Come join us on the evening of November 17th for the last ASTD event of the year. There will be 4 different wines to sample as well as appetizers in a private room at The Chop House. From 5:30 to 7:30 p.m at

Another rewarding aspect of having been a Board member for several years is that I have watched the Chapter progress from being a lesser known entity to a better known and better organized one. This is the first year that our membership has gone over the 100 mark, and I’m proud to be part of that. It is interesting to note that the Las Vegas Chapter has only 200 members despite the fact that it is drawing its membership from an area with a much, much larger population. This year we have also become 100% compliant with the ASTD National CORE Requirements for Chapters, and we feel we have gotten closer in touch with the needs of our members through the Membership Survey we conducted earlier in the year. And of course we don’t want to stop there; we plan to keep growing and offering more and more services to our members and the community as a whole.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank this year’s Board members for all the work they have done in 2004 (and for all the fun we’ve had!):

• Chris Champagne, for wearing two hats, those of President-Elect and VP Marketing. Chris has great ideas for next year, and he’s going to be an involved, creative genius of a President!
• Jeanne Underwood, for being the best and most organized VP Administration yet. Jeanne has kept us all on target and seems incredibly eager to bite off large chunks of work and get them done quickly and efficiently!
• Julie Lamoureaux for going beyond the call of duty as Treasurer. Julie took over from Cheryl Hinman, who had done a fantastic job of organizing finances that were in disarray, and Julie has taken this position to the next level by putting in long hours introducing new software and doing a lot of re-organizational work to make our finances as transparent as they need to be!
• Beth Blackwood, VP Membership Recruitment, for developing a truly vested interest in driving the growth of membership; without her hard work, I don’t think we could have passed that 100th member mark!
• Carol Lopez, VP Membership Retention, for essentially creating her own position and cheerfully taking on all kinds of tasks that are not listed in her job description!
• Cheryl Woehr, VP Programs, for doing an extraordinary job of lining up great programs for us this year. Cheryl, who is staying on the Board in 2005, has gotten so good at her job, she has a lot of speakers already committed for next year!
• Ted Zimmerman, VP Communications, for stepping up to the plate when we needed him to take on both the website and the newsletter!
• Kurt Frohlich, Director at Large (and President-Elect in 2005), for his incredible drive, hard work ethic, dependability, thoughtful input – and dry sense of humor!
• Tom Goss, also Director at Large, for supporting our activities despite his demanding work schedule!
• And Patricia Tuecke, Past President, for being the most contributory and active Past President this Chapter has ever seen!

The 2004 Board is a fantastic, committed group of people, and I salute them all for being excellent team members; in addition, seven of them, Chris, Kurt, Jeanne, Julie, Cheryl, Carol, and Ted, are assuring a smooth transition into 2005 by remaining on the Board and welcoming new team members Cathy Mastrantuono, Traci Levasseur, and Donna Chase to the Board.

I have already mentioned the upcoming Board Retreat. Most of the 2004 and 2005 Board members will be attending in order to plan our Chapter goals and events for 2005. The Retreat attendance doesn’t have to be limited to Board members. If any other Chapter members wish to attend to offer their input in our planning session, you are very welcome. This all-day event will be held starting at 9 a.m. on December 5th at the offices of the Nevada Association of Employers, 6119 Ridgeview Court, Suite 500, Reno. We only ask that you indicate your intention to attend by calling me at 329.4241. Even if you don’t attend, we are very interested in receiving your input! Please feel free to contact any of the Board members with your comments at any time; you will find a link to our contact information below.

And finally, I would like to thank all of you – our membership – for having made this a memorable year in the history of our Chapter! We have experienced an excellent turnout and active participation at all of our 2004 events. Let’s continue to work together to maintain and grow this organization as one that is truly reflective of our members’ needs, both those that remain constant and those that are changing. As stated in our Mission Statement, “We are committed to enhancing and facilitating the development and leadership of individuals involved in Training and Human Resources,” the ASTD Sierra Nevada Chapter exists to be of benefit to all its members. As we go forward as a group and as individuals, we want to become better and better at what we do, and we can help each other achieve that goal.

