Discussion Forum: Week 5

Hello Class! For this discussion you can choose which question you respond to.  Feel free to respond to both, however only one is required. Please respond to one of the following questions:

Discussion Question 1: What are your thoughts around quantitative vs. qualitative research methods? Can you list pros and cons for each one?

Discussion Question 2: What are the most important characteristics of a good questionnaire?

Discussion Question 3: What are examples of situations where you would use an interview to assess a situation?

Lesson Topic 5

Answer each of the following questions:

1. Provide an example of a situation when you would use a quantitative data analysis technique
2. Provide an example of a situation when you would provide a qualitative data analysis technique
3. Who do you admire as an interviewer, why?

Discussion Forum: Week 6

Hello Class! For this discussion you can choose which question to which you wish to respond.   Please respond to one of the following questions (be sure to properly label the subject line of your post):

Discussion Question 1: Why should we care about ethics and standards?

Discussion Question 2: How can you contribute toward building a more ethical environment?

Unit Questions 3

Answer one of the following questions in an essay of 300 words or less:

1. Do you believe there are universal codes of ethics that are independent of culture or religion? Elaborate.
2. Do you work for an organization that has clearly stated ethical standards? If so, how are these disseminated and practiced?
3. Why do you believe the topic of ethics is important to HPT specialists? What kind of ethical decisions might an HPT specialist be faced with?

Discussion Forum: Week 7

Hello Class! For this discussion you can choose which question to which you wish to respond. Please respond to one of the following questions:

Discussion Question 1: What is the SWOT analysis process? When would you use it? Why?

Discussion Question 2: Do you take time to reflect? How would you go about selling this concept to a client?

Unit Questions 4

Answer either of the following questions in an essay of 300 words or less:

1. Describe a situation where you believe using a SWOT analysis would be useful. Explain how you would roll it out.
2. What is your opinion on the Rapid Reflection model? Do you believe it could be implemented in today’s hectic corporate world? Elaborate.

Final

Linked below is a list of several case studies.  Download the attached file, read through the included Case Studies, and choose ONE that you find interesting.

 

The assignment is for you to prepare a project funding plan for presentation to the senior leadership of the organization. Think carefully about what techniques and tools you will use to create the HPT solution to the problem that is presented. Be sure to also provide information on how you intend to measure your success. You might want to estimate time, resources, and cost of the project. Your presentation can be either a PowerPoint presentation (with substantial explanation in the narration section) or an essay or both. ( The case study is at the botom)

Case Studies

HPI501 – Introduction to Human Performance Technology

Rod Ibieta

Final Project Case Studies

 

Case Study #1 The PaceTronics Stor

 

You have been hired by PaceTronics – a local company specializing in the design and manufacture of high-tech heart pacemakers for patients with heart disease such as congestive heart failure.

 

There have been numerous complaints from PaceTronics’ customers in the last six months related to the quality of the products being shipped from PaceTronics (PT). While the design and technology of the PT pacemakers is undisputed, many units shipped are not assembled correctly or are failing prematurely due to out-of-spec parts being used in the manufacture process. If this problem continues, PT could suffer the loss of its most important customers and also risk huge liability lawsuits from patients being implanted with defective units. PT’s customers want to continue buying the PT pacemakers but want assurances that the quality issues will be resolved. They have given PT a maximum of 6 months to resolve this issue or they will switch to another supplier.

 

PT’s main competitor, the GoodHeart (GH) Corporation has been ruthlessly advertising and approaching PT’s customers with messaging around their strict quality control and offering all kinds of warranties and other incentives for their products. GH’s products are not as advanced as PT’s though.

 

A few months ago, a consulting company was hired to analyze the problem and suggest a solution. Their analysis revealed that most of the quality issues were due to new personnel in the PT factories not fully understanding the different steps in assembling and testing the PT pacemaker. One of PT’s most important factories is based in Bangalore, India with the remainder located in three US sites.

 

Most of the people working in PT’s factories are young. Some are college graduates with degrees in engineering and other disciplines.  Some of the India employees may have (language) problems understanding some of the highly technical manuals used in the assembly and testing of the PT1 pacemaker.

 

The assembly of the PT1 involves the careful soldering of intricate parts, mostly done by a soldering machine that requires close supervision. This machine needs to be “fed” with the right materials and components at the right time to ensure its uptime.

 

Once each PT1 is assembled, it is connected to the PT1000 tester machine. This is an extremely complex machine attached to a computer that runs the test suite and reports its findings. Based on the test findings, the operator determines if the device is ready to ship or needs to have specific components replaced to bring it within spec.

 

The consulting company hired by PT determined that the main problem affecting PT was a lack of knowledge by the assembly and test folks on the PT1 lines. PT has only 2 subject matter experts available to train the folks doing this work and they have been stressed to the limit by having to constantly fly to PT’s 4 factories in the US and India. Their training has been mainly classroom-based standup classes taught using self-prepared PowerPoint slides. Most of the classes are taught offsite at a local hotel.

 

Another problem seems to be retention. While most of the folks that take the training seem to go back to their workplace and reduce their errors, after a week or so, the error rates go back up again. Senior management wants to make sure any training plan that is developed includes some way to track employee training including what classes were taken and what level of proficiency was achieved.

