Calling all trainers

Elizabeth Perron

What are some of your favorite mediums to train Blackbaud Products?

Elizabeth Perron

Matt Connell‍ are you a power point person?

Tara Watterson‍  are you into group activities?


Inquiring minds want to know?

JoAnn Strommen

CoVid has sure made this an extreme challenge. 


Where I prefer meeting in person and letting the trainee be hands on in the database while discussing tabs and answering questions, I found three 15 minute BB training overviews of the basics of RE NXT, basics of records and another that I had our new MGO start with.  Fortunately our org has access to BB University so that has helped in absence of in-person. Why recreate the wheel?


Zoom with shared screens has filled a few gaps as well. 


If and when things settle a bit hope to do group meeting demonstrating Workflow process on the 'big screen' and then have MGOs brainstorm how they could use and build their own sample.  For things like this though it sure would be nice to have access to a sample db as workflows can not be deleted. Will be creating some PowerPoint slides of info.

Matt Connell

Thanks for the shout out Elizabeth Perron‍! At Blackbaud University we use Powerpoint pretty extensively, but that's just a tool and a good way to display info for folks that like visuals. Give me any solid objective and a decent outline and I'll rely on discussion -> demonstration -> hands on experience -> deeper discussion. 

When you're talking about software you need to be able to get hands on with things, but your student needs to be understanding the 'why' behind everything first. 

One of the first things I always want to mention when training is where help can be found. If you can teach a person to fish so-to-speak and make the training more discussion driven learning will be retained better. So point your student to the Communities and other help tools!

Lastly, It's important to also remember that training never ends, especially if you're training on policy you should have a plan to check back regularly. 

Dan Snyder

Like JoAnn Strommen‍ I had been holding regular training in person before COVID and I had just started up again using Zoom and screen sharing. I like to have some examples set in case there is not a lot of engagement, but similar want to be flexible for specific questions that may come up. 


I also agree with Matt Connell‍ that telling folks where they can find help is important as I know they will not retain everything I mention in one training.

Aldera Chisholm

Training is my favourite thing to do. With Covid, I've been using shared screens, but that has been a bit of a challenge as we end up with a bit of lag, ususally. I'm a fan of shorter, focused training sessions.. I generally try to do it as a general discussion/presentation for groups, and if it's one-on-one I get hands-on as soon as possible for the trainee. I like to walk them through a tour of a constituent profile, for example, by having them share their screen with me, and I guide them on what they are seeing.  


I also tend to assign a bit of homework after the training - just simple things like... Go to Constituent X and tell me what their lifetime giving is. Or, set up an action for x, y, z. I find it helps give people a reason to think about the training once they go back into their busy days. 


My team has daily virtual check-in meetings, and I've been thinking of doing a series of 5 minute sessions one day a week - sort of a "hey, did you know you can adjust the defaults in a list this way" type things. But I haven't made it there yet! #goodintentions

Tara Watterson

Thanks for starting the thread, Elizabeth! We have been building up our Intranet/Knowledgebase, so as we onboard new users to our BB product (FPM) after onboarding them to our primary database system, I offer to meet virtually 1:1 via Zoom to walk them through our "New User Guide" in the Knowledgebase. The guide orients new users to the main features and gives them specific tips about how we use this system at our institution. Agreed, Matt and Dan, that plugging in trainees to ongoing learning/support materials is crucial.  Some people are "trained-out" after completing an extensive e-learning module for our primary database. So, an optional walk-through of the new user guide gives them the flexibility to receive additional 1:1 training or do self-directed learning if they prefer. I prefer, also, to let our users get comfortable in each of the systems before scheduling additional instructor-led sessions for some of our advanced tools, but the downside is that it can be harder to get on people's calendars after their first few months. For my instructor-led trainings, I generally use both PowerPoint and live demo in the system. Aldera, I like the idea of having the trainee share their screen and drive. I've done this during informal problem-solving sessions but not during new user training.


I am in the process of building my first e-learning course for one of our database tools. The challenge here is that inevitably, the tool is upgraded/changed and some or much of the e-learning course is then in need of updating. Anyone here have experience developing e-learning courses for your institutional Advancement systems willing to share lessons learned? 

Elizabeth Perron

Tara Watterson‍,


You are welcome for posting.  Thank you for brainstorming with me during our call last week.

This thread has many insightful tips.


One of my past career experiences was as a trainer and then as an instructional designer/developer.   Here are my three lessons learned to help people excel with online learning:


1) Humans learn 5-7 chunks of  info out of what they are exposed to at a time = Keep online learning short and structured to the "must learn" knowledge and skills 


2) Adults  prefer "real life" instead of "theory" = use as many "real life" simulations where they have to press buttons over a photo of the software


3) The amount of information a person needs to "feel" confident and take action from what they learned is anywhere between 20%-80%  = Offer more detail by linking to "nice to know"  information that is optional for learners to click on.


Please let me know if this is what you are looking for....I hope it is not redundant to what you already know:).


Cheers,

Elizabeth

Jeannie Goings

Tara Watterson‍, it was nice meeting you on Elizabeth Perron's call. In his book, Bill Connors‍ recommends the use of text over screen shots. Screenshots used in excess equate to time consuming revisions as the product updates. The first job aids that I prepared were overloaded with screen shots. After reading that section of Bill's book, I changed my ways.

 

Sunshine Reinken Watson

My training sessions are pretty casual. I like to walk people through a practical application. Prepandemic, that would be projecting my screen so everyone could see what I was doing and maybe have them follow along on their own laptops. Now it is screen sharing on a Zoom.