Survey Asks Trainers: What Works?

A recent survey of 1,344 training professionals covers matters ranging from budgets to most effective T&D practices. Results of the 2008 Training Manager Survey can be viewed online.

Among the many questions put to trainers was this: "Select the top three training and development practices you feel are the most effective". The graph above shows instructor-led training was, by far, the top pick at 69%. E-learning hung back in 5th place with 43%, but was still far ahead of the remaining six choices.

Jim Donoho of Metri-Mark Inc. offered these highlights from the survey results:

• 47% expect a moderate decline in training budgets due to the economy (The survey closed Oct. 20, 2008, so it reflects at least some of the latest economic turmoil.)
  
• 71% of respondents said that their e-learning practices have changed the most in the past 2 years
• 66% strongly agree that e-learning is more effective when combined with other forms of learning
• 43% strongly agree that e-learning is not a substitute for face-to-face classroom learning.

New Blog Focuses on Teaching Games

We've added a new blog at www.fun-learning-tools.com. If you are a teacher, principal, student or parent, the new blog offers you news, reviews and ideas to make learning more fun and effective.

The blog you are reading now (www.gamesfortraining.com) will stay focused on training and presentation games in the workplace, government and nonprofit organizations. For either blog, your comments are welcome.

Precision: More or Less a Good Thing?

Author Seth Godin offers a fresh insight on quizzes and testing in a blog post that begins with an unfortunate quiz bowl experience.

No Pain, No Train

Trainers and educators face the Confidence Paradox on a routine basis.

The paradox is known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect, named after the scientists who observed "the skills that engender competence in a particular domain are often the very same skills necessary to evaluate competence in that domain—one's own or anyone else's. Because of this, incompetent individuals lack... the ability to know how well one is performing, when one is likely to be accurate in judgment, and when one is likely to be in error." (APA Journal article)

How do you break through the Confidence Paradox in training?

Games can help. Here at Bodine Training Games, we think one great value of training and review games is to deliver consequences for ignorance, faulty or obsolete knowledge without anyone needing to suffer real-world damage from it.

The game show atmosphere has the unique ability to make mundane questions feel like there's a lot at stake. So when a person delivers a wrong answer to a training question -- especially an answer he is confident is right -- the correction is accompanied with a twinge of pain and a loss of points and even pride. See that grimace on the trainee's face? That's the look of learning. It's not painless when the bubble of unearned confidence gets popped. But it's a matter of no pain, no train. Fortunately, the pain is delivered in the harmless form of a fun game, while the lessons learned are ready to take away to the real world.

Do you have tales or tips related to the Dunning-Kruger Effect? Let's hear from you.

New Spelling Software Helps Young Minds Prep for Spelling Tests

SpellQuizzer: That's how you spell the new spelling software that 
makes it fun and fast for parents, kids and teachers to team up for 
better scores on spelling tests.


Designed by a parent to help his own child excel at spelling, this 
educational software by TedCo turns spelling drills from a chore 
to a fun computer activity.


I wish this software had been around when my kids were young. I would 
have paid far more than the $29.95 price of this software to help them 
spell well and to hear less whining about spelling homework. Here's a 
free trial of this Windows spelling test software.

Game Show Prize Ideas

You don't have to roll out new cars and luxury vacations to motivate people with prizes for your training or classroom game show. Many trainers and educators find a great way to hit the sweet spot of motivation is with candy as a prize.

Recently we spoke to a college professor who adds a clever twist to this idea with money-theme candy as the prizes. Top score gets the "100 Grand" bar. Other top performers might get a"Pay Day". And the "Zero" bar makes an amusing consolation prize.

Candy Favorites.com has one-stop shopping for money-theme candies, including the candy bars mentioned above plus chocolate coins, money lollipops, and a Fort Knox stamped "gold bar" tin filled with chocolate coins.

Quizzes as Trade Show Booth Attractions

If your organization exhibits at trade shows, fairs or events, here's an article at the trade-show-advisor.com about the use of quizzes as an attraction. There's a special Exhibitor's Bundle of Game Show Presenter that caters to the exhibitor's needs. It has been used at trade shows large and small, as well as in state fairs, visitors' centers and corporate events.