Fall 2006 (Tuesday/Thursday 12:30-1:45)

Dr. Cathy L. Z. DuBois

E-mail:  cdubois@kent.edu

Office: BSA A412                

Phone: 330-672-1157              Fax: 330-672-2448 (please use a cover page with my name)

Office hours:   Tuesday 10:00-12:00, Thursday 10:00-12:00, or by appointment

ADMS 34180: Human Resource Management

Caution: This course is designed for students who have a Human Resource Management minor; the majority of students should be seniors.  All other students should meet with the professor during the first week of class to review expectations.

Noe, R. A. (2005).  Employee Training & Development.  New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Additional required readings, available through KSU Library Electronic Reserves and Workforce.

Course Website:  http://cdubois.pageout.net             

You must register on this website by the end of the first week of classes!  Penalty for not doing so is a loss of 2 points from your final class participation grade.

You must register with the KSU SHRM student organization by September 15.  Registration is free.  Details on how to register will be available in class.  Penalty for not registering is as above.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

This course will examine a range of theory and practice with respect to training and development related to the workplace and careers.  We will focus on the development and the delivery of training programs. At the conclusion of this course, you should be able to:

-          Describe the scope and need for training and development in the workplace of today and the future

-          Differentiate between performance problems that can be solved through training and those that require other interventions

-          Detail the components of sound training design and critical success factors for training implementation

-          Describe the respective roles of individuals and organizations in training and development

-          Apply critical analysis in relating training and development to organizational functioning and success

-          Address a group using appropriate communication techniques

-          Design a training program using sound training design principles

-          Deliver a short training session that achieves your learning objectives

My goal is to have every class member be an active participant in the learning process.  Therefore, we will have a considerable amount of discussion in every class.  The participatory nature of the class makes it imperative that you have read the assigned material before class on a regular basis. 

                        Class Preparation / Participation         20%

                        Exams                                                 40%   (15% / 15% / 10%)

                        Icebreaker / T&D in the News              5%

                        Training Projects                                 20%   (5% / 10% / 5%)

                        Comprehensive Final Exam                15%    

I will use +/- grades for this course.  Assignment of final grades will most likely be:  92+ A, 90-91 A-, 88-89 B+, 82-87 B, 80-81 B-, 78-79 C+, 72-77 B, 70-71 C-, 68-69 D+, 60-67 D, 0-59 F.  I reserve the right to curve these final grades, up or down, based on overall class performance.

Class Preparation / Participation

Class participation is a function of how regularly you offer insightful comments and/or pose useful, stimulating questions in class, how much you contribute to small group discussions, and how regularly you attend class.  If it is obvious that you are prepared for each class, you will receive at least a grade of a B.  To receive a grade in the A range, you must speak up in a manner that adds value to the group learning experience.  If it is obvious that you are not regularly not prepared, you will receive a failing grade for class participation.

Note that class preparation requires reading the text, readings on reserve, and Internet course readings; you will be expected to discuss all three sets of material in class.  Use the schedule at the end of this document and plan your readings accordingly.  For example, read Chapter 1 before class on August 31 – come to class that day prepared to discuss it.

It is not enough to simply read the material before class; you must also think through what you’ve read.  Prepare for class with the ‘Advance Preparation Questions/Activities’ guidelines available on the course website.  Also list any questions you have on your assigned reading.  Bring written items, your text, and other readings with you to class so that you can refer to them if necessary.

The commonly requisite employment characteristics of preparation, participation, punctuality and attendance are very relevant to your performance in this class.  Thus, if you cannot attend class, please provide a courtesy e-mail or phone call to let me know why you are absent within 24 hours of the absence.  In a class of this size, I will know you’re not there. 

Exams

Expect all exams to be lengthy and rigorous; come well prepared.  Questions will be short / long answer (see writing style section below).

All students must take each of these exams on their scheduled dates; only in extreme circumstances can alternate arrangements be made.  If you can’t make the scheduled test date, I must be notified in writing and we must establish an alternate date prior to the scheduled test date.  Make-up tests will be alternate forms of the scheduled tests.  That is, do not expect a test taken on an alternate test date to be exactly the same as the test given on the scheduled date.

Section Exams

The first 3 exams will cover specified chapters and associated readings and class discussions.  These exams will consist of a variety of question formats, including some short / long answer questions that are integrative and application oriented.  You will need to ‘own’ the material in order to do well on these exams; thinking beyond the obvious will be required.  Exams 1 and 2 will be taken ‘solo’, with no use of notes/text.  Exam 3 will be taken with a partner (randomly assigned when the test is administered), and will be open notes/text.  Partner evaluations will be used to guide grade adjustments where partners have not made equal contributions to test answers.

