In designing participant-centered training, many instructors use questions to help process information. In addition to process-type questions, we may want to ask questions that focus on specific thoughts, feelings and behaviors. We as instructors have to remember the old adage in education, “Training is not about the instructor; it is about the student.” The training purpose is about what participants learned from the experience - not what the instructor knew about the subject matter. Perhaps if we used participation more in training and asked some of the following questions, more might be learned. Here are 10 questions to consider the next time you use participation in your training:

Adapt this puzzler to your content. Once the puzzle has been worked out, use the activity to start a discussion on attention to detail, creative thinking or problem solving. Set-up Script Pretend you are training pharmaceutical representatives or medical professionals of any kind. Once they have the puzzle (either projected or on chart paper), ask which Margaret likes doing: writing scripts or giving samples and why? Hint: Where are the silent letters?

Sometimes showing is much more effective than telling. Almost every teacher or trainer has at some time thought a particular scene would make a great learning point in a program. Over the years, I’ve used a number of movie clips in a variety of training programs. Why? Because Hollywood has more money to spend on movies and usually has better actors than we can afford in corporate training videos. When I was doing a program for the Defense Security Institute, I used a clip from Beverly Hills Cop where Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) climbs the fence of a bonded warehouse. When accosted, Axel turns the situation around and soon has everyone opening doors, files, and just about everything else.

Lora Haasl, Supervisor of Instructional Innovation & Technology Lab, West Texas A&M University, Canyon, put together a variety of optical illusions and graphics in PowerPoint to get discussion going as participants first enter the room. “Most of these are set to run continuously and to loop until you stop the slideshow,” Haasl explained. “I play music in the background.” You’ll see two of her chosen illusions here. One is a chalk drawing—to make this truly an opener, ask how this artist has challenged perspective, or what it means to create something larger than one’s self. Or perhaps ask how one can truly interact with one’s work or be truly involved in the process.

Sharing the Visual Wealth Slideshare.net just announced its World’s Best Presentation winners. Slideshare.net allows users to upload their PowerPoint presentations for general viewing or for select group viewing. Kind of like YouTube for the PP geek set. You can look at the winning presentations and get ideas on graphics, font sizes, colors, etc., as well as find presentations on information that might be similar to yours for some stimulating ideas. Or a deck on “Beautiful French News Girl” which has nothing to do with yours.

Managers before training have the number one responsibility for making sure training sticks; however, getting manager buy-in can be difficult. What ways have you found to effectively get managers enthusiastic about sending staff to training and becoming involved in making sure training transfers? Write us at EzineEditor@BobPikeGroup.com. We would love to share your great ideas with others who struggle. Or if you have other creative training tips (ways to choose group leaders, tips for choosing a great facility for training, new technology or websites as resources, effective visuals, etc.), let us know about them!

Hi, this is Learning Oddfellow. I am an “avatar” created by Elliott Masie and I live in a virtual world called Second Life. As an “avatar,” I am both High-Fidelity and also other-worldly. And, as my name implies, I am all about learning. My life is a bit different and I’d like to let you use me as a tool to better understand the world of gaming and virtualization for the world of learning. So, I’ve asked my creator, Elliott Masie, to interview me with some unrehearsed and probing questions: Masie: Why would anyone want to leave the very real world to go to a virtual world for important corporate learning?

Participants at a recent BPG Boot Camp ranked “Learning and Retention” as their number one need-to-know area of interest for the two-day session. We’d like your input on how you increase learning and retention in your training and presentations or how you’ve modified activities (adapted, adopted and applied) and information gleaned from us. Contributions will be featured in future ezines or our sister publication, Bob Pike’s Creative Training Techniques. Email us at ezineeditor@bobpikegroup.com with your thoughts. Be sure to include your name, company, title and location.

The internet has become, more than ever before, a forum for social change! With two clicks, I can now show you a cool site instead of just trying to describe it or email you the link. And there are so many useful tools available on the web. When trying to do training well, you are not alone and there are tons of sites to prove it! As I read industry journals, ezines, e-letters and press releases, I come across dozens of websites that have relevant information that can help trainers become even better at what they do. So now there is a site where you can see my favorite training “bookmarks” and you can add your favorite training sites to mine.

HR and Training Jobs Secure With many human resource professionals retiring, companies trying to rein in healthcare costs and regulatory agencies instituting new requirements, HR job availability should increase. According to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics... FREE PodCast on PodCast Creation Do you create PodCasts for your training? Management Meets Employee Expectations Half of the Time Krauthammer International, Brussels, surveyed people from various industry sectors researching the behavior employees seek from their managers. Managers did not meet expectations about half of the time.