Types of Learners

One thing that makes creating a training module for this group much easier is that they have all self selected to be in their roles and therefore all have some similarities in their motivation. That being said, no one is motivated by this being a requirement for school, work, or because they've been guilted in to doing it. Dirksen calls these the "This is a required course" learners in Design for How People Learn- and thankfully I do not have to deal with those folks. I do, on the other hand, have many other varieties of learners. Dirksen has a couple of labels that fit nicely with the types of people I am working with in the Chapter volunteer program. There are:

-The "Just tell me what I need to know" learner
-The "Hey! This is cool!" learner
-The "I need to solve a problem" learner
-The "Oooh- Shiny" learner
-The "I pretty much know this already" learner

The struggle I have is identifying these types of learners up front so that I can adapt my process for each type. I have not yet come up with a formal way to categorize my volunteers other than getting on the phone with them early on and get a sense for what they do, and how they operate based on their questions. Perhaps once this training module is done I can spend some additional time figuring out how to capture this information in a more formal way.

Chapter Leader Input

Today I spent some time getting feedback from a few alumni volunteers in regards to what they would like for a training module. It was a great opportunity to discuss the idea of a module and hear about what kinds of things people wanted to see. One of the biggest things across the board that people wanted was to see a sample of what a typical year for an alumni chapter could look like. This includes going over what kinds of things typically happen in each "season"- i.e. in the fall, chapters typically host football game watch parties whereas in the spring they do service events and baseball games. This is something we can easily incorporate in to the final training module. Additionally, chapter leaders wanted me to make sure that they walked away from the module with a clear understanding of how they fit in to the larger picture at JMU. This, they said, was vital to the health of the chapter in that it provides the perspective in which they operate. I believe this will be covered in the mission, vision, values part of the module- but I can be sure to include a few sentences about how the chapters help support that by reinforcing the same overall tenants of the university as well as by serving as a positive representation of the university in their areas. 

Content Sequencing

When considering the sequencing of what I am putting together, I  think most about cognitive load and being sure not to overload the learner. For this reason, I think chunking out the material will make the most sense and will prevent the volunteers from feeling overwhelmed with information. In terms of the actual sequence, I'd like to start with the most basic concepts and move to the more complicated. That would look like this:

1. Mission, vision, values of the JMU Alumni Association
-Included in this would be how the chapters fit in to those things
2. The role of the Assistant Director for Alumni Chapters & resources provided
3. Overview of the different chapter maintenance role
-Administration, Communication, Events
4. The expectations of the chapters

Employee Satisfaction

This past Friday I attended a division-wide meeting where we discussed issues of employee satisfaction. It reminded me of the AHRD program because there had been some tension in some offices and the division put together a team to figure out how to make some changes. The team put together a "pulse check" survey that they sent out to all of the employees within the division- they wanted to gather feedback on the current state of things so they could create a baseline. At the organizational level, this allowed for everyone to give anonymous feedback (increasing the likelihood of real, honest feedback) and contributed to why there was a 90% feedback response amongst the division. At the meeting on Friday, they asked for additional feedback but broke down 3 main categories that they found important from the original survey. They did these in groups which was great for brainstorming purposes, but difficult in other ways. For example, we got to spend some time talking about career development and what support/programs would help us feel like we had more options. Some of the newer staff members wanted to shadow more seasoned staff members, whereas some of the folks who had been around longer wanted more options to move up/receive promotions. The new staff want to see what the options are, while the older staff want to actually start making moves in their career. It was a really helpful session, but I think the most important part of it will be the follow-through from the feedback they received. I think there's a huge opportunity to make the staff feel like they can trust management if the suggestions are executed well. 

Evaluation Instruments

Evaluation for chapter volunteers is, in some ways, completely straightforward, and in other ways is much more difficult to measure. In terms of the training module, it will be that same way. For instance, some topics covered in the training modules, such as the overview of expectations, can be evaluated based on whether or not the chapter met those expectations or not. Did they host a certain number of service events, and fulfill their fundraising needs for the year? The part that is more difficult to measure is the outcome of their events- were their events meaningful and leave a lasting impression on the attendees? That is something my office is currently working on trying to figure out. Do our events lead to other engagement opportunities for attendees? Do the attendees of Crabfest donate to the scholarship because of that event, or because of something else the chapter is doing?

For the purposes of this module, I will keep it fairly straightforward in terms of evaluation. I am always interacting with volunteers on their roles and keeping a close eye on their events and programs. In lieu of any formal test, because that would not be appropriate for this group, I will monitor the questions and successes/failures of the chapter to see if the module is actually proving effective or not. I will also ask for feedback after the new volunteers have gone through the module.

