5 Easy Steps to Effective Training and Teaching—Online or Onsite

It seems like everyone is learning something new over the past couple of weeks as the spread of Coronavirus COVID-19 forces people to remain as productive online as onsite. As an educator, I see many of my skilled colleagues, employer partners and even students scramble to adjust to novel ways of getting their work done effectively. I have enjoyed a long career professionally developing early or new career professionals in both modalities. But even without years of experience, I think we can all agree that learning new things—especially in the current anxiety filled atmosphere, can be intimidating. That’s why it is so important to get it right the first time. Following is a simple framework I feel best captures the essential elements of any effective training or teaching effort, which I call the KOHRR model.

KOHRR (pronounced ‘cor’) stands for Knowledge, Observation, Hands-on, Reflection and Repetition. At each stage of this 5 step process, the learner is gains a different understanding of whatever it is they are being introduced to learning. Each successive part of the process builds on the other and if one part is not fully addressed, then the learning is compromised. Let’s start with the how to handle the knowledge part.

1.      KNOWLEDGE: When learning something new, it is important to seek out persons who are experts in the thing you need to learn. It is critical that such expertise go beyond just an academic knowing of something into real, practical experience. For example, when on-boarding new members of my team, I connect them with people who are excellent at doing whatever it is they need to do. This knowledge guru has the most accurate and complete command of the people I can find to share with my newbie. I must admit, it’s not always me, so I will bring in those experts or draw upon their knowledge (maybe with a manual) to facilitate optimal information and resource gathering in this stage. But expert knowledge is just the foundation of learning.

2.      OBSERVATION: Next, the learner must have the opportunity to observe that expert performing what was theoretically established in the first step. I’m sure you have heard of “learning through observation,”? Although this stage has its limits, I believe it is definitely true and beneficial to any training protocol. It is critical to include a period where whomever I am training is required to watch the flawless execution of whatever they are being trained to do. When this happens, it establishes a visual template of sorts for how the learner might accomplish that result themselves. This should ideally happen in real time, but video recorded observation can be a suitable supplement, if that is not possible. Just be sure to integrate methods for getting timely answers to any questions.

3.      HANDS-ON: This step finally puts the learner into a more active role by putting to practice what they have been reading, observing and hopefully, absorbing in the earlier 2 stages. For students, this might be a chance to conduct an internship or other type of experiential learning. Some of my students are considering remote internships so they can still have a hands-on opportunity to learn about their career interest. To revisit the example of on-boarding a new hire, it can be very valuable to get some hands-on experience doing what they are actually being trained to do so they can get a literal feel for doing the work themselves. If you are the person teaching the newbie, please be patient since nobody and nothing is perfect—even with practice! If mistakes are made, consider them messages for what may need to be approached from a different perspective or more thoroughly. Be sure to also point out specific, measurable ways that your trainee/student is doing well by providing praise and encouragement. This will fuel motivation to persist in trying, even when your student is struggling to grasp something and especially for your students who may be ‘at risk’ of failure.

4.      REFLECTION: If I can pinpoint the stage where many training programs are lacking, I must say this is it. So many trainers or teachers try to cram in as much as possible in one lesson, not realizing that it diminishes the overall achievement of their learning goals. Allow your student or trainee the vital time they need to reflect on individual concepts and everything that has happened in the first three stages. That may mean 5 minutes or 5 hours or 5 days. This is key not just for feedback purposes, when you hope to spur improvement but also for processing the experience and even maybe fostering innovations in whatever that person is learning. And speaking of feedback, you will definitely want to solicit honest and timely evaluations of the training process that your trainee has undergone. Trust me, when I was a new at teaching students online, I made the mistake of thinking that just because I taught it, they must have learned it—but as I matured, I realized how to incorporate reflection in my methods for better digestion of the material. 

5.      REPETITION: One last tip. Have you ever been taught something by someone once and then felt their annoyance if you dared ask to be shown a 2nd time? Maybe they looked at you confused asking, “didn’t we go over that this morning?” In my experience, if any learning is taking place, repetition is central to its reinforcement. Experts theorize that mastery of something takes thousands of hours of practice and a devoted amount of time doing that thing over and over again so it becomes almost like a natural reflex. Even if your goal is not these lofty levels of achievement, you should include this final step into your teachings so the learner can more easily remember what they have learned.

So that’s my KOHRR model of training and teaching. (Knowledge, Observation, Hands-on, Reflection and Repetition.) 

What do you think? Did I miss anything? What do you think is most important to training a new team member? Have you been able to apply any of these elements in your student teaching work? Comment below so we can learn from each other!