The comprehensive exam that will cover all course material related to training design and implementation, with a focus primarily on parts 1 and 2 of the course.  Competent implementation and management of organizational training programs requires that the process of training design as a whole is ‘owned’ intellectually.  There are a number of aspects to training design, and the trainer/manager must know how each aspect relates to all other aspects; one must know how all of the parts relate to one another as well as to the overall process and outcomes of training.  Thus, this final exam will motivate you to pull together all the knowledge covered with regard to training design and implementation, and provide feedback for you on your “knowledge of the whole”.

Students will lead the class in an icebreaker exercise or training game.  The goals of this project are: 1) to provide experience in leading a group session and 2) to familiarize you with the variety of useful and fun icebreaker exercises & training games available for your use.  The goal should be to complete your session in 10 minutes, including the debrief.  For longer exercises, you might need to cut them short. That’s OK, because the goals of the project can usually be accomplished in 10 minutes.  If you think you’ll need more time and can justify it, work this out with me in advance.

The debrief must cover: 1) the rationale for the exercise (why do it, benefits, etc.), 2) under what conditions the exercise would be appropriate, and 3) challenges inherent in implementing the exercise.

Deliverable: Write up a clear, 1-2 page description that covers: a) how to do the exercise and b) the main points from the 3 sections of your debrief.  Hand this into the professor right before your presentation.

Caution:  be sure the exercise is suitable for a work environment; some social group icebreakers are not appropriate for a work setting.  Also, all class members must act as if you were in a work setting during the exercises!

Training Projects

Students will work in teams as a simulated human resource consulting team.  This experience will build competence in conducting needs assessment, developing lesson plans, delivering training, and evaluating training programs. Your team will assume the role of training and development consultants and you are encouraged to be creative and innovative in addressing these issues, just as you would in a real work situation.  Project topics must be selected and approved by September 7.

Project 1 - Needs Assessment

For the first project, your team needs to select one of the five issues outlined in the Request for Proposals from Xenon Corporation. For that issue, develop a proposal that outlines how you would go about conducting a full needs assessment to verify that this is a training need and address all of the other issues that are a part of a comprehensive needs assessment (organizational, task, and person). Assume that your report will be submitted to Xenon’s executive vice president for development who would need to authorize the resources needed to implement your proposal.

Detail the following in your proposal (describe and provide justification for):

1.      what information you would want to collect

2.      how you would collect it

3.      from whom/what/where you would collect it

4.      why you need that information (i.e., what it would tell you).

Your proposals should be professional in appearance and demonstrate that you understand and can appropriately apply the course material. There are no minimum or maximum page limits. The report should be as long as necessary to present the relevant material and no longer.

This assignment will be graded on the following criteria:

1. Understanding and application of course material [50%].

2. Thoroughness, completeness, and feasibility of your proposal [45%].

3. Professionalism [5%].

Project 2 – Training Design and Delivery

For the second project, your team will design a training plan for your full training program, and deliver a section of the content as classroom training.

§         Program design:  Lay out your training plan.  It should include a statement of clear learning objectives, an outline of your program content, and the instructional techniques utilized with time allocated to each.  Your training program might extend over days, weeks, or months – choose whatever is appropriate.  Consider ways of reaching participants who have different learning styles, equipment needs, materials, and room arrangement; document your approaches to these.  Present your proposal for the entire program as a document.  Provide an overview and rationale, and detail your program design with specific lesson plans. 

§         Program presentation:  Determine what would make a solid 30 minute training session from your overall training plan, and prepare to deliver it in class.  Both delivery and flow of the session will be considered.  Strong, clear communication skills are expected; practice well enough prior to the presentation so that you can speak, rather than read, what you have to say!  All group members must be actively involved in the presentation; do not let any member(s) dominate!  Involve trainees (class members), include time for questions from trainees, and respond effectively.  Be sure you provide a summary and adequate closure to your session.

This assignment will be graded on the following criteria:

1. Written Proposal – thoroughness, professional presentation[50%].

2. Training Delivery Presentation – content, presentation style, support materials[50%].

Students will receive written presentation feedback from the professor and from class members who view the presentation (evaluation form is available on the course website).  Class member evaluations of the session will be loosely considered in the professor’s grade assignment for the presentation, and will not be formally allocated a percentage of the grade. 

Attendance at presentation sessions is mandatory!  Every training group needs a full audience. For each presentation session missed, 10 points will be deducted from your Training Project grade.

Project 3 – Program Evaluation

For the third project your team will be given a brief description of a training program. Based on the objectives and nature of that program provided in that description, your team needs to prepare a proposal for evaluating the effectiveness of that program. If you feel insufficient information is provided in the description, feel free to seek clarification or to make reasonable assumptions about the training program or work environment (if you make assumptions, make them explicit in your proposal).

Your proposal should cover the following:

1. Indicate how you would evaluate the program on each of Kirpatrick's levels. The evaluation measures should be linked to the objectives. Be specific about exactly what you would measure, from whom, and how that data would be collected.