 

After an exhaustive search for the right person, PT has hired you as their new Corporate Training Manager. The company’s two SMEs have been told to give you as much of their time as they can (although they’re constantly flying to the factories to retrain folks on the manufacturing processes) and you’ve been given the budget to hire two people who will report to you. You have a fairly sizeable budget ($200K) to order whatever equipment you need.

 

You’ve just walked out of a meeting where executive management has told you that you have 3 weeks to come up with a worldwide training plan that drastically cuts (less than 1 reject in 1000) or eliminates the quality issues altogether. You have 4 worldwide factories with 500 employees in each one that will need training.

 

Ideas to consider:

·      What technology will you use to solve this problem?

·      What will you spend your budget on?

·      What kinds of folks will you hire?

·      How will you work with your (stressed!) SMEs?

·      How will you know when your job is done?

 

You will need to present your strategy proposal to a Management Review Committee (MRC) who will have the ultimate approval authority for your project.

 

 

Case Study #2 The SecurOps Challenge

 

SecurOps (SO) is a fairly new company specializing in high-tech security systems for airports. SO’s innovative products include a new hand-held “wand” (model HH1) that is not just a metal detector but also a “sniffer” for the typical chemical signature of common bomb components. The HH1 looks like a regular metal detection wand with the addition of a 3×5 inch LCD screen that conveys multiple data on the scanned person.

 

The other main product manufactured by SO is the CO1 carry-on luggage scanner. This device is the world’s most advanced luggage X-Ray machine. The CO1 scans luggage going through a conveyor belt and by using its onboard visual database, it’s able to “recognize” the usual shapes related to banned items and alert the security officer through its 15 inch LCD screen. The CO1 uses a regular PC with a custom version of Microsoft Windows ® XP and must therefore be booted up in case of a failure. If the failure in unrecoverable, the machine has a backup hard disk drive that it can boot from.

 

If the CO1 does not alert its operator, it does not necessarily mean that the luggage being scanned is safe. It only means that the computer did not recognize any shapes of banned objects. Therefore, operators have to be trained to carefully analyze the images that the CO1 produces on the computer screen. These images not only display the basic shape of objects inside the luggage but also show different colors based on whether an item is organic; is giving off heat or is unusually cold among other attributes.

 

SO is constantly upgrading the firmware and software for all its devices, adding features and fixing bugs on average, once a month. Some of these upgrades can substantially change the functionality of the equipment, sometimes adding whole new set of menus or drastically changing the behavior of the machine.

 

Because of the complex nature of these machines, a typical airport installation will include two technical support staff to manage breakdowns, firmware upgrades and any other issues.

 

SO is also working on a new machine not for available for sale yet. The WB1 is a “Whole Body” scanner that essentially replaces the need for a hand-held “wand” such as the HH1. The passenger in question simply steps into a telephone booth sized enclosure and the machine does a complete scan without any physical contact of any kind. The operator stands outside the device and interprets the data the WB1 displays on its onboard computer screen. The WB1 is currently in “beta” testing at several airports and seems to be working well with few to no crashes or malfunctions.

 

The Williams Gateway Airport in Chandler, Arizona – as part of its modernization initiative – has decided to install a complete suite of SO products in its main passenger terminal. The airport has two main terminals and will therefore require two sets of security equipment. The airport authorities have also agreed to become a beta test site for the WB1 scanner. If this pilot testing goes well, this could be a great contract for SO.

 

The operators of this equipment will be Transport Safety Administration (TSA) employees as mandated by law. Most of these folks have completed high school but many do not have a college education. Most of them have never operated machinery as complex as the SO units.

 

TSA will require that every employee that operates these devices be officially certified by SO as an operator of each device. Any mistake here could be catastrophic, so certified competence is extremely important for SO as well as for the TSA.

 

There are a total 30 TSA employees that will need to be cross-trained on all of the devices. Not all the TSA employees have been hired yet but the TSA assures you that in one more month, they will all be available to begin their training. In other words, here will be one month to fully prepare and certify all the TSA personnel to operate the machines.

 

After an exhaustive search for the right person and many interviews, SO has decided to hire you as their new corporate training manager. Your task is urgent. The new Williams Gateway Airport terminals will officially open to the public in two months. On that day, there will be an official ribbon-cutting ceremony hosted by the mayor of Chandler and other dignitaries and the airport authority is expecting fully certified TSA employees ready to start work the following day.

 

Your budget is fairly large ($200K) and you have a staff of four instructional designers at your disposal, reporting to you.

 

Ideas to consider:

·      What technology will you use to get this project off the ground?

·      What will you spend your budget on?

·      What strategy will you use to roll out the training in such a short time period?

·      What does your project timeline look like?

·      How will you check for operator competency?

·      How will you set up the certification process?

 

You will need to present your strategy proposal to a Management Review Committee (MRC) who will have the ultimate approval authority for your project.

Case Study #3 – The USI Dilemma

 

United Semiconductor International (USI) is one of the fastest growing semiconductor manufacturing companies in the world thanks to revolutionary technology invented by their engineers that dramatically increases power and saves battery life in mobile phones and other devices using audio. A USI powered phone or PDA can go for almost twice as long as any competitor’s device on a single battery charge. This technology advantage has created much demand for USI’s audio and communications chips.

