I have been offering training programs for Instructional Design and all the training programs I have done so far have been classroom training programs. Before I begin my training program, I make sure I do the following:
- Give people a pretest to assess their current knowledge/skill levels .
- Interact a lot and try to understand their personality type, their likes and dislikes and learning preferences.
This really helps me customize my training program to suit my learner needs and choose the right approach for my training programs.
Now that I am planning to take my training program online ( via web conferencing), apart from regular pre-training assessments, I am going to give my learners an additional assessment - ONLINE READINESS ASSESSMENT.
Why an Online Readiness Assessment?
While I want to take my training program online, I also think I must not assume that people will be comfortable and will be ready for an online training program. This is because quite a few people who I have spoken to (in India) have been reluctant to take an online training program due to various reasons such as:
- No internet at home
- Long work hours at office
- Low bandwidth issues
- No confidence/not comfortable learning online
This is when I thought an online readiness assessment will help me get the right candidates for my online training program. I spent some time googling for online readiness assessments and found quite a few interesting assessments designed for students. I particularly liked this online readiness assessment that has questions pertaining to :
- Time management – Learner’s readiness to manage time especially if there are going to be offline activities exercises.
- Technology – Details about internet usage , internet speed etc.
- Class Preferences – Learner’s attitude and preferences when it comes to online lectures, offline activities, online discussions etc.
Thanks to Google, I got some good examples of Online Readiness Assessment. Now that I have got a clue, I would frame some questions to check learner readiness for my online training program 
Have you done an online readiness assessment? Please share your thoughts here.
Congratulations on providing your training course online.
I am a doing MS through online. Before applying, I took many online readiness assessments. Each one gave me different scores; a few assessments encouraged me to take it online but others not so much. Since, I had made up my mind that I wanted to achieve my degree through online only, none of these assessments could discourage me. However, to kick start, I read many articles that helped me prepare for online education. For eg.
http://bit.ly/blQ1yt
http://bit.ly/9ANUoO
http://bit.ly/ckpMug
My point here is, at times, online readiness assessment discourages even a potential candidate. Apart from the readiness assessment, provide your students with good, well written articles that would motivate and bring out their self confidence and make them say, ‘Yes, I can do this’.
• If the internet connection is an issue, provide them with asynchronous tools.
• Online education may make a student isolate, the solution to it can be; make it collaborative, encourage them to participate in Discussion boards.
• Use Keller’s ARCS model — attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction in designing your course work.
• Provide them instant feedback’s, which will not only motivate the learners, but also you can assure them that they are not left alone.
Good Luck.
Thank you so much for the article links and suggestions here