Building Your Training Program

From a problem in practice to a technology-enhanced adult learning solution

Program Introduction

Problems in practice are real-world challenges professionals encounter in their fields. These are not hypothetical textbook problems. They are messy, complex, and often do not have one right answer. In ED540, you will identify, or continue working on, a current or relevant problem in an organization. You will then design an adult learning solution, or training program, that uses emergent technologies and facilitation strategies to address it.

The first six weeks of this course focus on researching and testing emerging tools and strategies while developing ideas that can improve adult learning opportunities. Throughout the term, you will put your knowledge into practice by progressively creating your training program.

By the End of This Course, You Will Have

Identified a real organizational problem that could be addressed through learning.
Defined an adult learner audience, delivery modality, and measurable objectives.
Designed technology-enhanced learning activities and facilitation strategies.
Created assessments and evaluation tools aligned with the training objectives.
Used research to explain and support your instructional decisions.
Produced a professional training plan that can be adapted and shared within an organization.

Core Training Program Decisions

Throughout this course, and ED542 if you have taken it, identify and refine the following elements:

Audience: Adult learners in an organization.
Modality: Online, blended, or entirely face-to-face.
Goals and Objectives: Identify your training goals and develop a detailed outline or agenda. Include the time required for each segment and the tool or strategy you will use to engage your audience.
Research: Use research examined throughout the semester to support your training decisions. Include the evidence at the point of need or in a rationale section of your outline or agenda.
Needs Assessment: When you share your outline or agenda in the Unit 7 Collaborative Corner, identify the areas where you most need focused peer feedback.

Planning and Organization

Think about this project as a way to organize a final product that captures your vision and planning. Your product should support collaboration across your organization because training opportunities are rarely confined to a single voice in planning and implementation. Build something that can be quickly adapted and shared as you continue developing your module and program.

Reliable Planning Options

Google Docs
Google Sheets, including project management templates
Microsoft 365 (Word, Excel, Planner, OneNote)
An ADDIE model planning template
Trello

Training Program Roadmap

Each unit contributes to your progress on the final project. Bookmark this page for quick access and use the roadmap to track how your training program should grow throughout the course.

**Program Roadmap**
Unit	Development Focus	Your Training Program Should Include
1	Define the Problem	Problem statement, target audience, and draft measurable objectives
2	Create the Plan	Planning document, training title, context, audience, and three to five finalized objectives
3	Solidify the Audience	Designer perspective, audience analysis, technology access, and psychological safety considerations
4	Build an Activity	One technology-enhanced learning activity or background knowledge assessment
5	Develop Meaningful Learning	A second training segment with content, interactions, resources, and knowledge checks
6	Add Supporting Details	Two fully outlined activities, timing, resources, facilitation details, and implementation considerations
7	Build and Refine	Learning evaluation tools, training evaluation plan, stakeholder communication, and revisions based on feedback
8	Submit and Reflect	Final training program, research support, AI feedback statement, and rubric-based self-evaluation

AI Use in This Project

AI in this course is meant to support your thinking, not replace it. You must generate the core ideas and decisions that shape your training program. Use AI to test and refine your reasoning, not to produce text to copy and paste. All parts of this project can be completed without AI, and your grade reflects the quality of your thinking and design. Refer to the Using AI Responsibly in ED540 page for additional information.

Unit-by-Unit Development Guide

Open each unit below to review what you should add to your training program, the research questions that can guide your work, and optional AI prompts that can help you test and refine your thinking.

Unit 1: “Problem in Practice” Elevator Pitch

By the end of this unit, your training program should include:

A clearly stated problem in practice that requires the development of one or more training modules.
A general description of your target audience.
A basic outline of measurable objectives for the training program.

Post these elements on the Unit 1 discussion board as an elevator pitch outlining the foundation of your training program.

Research Focus

As you work on your Curated Resources, identify what you need to know about adult learning theory to support your training decisions. Where are the gaps in your knowledge that could benefit from research?