 

USI chip design and manufacturing is mainly carried out in Poland and Israel but with the huge demand for these chips, it will be necessary to begin adding manufacturing lines to USI’s factories in Mumbai, India; Cavite, Philippines and Trenton, NJ.

 

The Poland and Israel factories are superbly run operations but they are unable to supply the total number of chips required to fulfill incoming sales orders. Both of these factories are fiercely proud of their almost perfect record of safety and lack of manufacturing defects. However, when their senior management was approached on sharing this knowledge, both factory GMs were very reticent to share their knowledge and methods. Examples of excuses given were:

–       “This will take critical resources away from the manufacturing floor, where we need them”

–       “Our methods and processes are particular to our country/culture. It would be very difficult to copy what we do”

–       “Our training materials and specifications are not written in English – therefore, everything would have to get translated. This would take an impossibly long amount of time”

 

USI’s senior management does not believe these excuses hold any water and wants to begin implementing a training and knowledge management strategy in order to bring the three new factories online as soon as possible.

 

The three new factories must come online within two months and each has 200 employees working in three shifts that will need to be trained on the new process and new machines employed.

 

One problem is that the two working factories use different procedures and systems for their manufacturing although their equipment is identical. Which factory’s system and procedures would you use to create you training program? The folks in the corporate office have been talking for years about starting up a “copy exactly” program that would completely standardize the processes and procedures at all of the company’s factories. Perhaps this is a good time to start such a program?

 

After an exhaustive search, you have been hired as the new USI Corporate Factory Training Manager. Your task will be to provide all the appropriate training for the three new factories that will be coming online in the next few months. You have a team of three instructional designers at your disposal as well a 10 somewhat reluctant SMEs (5 from each factory) assigned to help you with the design of the training material.

 

Management has also asked you to consider working with them on the implementation of a Copy Exactly program for all of the factories. A program such as this one would take precedence over the training program as it would be a prerequisite before any standardized training material would be produced. Management wants to carry out this program but will leave up to you as to when to implement it – either before the new training is rolled out or after the training. If the decision is made to implement the Copy Exactly program prior to the new factory training, you will get an additional two months for this.

 

Most of the work that these factory folks do is mainly to load an unload wafer “boats” into the different processing machines. These machines communicate to their user via a 15 inch LCD panel that provides status information and also indicate when they need to be reloaded with a new set of wafers. It is critically important to follow the right order in processing each wafer boat as a misstep could cost over $100K per wafer (each wafer contains hundreds of microprocessor chips or “dies”). Once the machine is done processing the wafers, it releases them back into the boat and the operator then hands it off to the automated material handling system where it goes to the next station.

 

It should also be noted that safety is of the utmost importance because these machines are fed with highly volatile and poisonous chemicals through an internal system. But if any mishap should occur, the operator needs to know how to immediately shut down before any catastrophic accident happens.

 

Ideas to consider:

·      What technology will you use to get this project off the ground?

·      What will you spend your budget on?

·      How will you get the folks at the different geographies to cooperate?

·      What strategy will you use to roll out the training in such a short time period?

·      Will you opt for the implementation of the Copy Exactly strategy first? Why?

·      What does your project timeline look like?

·      How will you check for operator competency?

 

You will need to present your strategy proposal to a Management Review Committee (MRC) who will have the ultimate approval authority for your project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Case Study #4 – The State University – Turnover Trouble

 

The local state university has been troubled lately with a string of resignations mainly from its administrative and support staff. After implementing a series of exit interviews and surveys as well as an internal assessment of employee satisfaction, senior management determined that the main problem was related to lack of employee development opportunities. The local campus that is experiencing the high turnover does offer free tuition for campus employees but the classes offered are either taught at inconvenient times or the subject matter is of low interest to campus employees.

 

The surveys and interview data also indicate other possible problems:

–       Employees see no career building opportunities. There is no systematic program to train and promote employees in the campus administrative/infrastructure team

–       The private university a few miles down offers lots of night classes for its employees and pays a few more dollars an hour on average than the State university campus. Most of the departing employees are going there.

–       Because of strict State budget policies, salary raises are out of the question

 

If this trend continues, the cost of retraining the new folks that will have to be rehired will be very high. Therefore campus management is extremely concerned about this and wants this turnover problem solved immediately. An independent consulting company was hired to provide an assessment of the situation and also provide recommendations to solve the problem. Their recommendation was to immediately put in place an employee development system that would provide these folks the possibility of developing their skills. These folks actually discovered that employee dissatisfaction was rooted not so much because of salary issues but more along the lines of satisfaction with the work environment.

 

Not only did they find dissatisfaction with the lack of development opportunities but also with their management. Many of these managers are relatively new to their jobs and don’t fully understand or grasp what good management is all about. Many of them “micro-manage” their direct reports. This creates an unpleasant, low-trust environment that hampers productivity and creates a difficult, stressful work situation.

