32 tweets on Training Authenticity ( from Thiagi - June.2013)

Face Reality

Listen to a 5-minute audio podcast episode on the importance of authenticity in training design:
Episode 11: A Tale from Our Resident Mad Scientist ( http://thiagi.net/podcasts/tgti_podcast_11.mp3 )
After you have finished listening, you may want to review this collection of tweets on the topic:

1. The best type of training is on-the-job. If you training someone to pilot a plane, do the training on a real plane. If you don't want to do that, at least use a flight simulator.
2. Use action-learning approaches in your training design. This guarantees effective application to the workplace.
3. Teach in the real world context. If you are training people to do public speaking, let them practice their skills in front of an audience.
4. Use training activities that reflect what the participants will be undertaking on their job.
5. Workplace activities require teamwork. Therefore, workshop activities should involve teamwork.
6. Contracts with real-world clients provide authentic learning and assessment activities.
7. Encourage participants to apply their new skills to real-world opportunities.
8. Don't use cute fictional examples or fantasy or science fiction themes.
9. If you desperately want to use fictional examples to attract the participants' attention, revert to reality before it is too late.
10. The best way to make sure that the participants will apply what they learned to the real world is to use authentic examples.
11. Don't create examples of concepts that perfectly fit your definitions. Use real world examples.
12. Train the participants to face reality in the workplace. Don't use simplified and contrived examples.
13. Cases and scenarios should not be creative fiction. Use what is happening in the workplace as authentic cases.
14. Except in fast-food industry, real world jobs seldom use multiple-choice or yes/no questions. For authentic training, use open questions.
15. Don't create contrived problems that are conveniently solved by your procedure. Begin with wicked real-world problems.
16. Are you familiar with problem-based learning (PBL)? It can be applied to corporate training to increase authenticity.
17. You are not teaching your method. You are encouraging participants to solve their real-world problems.
18. Read the useful Wikipedia article on Problem-Based Learning. Reflect on corporate training applications.
19. In your final performance test, use real-world problems. There is no need to make up artificial ones.
20. Authentic training encourages creation of polished products rather than prototypes.
21. Authentic activities allow competing solutions and diversity of outcomes. They permit different unique and creative solutions.
22. Authentic learning incorporates a variety of sources and resources including those discovered by the learners.
23. Authentic training integrates principles across subject areas. Encourage cross-functional approaches.
24. Require and reward participants to discover, define, and solve real-world, ill-defined problems.
25. Authentic training requires you stop training and start facilitating.
26. Train authentically by acting as a consultant, not as a presenter.
27. To make your training authentic, require participants to use a variety of viewpoints rather than use a single approach.
28. Don't use activities just for fun or because you have heard that interaction is important.
29. End your training sessions with an action-planning exercise. Follow up with debriefing discussions.
30. Authentic training activities may require days, weeks, and months rather than minutes or hours.
31. Blend learning with application. Incorporate guided practice, coaching, and on-the-job application exercises as follow-up activities.
32. In summary: Use authentic goals, content, activities, examples, exercises, language, cases, scenarios, tests, methods—and everything else.