Strengthsquest

One thing I love about my job is that I get to interact with people all day long, and a couple of times a year I get to design a training session for those people. One of those sessions is the Madison Alumni Conference, and last year we looked at leadership styles through an assessment called Strengthsquest. This assessment worked really well for our group, because it was comprised of about 80 people an we only had an hour and a half to do a professional development session for them at the conference. I sent all of the attendees their own personal link to take the assessment, and we had the results ready for them upon arrival at the conference. Then, we had an entire session breaking down the results and figuring out what to do with our strengths. We put people in to groups based on their top strengths, an then put them with their leadership teams to talk through what stengths they had a lot of, and what they might be missing. All in all it was an excellent way to provided a meaningful, yet fun and interactive leadership training session to the conference. 

Design for How People Learn: Pace Layering

I had planned to devote a couple of posts to interesting concepts from the book I chose to read for this class. Dirksen references a concept called 'Pace Layering' from Stewart Brand's "How Buildings Learn" in relation to how much content a person can learn in a course. Brand uses the house as a metaphor for the person, and the things inside the house as the information being obtained in class or learning course. For example, some content falls in the stuff category and changes daily- knowing the weather or planning a lunch for that day, similar to the way the stuff comes in and out of a room within a day. On the other end of the spectrum is the site layer which is much more difficult to change because it's the foundation of all of the other layers. This would include attitudes and beliefs of a person that take long amounts of time to change. 

Applying this to my project for this semester, I recognize that most of the information falls within the moderate level of change for these volunteers. That being said, having this module makes a lot of sense only if paired with the on the job training that comes while they are actually taking on their roles. 

Instructional Objectives

I found a really great online resource for creating instructional objectives: http://www.acu.edu/academics/adamscenter/course_design/syllabus/verbs.html

The content from this training module fall under the comprehension, application and synthesis levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. Using these two areas, I came up with the following instructional objectives:

At the end of the training module, the learner will be able to:
1. Describe the purpose and goals of the JMUAA overall, as well as their specific chapter. 
2. Identify which role aligns most appropriately with their skills, or demonstrate a full understanding of their already determined role.
3. Apply the goals and mission of the JMUAA to their events and programs.
4. Formulate a plan to fulfill the expectations for their chapter as laid out in the module. 

Social Media to Engage Volunteers

http://www.slideshare.net/azurecollier/social-media-for-nonprofit-volunteer-recruitment

I found a great slideshare online about using social media to engage, inform and recruit volunteers. What I like about this presentation is that it describes how each different platform can benefit your organization. Since most people are engaged in social media in someway, it's worthwhile to have a presence for your organization on these platforms, and it makes the most sense to have them all since people engage in them at different levels. The slideshare also covers what kinds of content to post in different platforms- even talks about how often to post. This is actually a helpful piece to share with my volunteers who are constantly trying to figure out how to use their social media platforms for their regions. 

Learner's Characteristics

I started this post with this photo because it shows a typical subset of the alumni volunteers that will eventually use the training module that I would like to create. It's somewhat difficult to tell, but there is a wide range of ages, however, there are some consistencies in their backgrounds. 

• All of the volunteers have a college degree 
• They all went to James Madison University
• They all have access to a computer and regularly use email/internet/social media
• Their roles are all in addition to full time jobs
• Most of them are between the ages of 25-35, however a small handful are 35+ and have families/children
• They are motivated by different things, but have all self-identified for their roles (i.e. they let us know what they were interested in and were put in to their roles based on their preference)

Taking all of these characteristics in to account, I have decided that the module most definitely needs to be flexible in its delivery (i.e. asynchronous vs synchronous) and self-guided. These volunteers have the motivation to learn the material on their own and need the flexibility to do it on their own time. This will help me decide what program to use when I create the module as well.

Chapter Leader Task Analysis

A task analysis is not the most effective way to understand what it is that chapter leaders need out of this training, since this training is meant to provide a broad overview of what is required versus an in-depth look at each role (i.e. this training won't cover exactly what needs to be done by the communications chair). For that reason, I will use the task analysis to breakdown the broad tasks that are required of all chapter leaders regardless of their roles.

1. Being a positive representative of the University
2. Welcoming and engaging with alumni through Facebook, email and at events
3. Be present at chapter meetings and conference calls
4. Make a financial gift to the University
5. Submit paperwork and reports in a timely fashion

Again, so many of the specific duties are taught on the job, and a lot of them will continue on that way but it will be helpful to get these broad overview types of details taken care of off the bat.

Problems and Goals

According to Kemp's model, one of the initial steps in instructional design is to "identify instructional problems, and specify goals for designing an instructional program." For this specific project, the instructional problems lie in the distance and discrepancy of the current state of training for alumni chapter volunteers. The current gap exists because chapter leaders are being trained over the phone and due to busy schedules, not much time is left for actually covering all the appropriate topics. Additionally, the topics that get pushed aside are big picture ones that give perspective to the work that the volunteers do such as the mission, vision and values of the entire organization.

One of the more common issues I have seen in the chapter program is volunteers wanting to pursue events and programs that do not align with the overall mission of the Alumni Association. Devoting more time and energy to training volunteers on this topic will provide that context needed in order to stay in line with those objectives.

The goals of the training are as follows:
1. Provide a broad overview of the Chapter Program
     -This includes the mission, vision, values of the JMUAA
2. Be self-guided so that volunteers can take the training on their own time
3. Have an interactive portion to test volunteers on their knowledge of the program
4. Set volunteers up for success upon moving in to their volunteer roles.