 

Management has received approval to hire a training and development specialist to solve this problem. After a long and arduous search process, you have been selected as the new campus staff Training and Employee Development Manager, reporting directly to senior management. Your marching orders are:

 

1. Stem the tide of support employees leaving
2. Improve the work environment by putting a T&D strategy to provide development opportunities to the support staff as well as some kind of management development program to provide campus managers better tools and skills to improve their management practices.

 

Time is of the essence for this project. Two more employees just announced their intentions to leave and management is starting to panic. You have been assigned a small staff consisting of one web designer, an instructional designer and a training administration specialist to support you. You also have a small budget of $150K to get started.

 

Management would like to see your strategy presented in three to four weeks and have you begin putting your program in place immediately after that.

 

The College of Business on campus has quite a few courses you could use for this program but these will require “re-purposing” of the material for internal use.

 

You have good contacts with several training vendors that carry excellent (but expensive) training products that you could purchase.

 

Ideas to consider:

·      What will be the first steps you take to get this project moving (fast)?

·      What will you spend your budget on?

·      What strategy will you use to roll out the training in such a short time period?

·      What does your project timeline look like?

·      How will you know you’ve been successful?

 

 

You will need to present your strategy proposal to a Management Review Committee (MRC) who will have the ultimate approval authority for your project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Case Study #5 – The WS Upgrade Challenge

Warehousing Solutions or WS as they are known in the warehousing industry, have been in business for more than 50 years.

 

Their work philosophy and environment are renowned in the industry. WS treats its workers well, generously sharing profits and providing good benefits for its employees and their dependents. A few years ago, WS gained nationwide attention by announcing a college tuition program for employees whose children achieved a certain GPA in their school work. Because of this, WS’s employee turnover numbers are some of the lowest in the industry. WS’s employees are fiercely loyal to their company and the average employee length of service is 15 years. The average employee age is 42.

 

WS’s warehousing operations are mainly based on materials of fairly large dimensions, usually stored on pallets. These pallets are moved around by fork lifts and placed directly on trucks moving the merchandise out. Typical items warehoused by WS are office furniture, heavy equipment for air conditioning and heating, some building supplied and other similar products.

 

The typical work process for a WS warehouse employee involves receiving a sales order from the customer support folks. This sales order is usually a printout indicating the product sold and the shipping destination. The employee will then go to the “map” – a large book that shows the location of different products within the warehouse. After consulting the map, the employee will then drive the forklift over to the general area where the goods are located and visually looks for the exact item. Once the item is located, he/she will bring the pallets over to the shipping area and the shipping specialists will inspect the goods, wrap and ship them accordingly. A single shipment, because of the large size of the items, could take several hours to prepare. Once the shipment is completed, the operator stamps the sales order with a “completed” stamp, signs his name to it, and places it in the “complete” bin in the office area.

 

WS has just signed a very lucrative contract with one of the country’s largest retailers to warehouse their entire jewelry line including watches. These items are kept in much smaller boxes than typically used in a WS warehouse. Also, a typical sales order for this kind of merchandise is for much smaller volume (two or three watches, for example).

 

Because of this, WS has decided to take the plunge in building a brand-new warehouse a few miles south of its main site. This new, state-of-the-art warehousing facility will feature the company’s first ever ASRS (Automatic Storage and Retrieval System). The ASRS in a robotic device that pulls the merchandise from a huge set of bins that store the merchandise. Operators using this new system will sit in front of a computer terminal where they will download a sales order coming from the sales department. They will then issue the appropriate commands to the ASRS to bring down the matching merchandise. Once the merchandise is brought down and checked, they will send a notification to the shipping department via the computer program messaging interface and place the merchandise on a conveyor belt together with the printout of the sales order.

 

There will be 400 WS employees transferring to the new warehousing facility together with another 200 or so new employee that will be hired later once the volume ramps to full capacity.

 

After a long and thorough job search, you have been hired by WS as the senior Logistics Systems Manager. You will be in charge of creating, overseeing and managing the training program for the 400 workers that will be transferring from the old warehousing facility to the new one.

 

Most of these employees have never used a computer for work. Some have computers at home but only use them casually for Internet surfing or e-mail. Most are eager to move to the new facility but also a bit nervous because they will need to not only relearn their job; they will need to learn how to use a pretty complex computer program that involves multiple screens, data entry and some barcode scanning.

 

The new facility is almost built and WS management has informed you that they expect to move the employees in about 5 weeks and they’d like to see their training start as soon as they’re in the new facility or even before then. The software team who has been working on the new software is offering two of their best programmers to help you as SMEs and you also have a team of 4 training specialists with skills in programming, ID and web design. You have a budget of $150K to get the project started and management wants to see your strategy and plan in one more week.

 

Ideas to consider:

·      What will be the first steps you take to get this project moving?

·      What will you spend your budget on?

·      What kind of training will you provide (blended, web-based, hands-on etc.)

·      How will you make use of the SMEs assigned to you?

·      What does your project timeline look like?

·      How will you know you’ve been successful?

 

 

You will need to present your strategy proposal to a Management Review Committee (MRC) who will have the ultimate approval authority for your project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Case Study #6 – Misbehavior on the Floor – Bad Bunnies

 

Green Bunny (GB) is a local ice cream manufacturer that has built a reputation as a producer of great-tasting ice cream. Its flavor combinations are very popular and its reputation has been growing beyond Arizona. Because of this success, GB has been building new factories and hiring employees at a very rapid pace without a lot of screening or thorough interviewing.

