How to Develop an Agenda for a Training Class on Computers
Computer training is an important part of personal and professional development. Having an agenda to follow will ensure that you accomplish all you set out to in your computer training class. Most agendas are written in outline form. A good computer training agenda includes an introduction, a list and brief explanation of computer tasks or skills the trainee will learn (called learning points), explanations of what you want your students to be able to demonstrate after training (called objectives) and time set aside for practice, review and evaluation.
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Instructions
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Begin your agenda with an introduction or overview. This segment of the agenda allows you to introduce the topic of your class and explain a little about what the students can expect from the class. This is also the part of the agenda in which you introduce yourself, as the teacher. Include some time for the students to introduce themselves as well.
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Determine your objectives, which are the computer skills you want trainees to be able to master once they complete the training, and write them up in this second portion of your agenda. Come up with your objectives by asking yourself some questions: Why are I teaching the class? Is there a performance gap that needs to be addressed? Is there an opportunity to increase business? Am I teaching a new software program? Will trainees be learning how to create something on the computer? An example objective might be "Students will be able to create a product-specific newsletter and send it exclusively to current customers of that product."
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Explain your learning points and allocate practice time in this segment of your agenda. Some learning points might be: 1) How to choose a newsletter layout; 2) Using word wrap to add text around images or pictures; 3) Inserting pictures into your newsletter; and 4) Linking newsletter to established customers of that product
During training, you will go into much deeper, step-by-step, detail of each learning point. Including them in your agenda helps trainees to know what to expect. Once you have completed the training process and covered all learning points, you will want to provide your students with adequate practice time. Observation during practice time will enable you to know how to prepare for the next section of your class agenda: review.
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The next section of your computer training agenda will be a review, which is an essential component of learning. This gives the students an opportunity to ask questions and seek clarification on any of the learning points covered. In addition to a question and answer period, you will use this time to go over any skills you observed to be lacking or weak during practice--without singling out anyone in particular. There is nothing you need to write in this section of your agenda other than "review" because there is no way to determine, ahead of time, what skills you'll want to revisit.
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Evaluate your students as a wrap-up to your training agenda. Trainees should complete an evaluation that allows them to demonstrate they are able to meet the objectives of the course. In this portion of your agenda, you might say something like,"Choose an appropriate layout using the text and images provided." Your student evaluations should be based directly upon a combination of your objectives and learning points.
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Tips & Warnings
Have your class complete an evaluation of you and your performance after training. This will help you modify your techniques, teaching style and course content to better serve your students.
Lack of organization and planing will result in a poorly structured training session, which will leave students feeling confused, or worse, that they've wasted their time.
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