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Synopsis:
Improve employee skill in the area of management of quality documentation.
The employees responsible for managing documentation did not have the knowledge to effectively manage quality documentation for their areas. As a portion of the quality system, departments are required to keep their documentation up to date and in the prescribed format per the standard. Since the quality program was established company wide there continued to be a discrepancy in the knowledge and application of documentation according to the standard. The quality system continues to change, requiring updates to documentation and standards for documenting quality. Additionally, the roles of employees, job transfers and new hires makes keeping employees current with quality documentation an on-going effort to keep the responsible employees updated and trained on managing quality documentation for their area.
Learners
The learners are primarily professional adults working in a corporate structure.
The experience with quality and managing quality documentation ranges from
some experience and proficiency to no understanding of quality or documentation.
Most of the learners are professionals with a minimum of an Associate Degree
or higher. In some cases the learners are managers, while in other cases the
learners may be the technical people. All of the employees have access to
the tools of email; the Intranet and a computer station and are reasonably
proficient on the computer and using the computer to perform administrative
or technical tasks. The number of employees needing the information is less
than 20 company wide.
Learning Environment
The learning environment is corporate. The system for quality documentation
has been in effect since 1999. In most cases the learners have been required
to work with this knowledge since the program was established. The requirements
of the standard have recently been through a revolution due to changes in
standards. The environment does not encourage stand-up training as a way to
deliver updates, information and content to the learners. The environment
encourages a hands-off approach to learning, encouraging the sharing of information
on a need - to - know basis, but should not take employee time, or require
excess time away from the functional job tasks to learn about quality.
The general environment is to make sure the departments keep their respective areas in compliance with the standard, but quality programming should not interfere with the daily business routines. The learners are not all working on their quality documents at the same time, so their need for knowledge and training appears at different times. Some departments are more driven to keep their knowledge current, while other departments are less enthused and only deal with their quality management of documentation when an internal trigger requires that they pay attention to this area of their business. In most cases the management of quality documentation is not a priority and will not be a priority.
Technology
The business has an Intranet that is used to share documentation and information.
Most of the learners have used the quality website on the Intranet to find
documents or forms. The corporate standard for web browsers is Internet Explorer.
Generally, new plug-ins like Flash 6 are not available and users cannot install
new software or plug-ins. Speed is not an issue for serving information to
users, but the browsers may vary from IE 4.5 to IE 6+. All learners have their
own PC and can access the Intranet.
Learning Objectives
The learning needs provide non-invasive training or tools for the employees
requiring the knowledge base around managing quality. The areas of improvement
for learning include:
Learners can correctly format a document according to the standard.
Learners can effectively
use the process of quality management and
documentation in their respective areas.
Departmental quality
documentation is maintained accurately and is current.
Learners can identify
areas of improvement in documentation and make adjustments accordingly.
Learners can find and
use the tools for quality management documentation.
The factors of the environment and impact of learning on the learners makes finding a workable solution rather challenging. The information needs to be shared in a manner where the content is available real-time, when the learner is available and has the interest in gaining the knowledge. The delivery of this information needs to be easily accessible and must not require that the user do much thinking to find what they require. Additionally, the information needs to be available in a format where they can refer to the information as they are working on their documents.
In reviewing this learning environment and the business, it was not possible to do face to face training. And face-to-face training would not solve the long - term issues of learners not needing the information all at the same time. Likewise, the learner expertise would change what the learner needed access to or how they would resource the information. Using the technology of the Intranet and the quality website was a feasible way to share the information with the learners.
Initially, I wanted to design a web tutorial that would take the learner through the steps of the information and show them the process and procedures, so they could get the hands-on experience of doing the tasks. In reviewing the learners, the learning environment and the real business environment I recognized this type of training would be under - utilized and would get in the way of the learner actually using the information. Another barrier to the tutorial is the number of learners is small. The resources to develop the training for such a small audience also did not make sense. And the content would evolve and change with the standards, requiring updates and management of the design and development of the training.
I determined that a combination of instructional content pages, job aids and templates would provide the most learning support for the problem. The design needed to be simple, easy to find and navigate and provide high - level detailed content with short and brief synopsis of content to address the differences in knowledge between new quality documentation learners and learners who needed a refresher or more detailed content.
Several important tools were essential to address the discrepancy in knowledge between the previous standard and the existing standard. Three job aids were developed to demonstrate the "good," the "out of compliance" and a checklist for the user to use as they are reviewing their existing documents to make sure they have reviewed and addressed the document according to the updated standard.
The "Documentation Tools" was created using bookmarks, links to resources and five simple pages. The navigation to the tools was added to the quality website under training and documentation, allowing users a few ways to get to the training. Additionally, information about the tools was shared during in - person training, via email with the users of quality management documentation and the quality newsletter.
The project was implemented in Fall of 2002. The information sharing is an ongoing process as not all learners have a need to use the training all at the same time. As new users request information or existing users request information about quality documentation management, they are referred to the Documentation Tools area with some coaching and mentoring to find what they need and access the job aids, depending on the scope of their questions.
The short - term evidence indicates the tools are a helpful resource for users. During one informal meeting on managing quality documentation the tools were introduced to a whole department. The feedback was positive and all learners felt these tools would help them in the performance of their duties. The feedback prior to the meeting indicated they felt overwhelmed trying to have the knowledge and did not know where to go to get the information they needed to perform their duties. The job aids, like the checklist were tools they felt they could easily use to perform the tasks and assure they were compliant in managing quality documentation.
The long-term
evidence is not available at this time. As employees migrate into roles and
responsibilities requiring them to use the tools we'll be able to measure
the effectiveness by the types of questions that appear and how much accuracy
exists in the documentation and managing the process of quality documentation.
Several
value indicators have already proven these tools are a useful resource and
have added value to the employees performing quality documentation tasks.
The first indicator is the documentation is being managed according to the
standard. The amount of administrative time for the quality documentation
personnel is reduced, because the individual departments are updating their
documentation according to the new standards. The amount of questions on how
to administer documentation has reduced since the implementation of these
instructional tools.
During the internal audits and audits by the external auditor, issues around
management of documentation are not showing up in the audit results as frequently
as they were previously. Prior to implementation issues of nonconformity with
documentation standards were a frequent write-up in most departments. This
trend seems to be improving, as the auditors are not finding errors and inconsistencies
in the documentation. This trend indicates the departments are doing a better
job of managing their quality documentation according to the standards.
One of the goals was to improve the management of quality documentation as a result of providing better learning instruction or in this case job aids and resources. The short - term results indicate the departments are doing a better job in this area.
In taking on this project I felt a web-learning tutorial would be a solution. In a sense I had already developed the solution to the problem without fully taking into consideration the other environmental elements that would undermine the usefulness of this type of instruction. In retrospect the idea to use job aides instead of a web-learning tutorial was a practical solution to the problem. The problem did not require a full training program or a full web learning training program. The number of employees involved in the quality documentation process is minimal and the environment would not have been conducive to try to get the users to actually participate and complete the training.
The environmental factors alone made this an interesting project. The environment is not conducive to quality or training. The priorities for both of these areas are not of big interest to the departments, managers and even employees responsible for completing the tasks. Likewise, the need to improve employee knowledge, competence and awareness was an important part of improving the issues that were showing up in the audits, which were directly related to the employees not having the knowledge. The cycle of not providing resources, training and information and having the expectation that the learners would keep up to date was a guarantee the situation would not improve.
By providing resources that improve performance, help the learner improve their knowledge and competence in a manner that was real-time was a good design decision. Further, the ongoing process of communication through informal networks will help the users become more familiar and comfortable with the tools. If the tools had been presented as a "must do" - the tools would never be utilized and the ongoing attitude of quality documentation management not being a priority would prevail.
Generally, the tools will need to be shared in ways that are safe for the learner. The learner needs to feel like these are available to help them in their role, and are available as a resource. Generally, the employees who have used the tools are receptive and had positive feedback about the usability and ease of finding what they needed. This feedback reinforces how important this project was to solving the problem in a manner that was realistic for the learners and the learning environment.
The quality documentation management project was created as a result of employees being untrained in a specific job performance area. The project specifically is designed to improve knowledge, application, and performance in the functions related to the task of documentation management. The instruction was designed according to the needs of the learner, learning environment, and realistic applications for this business. Many of the tools designed for the learners include web instruction, job aids, templates, and instructional models.
#3 Uses a variety of media to deliver instruction to students
This product uses web learning, templates, forms, and models. The use of image based design for models helps to explain how the user needs to complete the process. For example, the user often needs to use track changes in Word and many users are unfamiliar with this technique. In this training a process of how to use track changes was included in the training. The media is designed to enhance the on-line experience, while providing practical examples to assist the learner in understanding how to improve their performance.
I completed the management, design, development and implementation of this project. In developing this project I used subject matter experts to help evaluate and understand the underlying instructional criteria and learning objects. I used stakeholders to understand the environment, the learning conditions, to provide feedback on the instruction and to help assess the learning goals and fulfillment of these goals through review of the instructional product. In working on this project I managed the project by establishing project timelines, objectives, and deliverables. I managed the sessions for informal review and improvement.
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