With all of these pieces in place, this training will save time for myself while also bringing volunteers up to speed on their roles in a flexible and exciting way.

Kemp's Instructional Design Model

I plan to use Kemp's model for instructional design for this project and the reason for that is because I agree with Kemp in that instructional design is an on-going process. The way that volunteer leaders are trained also changes as time goes on so it makes the most sense for me to follow a model that allows for formative evaluation continually through the process. For this reason as well I'd like to use a technology that is easily updated to allow for that evaluation. 

Topics for Alumni Chapter Training

In this post I'd like to spend some time brainstorming the topics that will be covered in the training module.

First, I'd like to start with an overview of the mission, vision, values and goals of the Alumni Association. This will provide the alumni chapter volunteers with the crucial framework within which their work will exist. It is important to bring the volunteers in to the larger picture of what they are a part of before giving them their tasks, it will encourage them to know that they are part of a larger overall mission.

Second, it is important that the chapter leaders have an overview of each area of chapter maintenance. These are broken down in to administration, events, and communications and can be broadly covered in order for each member to know how their roles fits in to the larger picture.

As a note here- it may be worth covering these broadly, and supplementing each area with documents that discuss each area further in order to provide the entire picture.

Third, a brief run down of my role as the Assistant Director of Alumni Chapters, and the specific resources offered to chapters by our office. These include volunteer recruitment, training, event assistance, marketing assistance, and chapter financial assistance.

Lastly, the module will cover the expectations the Alumni Office has for the chapters. This includes event success, fundraising, regular and appropriate communications, and regular communication with our office.

Other topics that could be included in the training are:

-Succession planning
-Finances (how to pay for things)
-Keeping your team up to date
-Annual Giving
-Staff contacts
-Working with athletics
-Community Service

As I continue to look at the plan for this training module, I will figure out how to incorporate these items in to the training as appropriate.

Tenants of Effective Training

• Communicate: Spread the word about our mission, values, and expectations.

• Educate: Teach volunteers how to be successful.

• Motivate: Share goals and get volunteers excited.

• Integrate: Bring leaders into the University family.

• Congratulate: Use training as a reward for volunteers.

According to Kathy Bickel in her book Alumni Clubs and Chapters, the above tenants are what should exist in all alumni volunteer training programs. I think that all of these things exist in our current training model, but some of the tenants are much stronger than others. For example, we use our annual training weekend, the Madison Alumni Conference to train but also thank and reward our volunteers. This weekend has always been very popular and scores very highly in the survey data we collect every year. During this weekend we also do a lot of training with University officials, as well as tours of new facilities and sneak peaks in to upcoming plans. With these things we are able to integrate our volunteers in to the university family while also arming them with the information they need to share updates back in their regions. 

On the flip side, our current training model does not a lot for much time to be spent training volunteers on the mission, values and expectations. Most chapters are able to create their own set of goals and stick to them, which works most of the time but certainly has a lot of room for improvement. An introductory training module would allow for all of the chapters to start off with the same instruction that covers the overall mission of the Alumni Association and how chapters fit in to that mission, and to give an overview of what types of events and engagement strategies will be the most effective for connecting alumni in their areas. 

Work flow of alumni training

My plan for the online training module came from the Performance Analysis and Needs Assessment class in the AHRD program. I created a performance improvement plan for the current state of an alumni volunteer training and the major gap still exists in the initial training of each volunteer.  As you can see from the workflow above, volunteers receive an overview of information upon starting their role but the majority of their training comes as on the job training. The addition of the online training module will enhance this workflow but cutting out the amount of time I spend going over the initial training with every set of new volunteers that steps in to a team annually. The benefit of this is huge, because there are 25 chapters with teams that rotate all year around. Transferring that initial training to an online course will open up more time to spend on the more substantial on the job training require to be a more effective volunteer.

I'll be using this performance improvement plan to guide my project as I go along and I will plan to go through some additional pieces of the PIP that prove relevant to my project. 

SWOT Planning in the Office Setting

I had the pleasure of working on a SWOT analysis with my office recently and found it to be one of the most helpful internal processes that we have engaged with since I've worked there. What helped our office tremendously was that we filled out the analysis anonymously, which allowed everyone to share real weaknesses and threats that existed at that time. Our office is very willing to share accomplishments and celebrate achievements, but it is much more difficult for us to discuss the negative things that bring us down. Once we all filled out the analysis, we were able to sit down and discuss the real issues facing our team. Through that process, we gained a lot of good insight in to the challenges that face us, and came up with a plan for how to combat them. 

I think SWOT analyses can be very helpful for an office, especially one looking to implement a major change, such as a program review or a strategic planning session. It allows your team to celebrate the positive aspects of your team which helps maintain focus, while also allowing them to take a hard look at the negative aspects. From there, it opens up doors to either remove unnecessary tasks or programs, or refocus the efforts of the team to maximize their strengths.