What are the best practices for using scenarios in technical skills training?

1 Define your learning objectives

Before you create any scenario, you need to have a clear idea of what you want your learners to achieve, and how you will measure their progress. Learning objectives are statements that describe the specific skills, knowledge, or behaviors that learners should demonstrate after completing the training. They should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Learning objectives will help you align your scenarios with your desired outcomes, and provide a framework for assessing your learners' performance.

2 Choose the right type of scenario

When creating learning objectives, it is important to use different types of scenarios to suit the needs and preferences of learners. Case studies are stories or examples that illustrate a real or hypothetical situation and ask learners to analyze, discuss, or solve it. This type of scenario is great for developing analytical, critical thinking, and decision-making skills. Role plays involve learners taking on different roles and interacting with each other or with an instructor in a scripted or improvised scenario. This type of scenario is beneficial for developing interpersonal, communication, and collaboration skills. Branching scenarios are interactive scenarios that present learners with multiple choices or paths and show them the consequences of their actions. This type of scenario helps to develop problem-solving, reasoning, and judgment skills as well as providing feedback and reinforcement.

3 Design your scenarios with the learner in mind

When designing your scenarios, you should take into account the learners' characteristics, such as their prior knowledge, experience, motivation, and learning styles. Additionally, it's important to think about the context and relevance of your scenarios in relation to the learners' goals, needs, and challenges. To ensure high-quality scenarios, you should make them realistic and authentic with real or plausible situations and data that reflect the learners' work environment and tasks. Additionally, make sure your scenarios are engaging and challenging for the learners to capture their attention, interest, and curiosity. Furthermore, ensure that your scenarios are clear and concise with simple language, format, and structure. Avoid scenarios that are too abstract, vague, long or detailed. Balance the cognitive load and emotional impact of your scenarios to make them neither too easy nor too hard.

5 Evaluate your scenarios with the appropriate criteria and tools

After you deliver your scenarios, you should evaluate their effectiveness and impact on your learners' learning outcomes. Use the learning objectives you defined earlier as criteria for evaluating performance, providing feedback, and recognition. Utilize appropriate tools and methods to collect and analyze data on learners' reactions, learning, behavior, and results. Tests and quizzes measure knowledge, comprehension, or application of skills or concepts taught in the scenarios, while surveys and questionnaires measure attitudes, opinions, or satisfaction with the scenarios. Observations and interviews observe or ask learners about their actions, behaviors, or outcomes after completing the scenarios for in-depth and rich data on behavior and results.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?