 

The personnel in these factories is about 65% male and 35% female and the GB’s executive staff is extremely concerned about sexual harassment allegations they’re starting to hear from some of these newer factories. GB’s legal advisor recently gave the executive staff an extensive presentation on this topic and highlighted a recent multi-million dollar harassment lawsuit won by female employees at a similar company. This presentation also highlighted the fact that managers of people accused of harassment can also be sued as individuals making everyone even more nervous.

 

Although there have been no formal harassment complaints made yet, the factory HR managers are reporting lots of “informal” reports from female employee on inappropriate behavior and other problems with some of the male employees in the factories. Many managers of the employees, when interviewed, say that that they are indeed aware of this problem but dismiss it with comments like “boys will be boys” or “they were only joking”.

 

GB’s executive staff is very worried about this issue and wants an immediate rollout of a Harassment Avoidance training program. After an extensive search for the right person, you have been chosen as the new Corporate Training and People Development Manager for the corporation, reporting into the VP of Human Resources. Your first assignment is to put in place a Harassment Avoidance training program in place within the next two months. You will need to present your plan to the executive staff in two weeks. The staff is expecting to see the following in your plan:

 

–       Cost

–       Method of training delivery

–       Staff needed

–       Critical Success Indicators (CSIs)

–       Roadmap for rolling out the program

 

Additional Information:

GB has three factories in AZ. All of them are in the metro Phoenix area. Each factory has about 450 employees. They work in two shifts; Shift 1 from 6AM to 3:00PM and Shift 2 from 4:00PM to 12­:00AM

 

Employees on the factory floor do not have access to PCs but most of them have reported that they have PCs at home.

 

You will need to present your strategy proposal to a Management Review Committee (MRC) who will have the ultimate approval authority for your project.

 

 

Case Study #7 – Learning Portal for Teachers

Desertville is a rural school district in northern Arizona with 36 schools , 180 teachers and about 10,000 students. While on a recent trip, the Desertville School District Superintendent was very impressed with many teaching tips and tricks she heard and saw from many of the district’s teachers. As she toured the schools, she realized that it would be extremely valuable if she could find a way for teachers to share these tips and ideas to enhance their teaching.

 

Because of the distances involved, it’s impossible for all of these teachers to meet on a regular basis to discuss these tips and tricks. So, based on articles she’s read, the Superintendent thinks this could all be done “online”. Thanks to a recently received grant from a wealthy private donor and an exhaustive search for the right training and development technologist, you have been selected as the school district’s newest professional. Your first mission is to put together a proposal for this “Learning Portal”.

 

Some questions for you to think about:

–       What technology will you use? Will it a simple website or more?

–       How will you get teachers to contribute? What if they’re not familiar with the technology?

–       How will you manage all this information

–       Will you allow teachers to upload video, pictures and other media?

 

Other requirements:

Your presentation should include not just the technology (software and hardware) but also how you plan to get teachers, parents and other community members to use the system and upload information to it. Also, what will your data retention policy be? Will you moderate this space? How will you keep teachers motivated to use this system once the novelty wears off?

 

What are your longer-term, more strategic thoughts for this project? Could the portal be used for other purposes?

 

You will be presenting a high-level plan to the school board executive members. Your presentation should include an overall set of objectives, the technology you plan to implement, the timeline for execution and also how you will engage the community, especially teachers. You should also outline the cost estimate for this project, not only for the initial setup but also for the ongoing maintenance that will need to be put in place.

 

Also – you will need to clearly state what your CSIs (Critical Success Indicators) will be and what metrics you aim to reach.

 

 

Case Study # 8 – Nuclear Worries

A recent emergency preparedness audit at the Alto Verde nuclear power plant revealed a workforce very poorly prepared for an emergency, especially a terrorist attack. Copies of this audit were sent to the Dept. of Homeland Security and plant management was instructed to get training put in place immediately to avoid fines and even a forced shutdown.

 

Apparently, there are several other nuclear power plants in the region facing this same problem so a federal grant (amount not disclosed) has been made available to create the training required to bring up the level of employee preparedness.

 

The emergency scenarios that this training should include are:

–       Terrorist attacks (all possibilities need to be considered)

–       Equipment malfunction scenarios including meltdown prevention

–       Radioactive material leakage

–       Theft and vandalism prevention

 

Workers at most of these power plants are unaware of the audit results and most of them believe that they are 100% competent in their skill area. Previous, classroom-based training has not been well received and there has been a lot of resistance to courses that have any testing (level 2) associated with them. Because most of the workers at these plants deal with computerized systems, their computer knowledge and skills are good.

 

After an extensive search, you have been selected as the leading specialist in high impact training programs and you have been commissioned with the task of designing a training program for these workers that will bring these power plants back into compliance with safety guidelines.

 

You have not been given an assigned budget yet as the management committee wants to hear your proposal first and decide based on that. Your proposal should include:

–       Details on the technology requirements you need

–       The people you will need to help you with this project, such as Instructional Designers, SMEs, etc.

–       An estimate of how long you think it will take to get this project off the ground and people trained.