2. Specify the type of design you would recommend, outlining how you would use pretests, control groups, and the timing of measures to reach the strongest conclusions possible given the constraints of the situation.

Like the first project, your proposals should be professional in appearance and demonstrate that you understand and can appropriately apply the course material. Again assume that your report will be submitted to a top HR executive for approval. There are no minimum or maximum page limits. The proposal should be as long as necessary to present the relevant material and no longer.

This assignment will be graded on the following criteria:

1. Understanding and application of course material [50%].

2. Thoroughness, completeness, and feasibility of your proposal [45%].

3. Professionalism [5%].

Peer Evaluations:

Working in teams can be beneficial, fun, and rewarding, but also at times very frustrating. Learning to work effectively as a team member is a valuable skill, as you will likely be a part of teams throughout much of your career. In organizations, you will frequently be evaluated solely on the team product irrespective of individual contributions. Here we can afford to be more equitable. Peer evaluations will be obtained in which you will be asked to evaluate each team member's relative contributions to the group projects (all 3 projects as a whole). The group member evaluation form (available on course website) must be filled out thoroughly and hard copy submitted to the professor no later than December 15.  The professor will utilize these to make final project grade adjustments, if necessary.

Class requirements include written assignments and short/long answer exam questions.  Your writing style is a critical element of the grade you receive.  Professional writing used in organizational communications is concise and well organized.  Communications that contain rambling paragraphs or lack clear sections are simply not effective (and often not even read!).  Be aware that effective written and oral communication are highly influential in selection and promotion decisions.

Thus, please incorporate the following elements in your writing for this class: make liberal use of “bullet points” – phrases or short sentences that effectively summarize ideas (if you really know the material, you can use appropriate terms and be succinct); subheadings; numbered lists; outlines; and Tables of Contents.  Write full sentences when needed, when your message cannot be clearly communicated in more abbreviated form, but avoid complex sentences and lengthy paragraphs.

For some of you this will come easily, because you already incorporate these elements in your writing.  For others it will be much more challenging, simply because you are accustomed to being ‘long-winded’.  In some courses you might have been rewarded with high grades when you turn in lengthy prose.  However, because it is not appropriate in a business setting, lengthy prose will earn low grades in this class!  Quality of writing is superior to great quantity of writing.

A.    Students attending the course who do not have the proper prerequisite risk being deregistered from the class.

B.     Students have responsibility to ensure they are properly enrolled in classes.  You are advised to review your official class schedule (using Web for Students) during the first two weeks of the semester to ensure you are properly enrolled in this class and section.  Should you find an error in your class schedule, you have until Sunday, September 10, 2006 to correct the error with your advising office.  If registration errors are not corrected by this date and you continue to attend and participate in classes for which you are not officially enrolled, you are advised now that you will not receive a grade at the conclusion of the semester for any class in which you are not properly registered.

C.    Academic Honesty:  Cheating means to misrepresent the source, nature, or other conditions of your academic work (e.g., tests, papers, projects, assignments) so as to get undeserved credit.  The use of the intellectual property of others without giving them appropriate credit is a serious academic offense.  It is the University's policy that cheating or plagiarism result in receiving a failing grade (0 points) for the work or course.  Repeat offenses may result in dismissal from the University.

D.    For Fall 2006, the course withdrawal deadline is Sunday, November 5, 2006.    Withdrawal before the deadline results in a "W" on the official transcript.  After the deadline a grade must be calculated and reported.

E.     Students with disabilities:  University policy 3342-3-18 requires that students with disabilities be provided reasonable accommodations to ensure their equal access equal access course content.  If you have documented disability and require accommodations, please contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester to make arrangements for necessary classroom adjustments.  Please note, you must first verify your eligibility for these through the Student Disability Services (contact 330-672-3391 or visit www.kent.edu/sds for more information on registration procedures).

KSU Electronic Reserves

1)      Zemke, R. (1998).  How to do a needs assessment when you think you don’t have the time.  Training, 35 (3), 38-44.

2)      Noe, R. A. (1986).  Trainees’ attributes and attitudes: Neglected influences on training effectiveness.  Academy of Management Review, 11, 736-749.

3)      Dipboye, R. L. (1996).  Organizational barriers to implementing a rational model of training.  In Quinones, M. A. & Ehrenstein, A. (Eds.), Training for a rapidly changing workforce.  Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.  (Chapter 2)

Obtain these readings from the Workforce website.  Details and links are on the course website.

Dear Workforce: How Do We Market A New Online Learning Initiative To Employees?

Training Related issues

Note:  Prepare to discuss in class each reading on its scheduled date.  For example, read the Zemke article before class on September 7^th; be ready to discuss it in class on September 7^th.  Advance preparation includes making notes on your reading, creating a list of questions you have on the material, and writing answers /doing ‘to do’ items on the ‘Advance Preparation Questions/Activities’ guidelines provided on the course website. Bring reading materials and written items to class on Sept. 7^th.