Rapid Instructional Design: Learning ID Fast and Right, 3rd Edition

Chapter 6

Getting It Where It Does the Most Good: Implementation

This chapter will help you to:

• Initiate effective beta tests and pilots
• Determine the types of reviews necessary for your training program
• Find out about common implementation problems
• Develop train-the-trainer training when appropriate
• Implement your training programs more effectively

............Now you've come to what should be the easy part. At least you would think or maybe hope so. You've planned so hard, designed and developed so well, that the actual delivery should be pretty simple. It can be, too, if you follow a few good implementation practices. These practices are akin to the little extras you might put into our metaphorical house. They don't affect the structure of your program, and they may not even be necessary, but they add that extra little zing that separates the good ones from the great ones.

BETA TESTS AND PILOTS

The first of these implementation practices, and perhaps the most important, are beta tests and pilots. The purpose of these two processes is to check the viability of your course before you actually implement it. Due to their nature, we're discussing them here.

Beta Tests

Beta tests used to be called design tests. The term beta test has more or less been borrowed from the computer world, and it is beginning to be the common term for this process. You run a beta test to see how the ...