Surefire Ways to Manage the Review Process - Post-seminar discussion

from Robin Lucas, Director of Project Management

on November 13, 2009

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First of all, thanks to everyone who attended our seminar yesterday at the ASTD-TCC Regional Conference.  It was great to meet all of you and J. Hruby and I both enjoyed the presentation and discussion.  One point from yesterday really stuck in my mind and I thought it was worth exploring further here in the blog:
When you include users or learners in your review process for online learning, (and most in the seminar agreed that you should!) how should they be selected?
A couple of thoughts from me and then I’d love to hear your comments: 
* Beware of reviewers who claim they can “represent” the actual learners!  I’m just reiterating this because it was one of the best points that emerged from yesterday’s seminar.  Thank you to the participant who shared a story that illustrated the problems that can occur when anyone other than an actual learner tries to speak for the learner. 
Managers, supervisors, and highly-experienced employees may be eager to volunteer to be reviewers, but only real learners should represent the learner’s point-of-view.
* Select reviewers who represent appropriate skill and experience levels within the learner base.  Area supervisors and highly-experienced employees may be eager to volunteer to be reviewers, but do they always represent the learner’s point-of-view?
* Think about what kind of feedback you want and communicate this clearly to the learner-reviewers.  Be aware that when more experienced employees are involved in reviews, they’ll often want to influence the content and how it’s conveyed so that it reflects their experiences, views about how things should be done, etc. 
That’s fine if this is the type of feedback you’re looking for and you’re in a phase where the content is still under development.  Often times, however, we involve learners because we want opinions about the effectiveness of the content that has already been decided on.  Make sure you understand what you want from your reviewers and then communicate that to them clearly.
Again, we really enjoyed yesterday’s seminar.  Please share your thoughts and comments.

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