–       How you will overcome the testing reluctance problem described above

–       Total estimated cost for the program

–       Success indicators

–       Program maintenance

 

You will need to present your strategy proposal to a Management Review Committee (MRC) who will have the ultimate approval authority for this program.

 

 

 

 

Case Study #9 the Sav-A-Life Hospital Story

Sav-A-Life Hospitalis a local, internationally renowned, 650-bed, not-for-profit, level 1 Trauma Center known for clinical excellence. Sav-A-Life is just one hospital belonging to a national company containing 40 Acute Care Facilities, employing over 40,000 Employees, and 7500 Active Physicians. Sav-A-Life Hospital(SALH)is seeking a cost effectivetraining solution to make training easily available 24/7 for its 4,000 employees that would equip them with the skills needed to effectively perform their job functions. The parent company is looking for SALH to be the flagship in determining how to train its employees. SALH’s employees speak a multitude of languages, range in age from 18 to 95, and have a wide variety of education levels. 

 

The current education or training programs include:

1.     Medical/surgical residency program

2.     Graduate medical education company with research facility

3.     On site School of nursing preparing baccalaureate prepared nurses.

4.     New employee orientation with varying education needs per department

5.     Ongoing Staff development

6.     Greater community education and training (car seats, patient education)

7.     Students from a wide variety of nursing and non-nursing programs rotating through clinical areas over the summer

 

A majority of the training consists of one 8-hour day filled with paper and pencil tests, hands on training, and traditional lectures. Employees are required to take courses, complete exams monthly or annually, and become certified or recertified regularly.  Many departments manage their own training and tracking systems with a paper file system. At present, SALH’s tracking of coursework and exams are inconsistent, and employees’ transcripts often lag behind their latest certification.

Due to a severe nurse and physician shortage in the greater Phoenix area, SALH is in need of a consistent training program for physicians, nurses, and other support staff. SALH is looking for an education and training solution that is cost effective, efficient, and able to keep up with the development of new technologies in the future. In addition to being cost effective the training solution must be flexible enough to not disrupt employees’ current workloads and schedules. (Most staff works 12 hr days or nights) And finally, it must be highly effective with the end result being a higher quality of care given to patients and families.

 

In addition to internal criteria set by local leadership; Federal and state accrediting agencies have mandated continuing education requirements, competency based certification training, patient safety training, and current licensure tracking to be completed and documented in each employee file. Upon course completion, the employee’s file needs to be readily available for any unannounced visit from the accrediting agencies. The employee and manager must be able to verbalize how they maintain competency at any given moment. An electronic report must be available 24/7 incase of surprise visits.

 

The education solution should also include some of SALH’s local creations:

1.     Integration of SALH’s clinical ladder: A system that calculates what education, committees, and special projects the employee has participated in over the past 12 months and they get compensation for it at the end of the year.

2.     Training program for managers and supervisors with competency assessment and evaluation.

3.     A staffing program that reflects patient acuity that can be accessed from home. Preferably the program will be smart enough to allow the qualified candidates to sign up for shifts while blocking the unqualified staff.

 

Management has received approval to hire a training and development specialist to solve this problem. After a long and thorough job search, you have been selected as the new campus staff Training and Employee Development Manager, reporting directly to senior management. Your marching orders are:

 

1. Create, implement, oversee and manage the hospital wide learning management system that supports the performance improvement process and decreases paperwork.
2. Create, implement, and oversee a tracking system able to handle instructor-led, webbased, and blended learning opportunites.
3. Create a program that interfaces with a staffing and acuity program with the training. (Example, If I take a charge nurse class, once the date is tracked I should be able to sign up for any open charge nurse shifts)

 

You also have a small budget of $150K to get started. Management wants to see your strategy presented in three to four weeks and have you begin putting your program in place immediately after that.

 

Ideas to consider:

·      What will be the first steps you take to get this project moving?

·      What technology will you use to get this project off the ground?

·      What kind of training will you provide (blended, web-based, hands-on etc.)

·      What will you spend your budget on?

·      What strategy will you use to roll out the training?

·      What does your project timeline look like?

·      How will you set up the license and certification tracking process?

·      What vendor/model makes sense for the SALH organization? LMS? Corporate University, or Simple education program.?

·      How will you know you’ve been successful?

·      How will you know when your job is done?

 

Remember, some of these employees have never used a computer for work. Many have computers at home but only use them casually for Internet surfing or e-mail and some employees have no computer skills.

 

You will need to present your strategy proposal to a Management Review Committee (MRC) who will have the ultimate approval authority for your project.

 

Case Study #10 Second Life for SL Insurance?

SL Insurance (SLI) is a new company that sells a wide variety of insurance products at a discount. In a market filled with competitors, SLI has decided that its business model is to aim its products to a distinctive younger demographic group. The target population is in the 18 – 35 range, mainly urban, educated and computer savvy.

 

A few months ago, SLI commissioned a comprehensive marketing study to examine the needs and concerns of the targeted demographic. One of the main problems the study found was that when potential customers were asked about different insurance products, a large majority (82.4%) did not fully understand the difference between products, pricing and their features. A second, and equally important problem is that the media SLI has been using, mainly magazine and radio commercials, are scoring low in the retention and penetration studies undertaken by the marketing team.

