Development of Online Distributed Training: Practical Considerations and Lesson Learned

Abstract

This chapter discusses considerations and tradeoffs in designing and developing an online teamwork skills training program for geographically distributed instructors andstudents. The training program is grounded in principles of scenario-based learning, in which operationally realistic scenarios are used to engage students in actively forming links between classroom and real-world applications of key concepts. The chapter focuses on supporting active engagement of learners, and meaningful and thoughtful learner-learner interactions appropriate to the subject matter (Neal & Miller, 2006). We describe lessons learnedin the development of a distributed training program that interleaves asynchronous and synchronous training modules (Neal & Miller, 2005) to leverage the advantages of both self-paced and group learning, provide opportunities to practice the teamwork concepts being trained, create social presence, and promote interactionand reflection among the course members.