Is live training best - Part 2
So what was wrong with the scenario described in the previous post? It wasn't the Application Specialist's fault. It wasn't the sonographers' fault either. The problem was that the entire training situation was suboptimal. Let's look at some of the reasons why:
- Too much time at once - Studies have shown that the average attention span falls somewhere between 15 and 18 minutes. But the Application Specialist was there all day. In most cases you will have a high degree of productivity initially and then retention is really going to drop off. Did you notice that the beginning of the day was when they spent time learning to turn on the machine? By the time they got to more interesting topics later on in the day the sonographers' brains were probably already overloaded.
- No pre-training - When the Application Specialist showed up there hadn't been any pre-training. She was going to have to teach the customer everything, even basic skills such as activating 2D modes.
- No training resources were left behind - When the day was over the Application Specialist left and the sonographers had nothing that would help them further study what they had learned that day.
- Too many interruptions - With patients coming in all day the training process was constantly interrupted.
- No individual pacing - All of the sonographers had to move at the same pace. Those who picked up on things quickly would most likely drift off as the Application Specialist re-explained something to another sonographer. Someone who missed something might feel too embarrassed to ask for clarification on a subject.
In our next posting we will analyze how the incorporation of the Blue Mango Learning System can dramatically improve this scenario.