 

Sales have been flat to down in the last six months and the SLI management team is worried. After a three day retreat, the idea was hatched to create a new, radical and innovative way to market the company and its products, unlike anything seen before. One of the executives suggested that the best approach to increase sales should be a combination of cool marketing combined with a simple education program to clearly explain SLI’s products in a simple, straightforward way.  The team agreed on this approach.

 

Another of the younger company executives gave an exciting demonstration of the web-based application called “Second Life” where people get to interact in a virtual world and where more and more companies are setting up virtual offices for people to visit them. The SLI executive team was deeply inspired by this demonstration and unanimously agreed that it would make sense for SLI to set up a virtual office in Second Life.

 

Other marketing initiatives were also approved.

 

After much searching, one of the best marketing and training teams in the business was assembled to tackle this new strategy. As the Team Learning Technologist, your role is to put together the SLI virtual presence in the Second Life environment. This presence must include a simple way and “fun” way for prospective SLI customers to get information on the 124 difference insurance products the company offers.

 

Because the company has never attempted this before, the finance team is unsure of how much finding to allocate to you for this project. You need to provide a plan on what resources (including headcount) you need and also a brief description of what this virtual space will look like and how it will help customers learn about SLI’s product line.

 

 

You will need to present your strategy proposal to a Management Review Committee (MRC) who will have the ultimate approval authority for your project.

 

 

 

Case Study #11 Here comes the HD ATM!

Bank of the Future (BOTF) is a new banking institution that is known for its cutting-edge use of technology as applied to customer services. Its online presence and banking services are considered the most advanced in the industry.

 

BOTF’s executive team is justifiably proud of the bank’s reputation and they want to ensure that it remains intact. This means continually searching for new areas in which to innovate and provide services that no other banks provide.

 

Last week, Cash Systems Incorporated (CSI) gave the BOTF executive team a demonstration of their latest generation ATM generation. These ATMs not only dispense cash, they also allow customers to do things like apply for loans, increase credit limits and many other services not normally associated with ATMs. The BOTF was very excited by this demonstration and after much discussion, they have agreed to purchase 5 of these devices for a pilot program in Phoenix and Las Vegas.

 

The downside is that these new ATMs need to be programmed from scratch as CSI does not provide operating system services. They only provide the low-level software for security and other services. The top-level user interface needs to be provided by the appropriate bank that purchases the machine. This top level interface is usually a Linux-driven design and BOTF has an excellent team of programmers that can easily create the required screens for this.

 

The BOTF executive team is concerned however about the “user experience” and has decided to call you as one of the industry’s most renowned Learning Technologists for your advice. Among their concerns is that users of these new machines will not know how to appropriately navigate through all the options and could even make costly mistakes by hitting the wrong keys and/or options. They want to know from you what kind of training (if any) users would need to ensure minimal to non-existent user errors.

 

What solution would you propose here? What do you think the cost of this solution would be? Could you guarantee zero user errors?

 

You will need to present your strategy proposal to a Management Review Committee (MRC) who will have the ultimate approval authority for your project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Case Study #12 Explosives Disposal 101

Army personnel fighting in Iraq have been getting injured and also killed by Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) for several years now. The training wing of the US Army in Fort Monroe VA, was commissioned a few years ago to develop the appropriate training for soldiers in the field that would teach them to identify the many types of IEDs, avoid them and if so required, disable them.

 

The training team at Ft. Monroe produced a well-made computer-based training class that was delivered via CD-ROM to the soldiers in the field. Although the soldiers taking the course provided good level 1 evaluation feedback, the number of IED-caused injuries continued to go up despite the deployment of the training. The command team on the field is concerned and has decided to pull you in to lead a task force to possibly redesign the training to decrease the number of injuries.

 

After interviewing many of the soldiers involved in IED incidents, the task force found the following:

–       IEDs continue to change in shape, delivery type and power. The IED references in the current material are therefore no longer current

–       Soldiers get to watch videos and animations on how to approach an IED in the field but these videos were made in Virginia, where the terrain is very different to Iraq

–       Soldiers do not get a chance to practice with real props before having to go out on the field

–       There are a handful of very skillful soldiers in the field who know more about Iraq-based IEDs than anyone else and many look to them for advice and guidance. Several of these soldiers have already stepped forward to say they would be willing to help with the design of a new, more effective IED disposal course

 

The command team is in urgent need of this new training package and would like to deploy it as soon as you can have it ready. They have the following questions for you:

–       What kind of training would you recommend? CBT? Online? Face-to-face?

–       How long will it take for you to get this training ready to deploy?

–       What resources do you need to get it to the soldiers on the ground in 8-10 weeks?

o   Headcount

o   Equipment

o   Other expenses?

–       How will you measure the effectiveness of your training package?

–       How will you deal with the problem of constantly changing IEDs that require different disposal techniques?

 

You will need to present your strategy proposal to a Management Review Committee (MRC) who will have the ultimate approval authority for your project.

