Syllabus - Summer 2008
MGMT 5676 - Business Improvement Through Training and Development
(Formerly MGMT 376)

This is a three-credit graduate level course and is one in a series of elective courses in the Human Resource Management program. The Human Resource Management program is part of the online Master of Professional Studies degree offered through the University of Connecticut's Center for Continuing Studies.

The developer of this course is Dr. Abdou Ndoye.

Course Title: Business Improvement Through Training and Development (MGMT 5676)

Credits: 3

Instructor: Abdou Ndoye, Ph.D.
E-mail: Abdou.Ndoye@uconn.edu

Planning, implementing, and evaluating training programs designed to meet individual and organizational needs. Training methods, techniques, and processes. Strategic and international training issues. Focuses on the process by which organizations train and develop employees. Topics include training needs assessment, program design, training evaluation, and management development practices.

By the end of the semester, students will be able to:

• Relate training and learning issues to the theoretical context of human performance technology.
• Apply adult learning principles to adult professionals.
• Match training objectives successfully with identified business goals.
• Illustrate the processes and steps to develop a workplace training program.
• Explain how individual characteristics and the environment influence learning and skill development.
• Develop strategies to maximize learning in the workplace.
• Apply training evaluation techniques and procedures.
• Examine issues related to the transfer of learning on the job.

 

This is a 3-credit summer session course and it will be taught in an interactive mode with emphasis on hands on activities, applied exercises, and group work. The course will be delivered entirely online, and it is scheduled to last for 6 weeks. There will be online discussions and collaborations. Students will have individual and group assignments. Students will be assigned in groups by the instructor. Group assignments are case studies selected by the instructor, and students in the same group are required to submit a response to the instructor and also to the other groups for feedback.

Course Requirements

Participation in Online Course Activities: Active participation is required and expected from every student. Participation in this course ranges from completing the assigned readings, contributing to the online discussions, getting involved in and contributing to group work, attending to and completing assigned projects on time.

Discussions: Since this is an online course, students will be required to fully participate in the online discussions. Every student is expected to post comments in the discussion board given the topic of the week. Additionally, students are required to read and comment on the postings of at least two classmates. Students will submit their work to other classmates for review and feedback. Feedback must be thoughtful and contribute some value to the discussions. Approval such as “good job; great work etc….” are not considered acceptable feedback responses.

Assignments: There are two types of assignments in this course:

(1) Individual Assignments

Students will be required to complete three individual assignments. Individual assignments are questions asked of students and posted in the learning activities of each module. Students are expected to provide an answer and post their response to the question into the appropriate discussion board of the current module. In addition to posting responses to the discussion board, students are also required to comment on other classmates' posted responses.

Individual assignments are made of two components:

• Component One: Providing and posting a response to the question
• Component Two: Commenting on and providing feedback to other classmates' responses and postings

(2) Group Assignments

Students in this course will complete 3 case studies in a group. As said above, students will be placed in groups by the instructor. The case studies will relate to theories, principles, and guidelines of training and workforce development practices. For each case study, the group will submit a copy of their final response to the instructor for grading; another copy will also be submitted in the general discussion board for feedback from other groups. Guidelines will be provided for the case studies within the course.

Attendance

Course attendance is expected. Since this an online course students are expected to be actively engaged in all course activities. Attendance will be monitored in many different ways, such as whether students are logging into the course, engaging in required activities. When possible, I should be notified via the HuskyCT Mail in advance of an anticipated absence. Absences should be discussed with me as soon as possible in order to arrange for assignments or course content missed. I reserve the right to assign a grade of “I” or “F” if a student misses a week or more of work.

HuskyCT Etiquette

Please pay careful attention to the manner in which messages are posted in the online course, so that messages will be received appropriately, especially with the absence of nonverbal cues. Please refrain from using "e-slang" when posting messages. Use complete and coherent thoughts with appropriate punctuation and capitalization. Threaded discussions should be used for comments relative to the topic for discussion only.

Meeting with the Instructor 

I will try to be available online as much as I can. I also encourage you to contact me via the HuskyCT Mail with issues of concern, questions and ideas you would want to discuss.  It is your responsibility to request a time for online meeting. I would be happy also to set up time for a phone meeting if possible. Personal matters and other issues you would not want to share with the rest of the class should be submitted to me via HuskyCT Mail. I have been teaching this course for about 5 years now, and I have always tried to get back to students within a twenty-four hour window.

Grading Procedures

Three Case Studies	75%
Weekly Assignments	15%
Discussions	10%

You will develop three case studies for this course. Each case study will be worth 25%, making the three case studies 75% of your final grade. You will also have weekly assignments posted in the discussions area worth 15% of your grade. Additionally, you will be required to comment on your peers' discussion postings; this will count for 10% of your course grade.

Final Grade

Course final grade will be determined by the percentage of points accumulated on class activities and final project. The total number of points for this course is 140 points.

Final letter grades for this course will be determined based on the following scale:

Grade	Letter Grade	GPA
97-100	A+	4.3
93-96	A	4.0
90-92	A-	3.7
87-89	B+	3.3
83-86	B	3.0
80-82	B-	2.7
77-79	C+	2.3
73-76	C	2.0
70-72	C-	1.7
67-69	D+	1.3
63-66	D	1.0
60-62	D-	0.7
<60	F	0.0

You are responsible for acting in accordance with the Student Code, available at http://www.dosa.uconn.edu/student_code.cfm.

These texts may be purchased locally or through an online bookstore.

Required Texts:
Goldstein, I. L., & Ford, J. K. (2001). Training in organizations: Needs assessment, development, and evaluation (4th ed.). U.S.: Wadsworth. ISBN 0-534-34554-9

Lawson, K. (2006). The trainer's handbook (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer. ISBN-13: 978-0787977498

Required Articles
Additional required articles will be provided in the course through the Electronic Course Reserve (ECR). 

• Word processing software
• Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Your Internet browser and browser settings need to be HuskyCT compatible.
  See Settings.

 

Module 1:The notion of human performance technology and adult learning and business performance

• Definition
• Skill development and business performance
• Basics of adult learning and training practices
• Training as one HPT intervention

Module 2: Assessing strategies, goals and needs

• Business strategy
• Training needs assessment

Module 3: Designing a training program

• Standards steps of training design
• The importance of instructional objectives
• Translating performance objectives into instructional objectives
• Validity criteria of instructional objectives

Module 4: Training format

• Designing a training program
• Training format

Module 5: Transfer of learning and strategies beyond training

• Transfer process
• Facilitating transfer and keys to successful transfer
• Barriers to transfer
• Training design and transfer of training

Module 6: Evaluation

• Purposes of training evaluations
• Types of training evaluation
• Levels of training evaluation
• Measuring training outcomes
• Assessing training impact on business improvement

 

Students will be provided an opportunity to evaluate instruction in this course using the University's standard procedures, which are administered by the Office of Institutional Research.