For your assignments, you will assume the role of the head of a modest training department in a medium-sized organization. Your organization has merged with another like organization and will need to train all employees on the new corporate culture as well as new work systems, such as timesheets, payroll, file servers, etc. The director of Human Resources has tasked you to develop a training proposal for the organization and recommend a training solution. The catch is that you need to deliver this training in three (3) months and money is tight because of the expense of the merger. The new CEO is also skeptical of training and your department, as he thinks anyone can produce training and believes those fancy Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) courses are a waste of money. Your assignment will be to write a training proposal and justify your recommendation for the training.

HR has tasked your department to provide training for the following topics. You can assume that the subject matter is new for everyone.

• A welcome overview to the new company. Employees will need to know:
  • Why this merger happened.
  • The goals of the new organization.
  • The new organization structure.
  • The new benefits package and pay plan.
  • Contact people for any questions.
• Training on the following new organizational systems, which will be all COTS products. This means they will be commercial products like MS Office, PeopleSoft, Google Drive, and other software packages that companies can buy outright and implement. There are no proprietary or custom-built systems.
  • The new timesheet system.
    • This system uses a COTS product but the interface is branded with the organization’s logo and colors.
    • Employees need to record their time accurately and submit time sheets by the close of business each week.
  • The new project management system, which is a COTS product, no modifications.
    • The basics of the system, such as setting up projects and assigning employees to projects, is similar to the system employees have used in the past.
    • Employees are now required to run a number of reports using the data in the system.
      • Employees will need to learn how to set up those reports in the system, run those reports, and update the reports on a monthly basis.
      • These reports are critical to upper management, which wants to keep a close eye on expenses and resources as the new organization gets started.
  • You are free to select any COTS product for the two systems.

Before you start you will need to:

• Define the type of organization (corporate, non-profit, education institution, etc.) you will use for your assignment. Assume that:
  • The new organization has a headquarters location and a few other office locations that require at least a few hours travel to reach. (If you want to bring everyone in for a meeting, they will incur travel expenses and require overnight accommodations.)
  • Your offices have conference rooms but do not have computer labs.
  • Employees have their own work laptops and all organization locations have adequate Wi-Fi.
• Research your COTS products.
  • Find out what training is available for each of them. Many COTS companies offer training on their products and there are many third-party vendors that offer training.
  • Determine an estimated time for each of the three (3) trainings – the welcome and two (2) COTS products.
• Research the time it takes to develop custom training for both classroom and online.
  • There are many different formulas for this information. You will need to find one and be able to justify it in your proposal.
  • Consider at least three (3) types of training delivery:
    • In-person classroom training.
    • Synchronous virtual training, such as through a web conferencing system.
    • Asynchronous virtual training, such as “canned” online modules.

When considering training alternatives, you can assume that your training department capabilities are:

• Basic webcast capabilities including some simple microphones, a decent digital video camera, and web conferencing software like WebEx or GoTo Meeting. You do not have a dedicated webcast studio or production studio.
• COTS instructional design packages like Articulate and Storyline.
• Minimal graphics budget – mainly stock art and what you can do with PhotoShop.
• A basic LMS for hosting online training and tracking student progress.
• You all have MS Office suite.

Assignment 1: The Proposal

Due Week 3 and worth 150 points

Refer to the background and scenario for assignments 1-3.

For this assignment, you will write a three to five (3-5) page paper giving an overview of your organization, the training goals, and how you will assess the effectiveness of the training.

• Description of your organization, the employees, and the stakeholders. Include in your description:
  • Target audience for the education program in this section.
  • Stakeholders for this education program.
  • Organizational goals.
• Goals for each training program (e.g., do you want employees simply to know the information, be able to demonstrate specific skills, become proficient with new software, etc.).
• Map training goals to the organizational goals.
• Describe the assessment method for each training program.
• Cite at least two (2) quality references from the past two (2) years.
  • Include as much real-world information as possible on the COTS products and other products as they pertain to your proposal.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Examine trends and issues in assessment of adult learners.
• Analyze models used for assessment.

Evaluate an assessment tool, with at least one authentic assessment technique, for adult learners