Optional AI Support

Clarify your problem statement: “Act as an organizational learning consultant. Based on this description of my problem in practice, identify possible root causes, stakeholder tensions, and overlooked variables. Where might I be oversimplifying?”

Strengthen measurable objectives: “Rewrite these draft objectives so they are measurable and aligned with adult learning principles. Identify verbs that signal observable performance."

Unit 2: Create Your Planning Document

By the end of this unit, your training program should include a planning document with:

The title of your training.
The context of the problem in practice you are addressing.
Your target audience demographics.
Three to five learning objectives for the training.

Select an appropriate planning tool from the Planning and Organization section above.

Research Focus

As you work on your EdTech Review, consider whether there is a specific tool you want to research for planning or implementing your training.

Optional AI Support

Pressure test your training outline: “Review this training outline. Where are there gaps in alignment between objectives, activities, and assessment? Identify any redundancy or unclear sequencing.”

Compare planning tools: “Compare Google Docs, Trello, and Microsoft Planner for collaborative instructional planning in a mid-sized organization. Focus on collaboration, version control, and ease of adoption.”

Unit 3: Solidify Your Audience

Identify your audience and your design perspective early, then use both as guides throughout the project.

Required Statement: I am designing as a [perspective] for [audience].

Example: I am developing a training program for current Park faculty and Course Developers (CDEVs) as a facilitator and instructional coach.

By the end of this unit, consider and document:

Your audience’s target age range and relevant demographic characteristics.
Their current level of technological skill.
The digital tools they can already access.
How you will build psychological safety and a sense of belonging.
How you will identify the knowledge and skills participants bring to the training.

Research Focus

As you curate resources, identify the decisions you need to make about your audience and the research gaps that need to be filled.

Optional AI Support

Develop an audience persona: “Create a learner persona for a group of adult professionals with [insert level] technology skills and [other organizational needs]. Include motivations, barriers, and likely resistance points.”

Anticipate psychological safety concerns: “What risks to psychological safety might exist in a blended training for this audience? Suggest facilitation strategies grounded in adult learning theory.”

Unit 4: Build a Training Activity

By the end of this unit, build one part of your training program using ideas from the EdTech Reviews. You might:

Create an activity that promotes psychological safety or another priority. Write the facilitation steps, select a tool, test the activity, and share the results.
Use a digital tool to assess your audience’s background knowledge. Include the questions you will ask and the tool you will use to gather results.

Optional AI Support

Refine the activity: “Here is my draft activity. Suggest ways to increase engagement, interaction, and application for adult learners. Identify where I may be over-explaining rather than facilitating.”

Draft formative assessment questions: “Create five scenario-based knowledge check questions aligned with this objective. Include answer rationales.”

Unit 5: Develop Meaningful Learning and Facilitation

Begin creating another activity that demonstrates meaningful learning and facilitation. This may build on the previous activity, but selecting a different segment of your training will usually yield a stronger, more complete plan.

By the end of this unit, address:

One topic your audience must understand to be successful.
The content learners need to gain that knowledge.
The environment, tools, and resources needed to support the activity.
The learner-to-learner and facilitator-to-learner interactions you want to create.
The knowledge checks needed during the activity.

Research Focus

Identify gaps in your understanding of meaningful learning and facilitation for adults. Your research should help you explain decisions using a rationale such as: “I am choosing this activity because research on adult learners indicates...”

Optional AI Support

Connect research to practice: Use AI to identify possible keywords or phrases for Pirate Search, but verify all research through credible sources. Prompt example: “I am choosing to use [strategy, such as collaborative problem solving] in this activity. Identify adult learning concepts that may support this approach and suggest search terms I could use to locate credible research.”

Strengthen facilitation moves: “Given this activity, suggest facilitation questions that move learners from surface understanding to application and transfer.”

Unit 6: Add Decisions and Supporting Details

Use one of the training activities developed in Units 4 or 5 to select an appropriate digital tool or strategy and build the activity within that tool.

By the end of this unit, your training plan should include:

Two fully outlined training activities.
Any supporting resources needed to complete the activities.
Estimated timing for each activity.
The tools, materials, and facilitation steps required.
Enough detail for peers and the instructor to provide useful feedback.

