transfer goals” right away, which was a helpful reframing to me. As a customer educator, the end goal of my training is some kind of knowledge transfer that results in new behaviors.

Image text: “Make sure to place the value for each trainee–the transfer goal–at the center of each training. The transfer goal clearly defines is supposed to be different in practice after the training and what behavior the training is supposed to achieve.” (p46)

How can we make sure our objectives are demonstrating value or encouraging transfer?

Next time you’re writing or reviewing objectives for a training, I challenge you to look at them and consider if they are clearly communicating not only what the learner will learn, but how it will benefit them.

❌ Explain the basics of using a calendar scheduling app.

✅ Explain the basics of how a calendar scheduling app will increase efficiency in your company.

❌ Complete the steps necessary to set up a calendar scheduling page.

✅ Set up your own calendar scheduling page to make booking time with you easy.

If I wanted to get really nitpicky, yes, there are slight differences here in what I might be expecting my learner to get out of a training about using a calendar scheduling app. However, I think this framing really helps us as learning designers keep learner motivation front of mind when designing training. When training technology, the why behind the training is much more compelling than the what. I’ve always shared the objectives of my training with participants from the beginning–but have I framed them in the way of transfer goals?

While I certainly communicate value and intended behavior changes throughout a training, I truly haven’t tried to communicate transfer goals specifically as my training objectives.

What’s an objective you’d like to try to reframe as a transfer goal in an upcoming training? Share in the comments!