Thank you!!! and best regards,

Shelley

Shelley MacDonald
ASTD Sierra Nevada Chapter 2004 President

	Least Useful Instructional Methods?
Peter C. Honebein, Ph.D. In last month's column I presented a list of the 16 most useful instructional methods. This month I discuss the least useful methods that emerged from the study. Additionally, I'll introduce some new paradigms in training that help explain why some methods are being pushed to the top of the list, and some to the bottom. The data for the pilot study comes from a survey of ten training professionals who are enrolled in a Masters- level instructional strategies course.  The group evaluated 31 instructional methods in relation to learning domains, number of students, and desired outcomes. Each interaction was rated on a five-point scale, where 1 equals not useful and 5 equals very useful. We collected a total of 837 individual measures, which we then aggregated so that each instructional method was represented by a single score.  The following tables compare the least useful instructional methods with the most useful methods we discussed last month. Least Useful Instructional Method Mean Score (5-point scale) Most Useful Instructional Method Mean Score (5-point scale) Group Discussion, Guided 3.44 Game 4.01 Lecture, Guided Discovery 3.43 Role Play 3.91 Socratic Dialog 3.32 Problem Solving/Lab 3.83 Interview 3.31 Simulation 3.82 Discovery, Individual 3.31 Project 3.78 Drill and Practice 3.22 Guided Laboratory 3.73 Independent/Learner Control 3.21 Field Trip 3.70 Tutorial, Conversational 3.19 Team Project 3.69 Debate 3.15 Laboratory 3.67 Panel Discussion 3.12 Discovery, Group 3.65 Group Discussion, Open 3.05 Cooperative Group Learning 3.58 Tutorial, Programmed 2.96 Think Tank/Brainstorm 3.57 Ancient Symposium 2.96 Apprenticeship 3.51 Lecture/Speech 2.66 Seminar 3.46 Quiet Meeting 2.61 Demonstration 3.46 Case Study 3.45 In looking at this data, two key principles emerge: 1.      Discovery-oriented methods are favored over expository methods. Discovery-oriented methods are those in which learners have significant control over what they learn and how they learn it. Games, Role Plays, Problem Solving, Simulation, and so on offer this type of experience. Expository methods, such as Lecture/Speech and Tutorial (Programmed), assume the trainer is the giver of knowledge and the student is the passive receptacle.  2.      Structured discovery methods are favored over unstructured discovery methods. Look at the bottom of the least useful list. Group Discussion (Open), Ancient Symposium, and Quiet Meeting are all discovery- oriented methods. However, they are very unstructured, meaning they are not strongly linked with well-defined objectives. In a Quiet Meeting, for instance, people sit quietly for 15-60 minutes, reflecting and meditating. During an Ancient Symposium, a group gathers to share food and entertainment, and informally discuss topics of interest. Both sound like fun, but in an age of return-on-investment, objective outcomes, and accountability, these are risky strategies. Hence, Games, Role Plays, Problem Solving, and Simulation offer a discovery orientation with sufficient structure that offers consistent results. These principles sound wonderful, but what about practicality? I believe we can all agree that the most useful methods take the most time to develop, while the least useful methods take little or no time to develop.  There is no doubt that having a class sit quietly for an hour is easy instruction to develop. My kindergarten teacher simply called this "nap time". The same goes for lectures - in the simplest of cases a couple of PowerPoint slides and you are done. So why are training designers, a group notoriously known for having limited resources, advocating methods that require more time to develop and are more complex to deliver? I think it has to do with the shift from industrial age paradigms to information age paradigms, which my colleague at Indiana University, Charlie Reigeluth, advocates. The industrial age promoted structure. Standardization, centralized control, autocratic decision-making, compliance, and parts orientation were some of the paradigms that guided how people thought. These paradigms, of course, influenced the design of training. Teaching machines, rote memorization, and the control given to instructors illustrate the information age mindset. But in the information age flexibility has increasing importance. Customization, autonomy with accountability, shared decision making, initiative, and process orientation are some of the paradigms that are driving our thinking. While the industrial age conditioned us to embrace structure, the information age is slowly weaning us to be more flexible. As such, the instructional methods we now find most useful are those that allow us to explore and discover, but in a way that respects industrial age sensibilities. I've been having good success with the most useful methods lately. In a recent project for a Fortune 500 financial institution, I've converted a two-day instructor-led, lecture- oriented course into a five-hour self-instructional e-learning program. It goes without saying that the primary instructional methods for the new course are role- playing, problem solving, and simulation. Development costs were high, but our pilot tests show that learners relish the experiences the course offers. This outcome, combined with the sponsors predicting a significant return-on- investment, make the most useful instructional methods a wise choice. The prioritized list of instructional methods sets you on a path to develop great instruction. However, for these methods to work effectively you must ensure that the content and context embedded within the activities are realistic and relevant. The term used to describe this is called authentic activities, and I'll discuss their nature next month. Postscript Here are the links that did not appear in last month's newsletter. These links elaborate the results of the study. ·        ; Summary statistics in .xls format (be sure to click the tabs at the bottom .xls document) ·        ; Bloom's taxonomy (learning domains) ·        ; De scriptions of some key instructional methods Dr. Peter C. Honebein is principal of Honebein Associates, Inc., a Reno-based consulting firm established in 1987 that provides services for human performance improvement, instructional design, and marketing. He is the author of two books, numerous articles, and presents at national training and marketing conferences. He also holds academic appointments as adjunct professor at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Business, and the Indiana University School of Education. Article © 2004 Honebein Associates, Inc.