Building the training is preferred, but access limitations within a program or organization may prevent others from viewing it directly. In that case, use a video walkthrough to showcase your progress.

Review the expectations for Units 7 and 8 as you prepare for the final program submission.

Optional AI Support

Identify logistical blind spots: “Review this training segment and identify potential logistical challenges related to timing, technology access, or cognitive overload.”

Improve clarity before peer review: “Provide feedback on whether my instructions are clear enough that another facilitator could implement this training without me present.”

Unit 7: Build and Refine

Use the feedback you have received to revise your training program and deepen the level of detail in your plan.

By the end of this unit, address:

How you will evaluate participant learning growth.
One or two learning evaluation tools, such as formative feedback, summative feedback, rubrics, or checklists.
How you will evaluate the training as a whole and its organizational impact.
How you will communicate the training’s impact to stakeholders.

This unit should result in significant progress within your training document. Use peer and instructor feedback to improve the plan, and add details that make your intended decisions visible. There should be considerable development and greater depth between the Unit 6 and Unit 8 versions.

Optional AI Support

Conduct a gap analysis: “Evaluate this module against these objectives and rubric criteria. Where is alignment weak or underdeveloped?”

Develop an evaluation tool: “Draft a short post-training evaluation survey that measures perceived learning, transfer to practice, and organizational impact.”

Unit 8: Final Submission and Reflection

By the end of this unit, submit a complete training program that includes:

A statement explaining which AI-generated or other feedback you used, what you changed, and why.
Research-based support for the decisions throughout your training plan.
APA-style in-text citations and a reference list.
A self-evaluation explaining how well your training program meets each rubric criterion. This step is completed through the project submission process as it is built-in to Canvas.

Your self-evaluation should include enough detail to help the instructor understand the decisions you made to strengthen the program.

Congratulations! You have developed a research-supported training solution for a real problem in practice.

Rubric Access

The final rubric uses language specific to the Organizational Leadership in Adult Learning program. Become familiar with the expectations by opening Unit 8: Training Program, scrolling to the rubric, and selecting the “view longer description” links to preview each complete requirement.

Examples and Inspiration

The course includes examples of training modules used with adult learners in a K-12 system. As you review them, consider how the design responds to audience needs, modality, organizational context, and available tools.

An asynchronous module that provides a choice among emerging technologies.
A low-stakes professional learning experience in which staff submit input through a Google Form to receive credit.
Collaborative planning documents created in Google Docs or Microsoft 365.
An organizational training opportunity divided into smaller sessions that participants can attend throughout the year.
An ADDIE-based training structure initially supported by AI, with the designer’s own thinking and decisions visibly added.

Student examples are also provided within the units of study.

Our ED540 Course Perspective

ED540 focuses on the third phase of the ADDIE model: Develop. Throughout the term, Curated Resources and EdTech Reviews help you build the materials, background knowledge, and rationale needed to support your training program.

**Program Connection**
Course	ADDIE Phase	Program Connection
ED516	Analyze	Use peer-reviewed research to build an annotated bibliography and literature review that identify gaps in adult learning theory and clarify the context of your problem in practice.
ED542	Design	Create a needs assessment and curriculum overview that identify the problem, audience, context, and objectives.
ED540	Develop	Create a practical training plan aligned with the curriculum overview and make research-based decisions to engage and motivate adult learners.
ED631	Implement and Evaluate	Develop a process to evaluate the impact of your sustained project, culminating in a live presentation and written documentation of what you learned.

Research Resources

Organizational Leadership in Adult Learning Research Guide
Park Library Pirate Search
APA References

AI Use Attribution

OpenAI, ChatGPT. (2026, February 26). Prompt: “Generate example AI prompts that support ethical and strategic use of artificial intelligence within Unit Roadmaps for an adult learning graduate course.”

Notes: ChatGPT was used to brainstorm and refine example AI prompts that model responsible use of artificial intelligence in ED540. The prompts were reviewed, revised, and contextualized to align with program competencies, adult learning research, and course expectations.