 

 

 

 

Case Study #13 – School Bus Runners 

The Cactus School District has a major safety issue on their hands. There have been multiple reports of motorists going around stopped school buses picking up or dropping off students. All of the district’s buses have an automated “Stop” sign than swings out when the bus is stopped to retrieve or pick up students. The sign also includes flashing lights to warn motorists to stop. However, these safeguards do not seem to be working as many motorists simply ignore the warnings and simply drive around the bus.

 

Last week, there was a near miss as a young student attempted to cross the street and was nearly run over by a motorist who had decided to ignore the stop sign. Parents are angry and upset at this situation and demanding the district do something.

 

The district Superintendent, after researching many different proposals to solve this issue, has decided to use the services of Traffic Technologies USA (TTU). TTU offers a brand-new technology that places cameras on the swing out Stop signs and also on the school bus to record the image of the violating drives as well as the license plate number of the car itself.

 

The system seems to work flawlessly and the Superintendent and other District officials are ready to equip all of their school buses with this new technology. This is TTU’s first major contract and its CEO and employees are ecstatic with this news.

 

As the work contracts are signed, TTU’s CEO realizes that they will also be responsible for providing all the user training for this system.

 

The main users of the system are the bus drivers. They need to ensure the system is working properly every morning and afternoon before they leave on their route. All video is captured by two cameras and streamed to a removable hard drive that the driver removes back at the office and plugs into a server. The server then retrieves the video data and sends it back to TTU’s main office for processing.

 

In essence, drivers need to know the following:

–       How to start up the system

–       Verify it’s working correctly (via a set of diagnostic screens that appear at startup)

–       Troubleshoot basic problems that could go from a bad hard drive to a blocked camera

–       How to correctly shut down the system at the end of their run

–       How to remove the hard drive and upload the data to the TTU server back in the office

 

You have been hired as a permanent employee of TTU as the company’s end-user training director and this will be your first project. The training must be well-matched to your users (mainly working Moms and some retirees), easy to take and should contain some basic testing to ensure users are operating it correctly.

 

 

TTU management wants to see a proposal from you that includes the following:

–       What modality of training you’ll use. In other words, what will the training look like? How will it be delivered?

–       How many people do you need to get this training developed and delivered?

–       What equipment do you need?

–       How long will it take you to develop, pilot and be ready to go?

–       How will you ensure that the drivers are using the system correctly?

 

You will need to present your strategy proposal to a Management Review Committee (MRC) who will have the ultimate approval authority for your project.

 

 

Case Study #14 – Managing Managers

The Intek Corporation, one of the area’s leading microchip manufacturers, has recently gone through a massive reorganization and now has hundreds of new managers who have never managed people before.

 

Working with Individual Contributors to successfully transition them to management roles involves two major fields of knowledge; The first is all the legal knowledge they need to know about hiring, firing and other kinds of disciplinary information; The second involves more the “art” of being a good people manager, which includes skills such as building trust and camaraderie in your team, using your power appropriately and managing conflict.

 

After extensive interviewing, you have been chosen to lead the new Manager training development team to provide these new managers the best and most effective training possible. You will have to decide how and when to train these new managers in the shortest possible time and in the most effective way possible. These new managers are scattered in over 32 countries.

 

Your budget and headcount allocation is not set yet as your management would like to hear from you as to how many people you will need to make this program a success as well as how you plan to tackle this challenge.

 

The management team is also interested in making sure whatever training you deploy is reusable as the company will be hiring new managers on a consistent basis so it needs to be an ongoing program, not a one-time program.

 

How will you tackle this?  What training delivery modality (ies) will you use?

How will you measure the success of the program

What resources do you need to make it a success?

 

You will need to present your strategy proposal to a Management Review Committee (MRC) who will have the ultimate approval authority for your project.

 

 

MRC Roles:

Here are the different roles you will be assigned during the presentations. Try to think what a person in that role would be concerned about and therefore ask as a result of the presentation:

• GM – Is the proposal coherent? Will it fulfill its mission and results based on the problems stated? Can you present this proposal to the executive staff with no reservations?
• Finance –As the finance person, your role is to make sure that spending is within the allocated budget. Do you think the proposed spending covers everything? Is the project likely to go over budget?
• Employee representative –As a likely recipient of this training – Do you believe that the presented proposal will solve the diagnosed problem based on the strategy proposed? Why?
• Training Representative – As the SME, Instructional Designer or Instructor assigned to this program, do you have any concerns? Is the project really executable as presented?

 

Graduate Capstone Project Plan

• Based on your graduate program, please review the Graduate Capstone Project File (download link found at bottom of this assignment).  This file will provide you a detailed view of what you will be working on in your final capstone course. You may want to consider joining a professional organization as you are looking to create a network of resources as you continue your educational journey.  As part of this assignment, please select one or more professional organizations from the table at the end of the Graduate Capstone Project File and be prepared to discuss with your instructor the potential advantages of joining a professional organization (e.g. journal subscriptions, conferences, educational resources, networking with other professionals in your field).
   
• Once you have reviewed your capstone project, you will email your instructor to set up a one-on-one live session. This session will allow you the opportunity to discuss your degree plan and any questions you may have regarding your graduate program. This live session is your assignment for the week and is a requirement. Be sure to email your instructor early within the week to ensure the meeting time the best accommodates your schedule. 

Capstones are in the attachements

 

( your looking for the  PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT)