Emerging Roles and Competencies for Training in E-Learning Enviroments
by Steve Aragon and Scott Johnson, 2002

I decided not to focus on the entire article but rather raised some points in reference to quality, relevance and accuracy.

Here are my thoughts on the article...

Summary of Focus

This article is written from the viewpoint that technology is changing the role of trainers. This can include new or seasoned trainers without distance/web training experience. The trainers are not discussed in a particular work context. The most specific context in the article that the trainers work in the “workplace”. The authors compared the workplace trainer to the e-trainer. I used this assumption as I was reading the article.

Clarity

1. Who are the trainers? Where are they training? At first, I thought the trainers were from human resources. The opening sentence: “The Internet and Web-based technologies are having a profound impact on the lives of human resource development (HRD) professionals” (Argon and Johnson, 2002, p. 424). This made sense to me since I knew the article was from Advances in Developing Human Resources.

2. Schauer, Rockwell, Fritz, and Marx (1998) are cited in the article, writing from the viewpoint of higher education. Johnson and Aragon discuss “teaching online”. I questioned whether this article was discussing distance education in higher education. If so, who are the e-trainers? Are these individuals working with faculty to put their courses online? Are these the library/media specialists that exist in universities and colleges? In any case, I went back to my initial assumption of the article, that the role of the trainer is changing. So I rephrased my question to “who are the trainers in the higher education context that need to change from a trainer to an e-trainer?” A question for further research perhaps…

3. “Trainers who use the internet for instructional delivery need to assume new roles and develop new competencies while they continue to apply existing ones in order to be successful trainers when using these new technologies” (Argon and Johnson, 2002, p. 424). My initial question was if trainers use the Internet for instructional delivery already, what new roles do they need to assume? What new competencies do they need? What do they already know? I felt that the article did not help me think about developing e-trainers, but instead developing trainers into e-trainers.

4. The definition of competency from the article wasn’t so clear to me: “A competency is a knowledge or skill area that is essential for producing key outputs” (Aragon and Johnson, 2002). I’ve provided the definition of competency that comes from the field of educational technology: A competency is “a knowledge, skill or attitude that enables one to effectively perform the activities of a given occupation or function to the standards expected in employment” (Richey, 2000).

A question from this article that I feel is pivotal is:

How do you actually work with trainers to develop new skills and knowledge?

Johnson and Aragon cite Clay (1998) and discuss eight areas that should be included in any professional development initiative for beginning distance trainers. However, if you review the Clay (1998) article, she is discussing faculty in higher education, i.e. teachers not trainers. Clay (1998) specifically refers to “faculty resistance” and “faculty development” not trainer resistance or trainer development. Is this article relevant?

Johnson and Aragon claim that “At one time, trainers needed only basic skills to develop and use instructional media such as instructional television, slide shows, computer assisted instruction (CAI). These skills included storyboarding, graphic design, photography, video production, and basic computer programming. Johnson and Aragon mention additional research from Clay (1998) that trainers will need practice in the actual use of technology such as distance technologies, basic computer use, and web page production. Well, if trainers had to know computer programming before being e-trainers, wouldn’t they already have the basic computer use skills? My question is why do e-trainers need to know this? How do e-trainers use this knowledge and skill? I returned to one of the competencies outlined in the article for some clarity.

One skill needed by trainers during the delivery of instruction is a certain level of technical knowledge.

Aragon and Johnson cite Choden (2000) who identifies the technical competencies needed for creating comfort for participants with the system and the software in use. However, if you read Choden (2000), she is referencing the Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) Conceptual Model of Influences on Online Teaching and Learning. Wow! I was shocked to learn that the model referenced was from the Australian National Training Authority. When I tried to use the link cited by Choden "http://www.tafe.sa.edu.au/lsrsc/one/natproj/tal/conmodel/facilitation.htm", I got a page not found error. I wonder if Aragon and Johnson gave up and just took Choden’s word for what ANTA says about training. How accurate is the Aragon and Johnson article?

I found the ANTA site, however, I could not find what Choden (2000) was referring to in her article ( I didn’t look that hard).

Is Choden’s article really of quality (I decided to read more about Choden and her background). Seems like her background is in human resource development.

Anyone who can find what Choden's was referencing in the ANTA site will get immunity for the next round!!!!

Marc found the article!!!

Final words…

All in all, as a professional trying to figure out how to convert my trainers into e-trainers this article did give me a starting place.