	Donna Chase's National ALC Conference Experience.
I recently had the privilege of representing our Sierra Nevada chapter at the National ALC Conference. It was a gathering of incredibly creative and passionate people. I truly appreciated the honor of being selected to attend that event. There were 4 keynote speakers: 1. Hyrum Smith (presented by Franklin Covey) "Eight Secrets of a Successful Business" Hyrum discussed the (4) things that people want: Balance, Simplicity, Success and Effectivness. He identified (2) things we must do to achieve these things: 1. "Know and live your values." 2. "Have immediate access to information." He discussed the "Franklin Process": 1. Identify my governing values. 2. Prioritize the values. 3. Write a clarifying statement for each value. 2. Rita Bailey (ASTD National Board of Directors - formerly with Southwest Airlines) "The Leadership Legacy." Rita's motto is: QCF (Quality, Value, Fun) She discussed the need for connection the National ASTD vision and cause. To "make the world work better" we need to: 1. Eliminate "the box." 2. Outreach - Collaborate with partners. 3. Draw Attention to our cause through effective communications. 3. Ancella Livers (presented by The Center for Creative Leadership) "Holistic Leadership" Ancella discussed holistic leadership development. She encourages everyone to look for synergies in their work, personal and volunteer capacities. She had the audience define their occupations (percentage wise) in terms of: 1. Challenge. 2. Assessment. 3. Support. 4. Recognition. 4. Tony Bingham (National ASTD - CEO)Tony discussed the ups and downs of National ASTD finances. He also revealed that next year's ALC Conference will be free of charge! I also attended several excellent workshops, including: 1. "Crucial Confrontations" - Tom Peters. This class was about the #1 reason for "poor corporate results": We avoid, avoid, avoid.... and coerce, coerce, coerce....and will experience greater success once we learn to effectively confront (have that discussion that holds a person accountable for a high stakes GAP between what we expected... and what we got). The theory is that if we do not TALK it out... we will ACT it out. 2. "Programming and Presidents - Putting it all together with Presence" - Donna Steffey & Catherine Johns. These ladies from the Chicago land Chapter discussed creative themes for chapter programs, messages and marketing, as well as ways to boost membership; they LOVED the wine tasting idea!!! They also discussed and demonstrated how to present a polished, professional business presence. 3. "Creating Strategic Partnerships that Work for Your Chapter" - Kate Culligan & Christie Ward The Rocky Mountain Chapter shared numerous "tried and true" ways to increase chapter effectiveness. They provided templates for sponsorship proposals and many ideas for win-win partnerships in the community. 4. "ASTD Competency Model" - Jennifer Naughton, ASTD National. This course provided a detailed explanation of the ASTD Competency Model and a snapshot of ASTD's emerging pilot certification offering, which will be rolled out starting in June, 2005. Overall, this conference was time very well spent. It was enlightening and fun. I encourage all members to attend next year's conference.

Quick Links...

ASTDNevada.org Last Month's Newsletter Membership Directory

Join ASTD Sierra Nevada Chapter ASTD Training Buzz