August 27, 2009

What are we assessing?

In old computer terminology we used the phrase "garbage in and garbage out". Our school and learning systems have unwittingly added a third element – "garbage tracked".

Calvin in another strip comments, that it is no point going to school as he never learns anything there that he wants to learn. As I reflect back to my schooling days, I can hardly recollect a class in a new semester (or terms as we call them in India) starting off where the teacher explained why spending my quality time with him over the next 3 months is worthwhile to ME.

There was the false assumption that I somehow knew why I was appearing for a class. Sure in college that was sometimes the case, but there was often a realization in the middle of the semester that there is a mismatch in expectation and reality.

So without a clear understanding of why the year 1620 (in the above cartoon) was important, how many students are simply going through the system manipulating the system?

Posted by Tridib Roy Chowdhury2:02 PM
  • Paul Szczublewski

    I think a big hurdle in corporate training is that the benefit of a piece of training is often lost on the end user even when you attempt to explain it. Terms like “increased customer satisfaction,” and “boost productivity” become almost meaningless after hearing them over and over. After all, the 10 previous lessons all had the same benefits, but the learner’s day has not tangibly changed much in regard to those goals, even though a satisfaction report might indicate a move on that metric.The learner often sees the training as a new process they “have to learn” or a new rule they “have to follow.” Even though the learner would almost certainly agree that increased customer satisfaction was good for ALL employees, such a concept is sometimes hard to individualize enough to motivate a particular learner to do much more than click next.

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