Anyone have fun training tricks?

[Solveig Haugland <solveig -at- techwriterstuff -dot- com>]

Hi,

I'm a former techwriter, now independent course developer and trainer
(OpenOffice.org), and I'm trying to strike a balance between fun and
engaging, and not too freaky/fluffy since most people in my classes
aren't there voluntarily. ;>   In general I do standard instructor led
training with a bit of explanation about why it's important, a fair
amount of demo, and a bunch of hands on exercises from my workbooks. So
not a lot of lecture, lots of practice, but I'm looking for a little
more Zing. Does anyone have tricks they use? These are the tricks I do
now:

- Throw a nerf ball around and make them say something they remember
from the previous module
- Team-teach a topic; that is, divide the class into groups and do one
or two exercises, then tell the class how it works
- Make them create their own quick reference sheets explaining in their
own words how to do a task
- Frequent short breaks (get the kinesthetics into it to reinforce the
learning)
- Just generally try to be engaging and fun

Stuff that doesn't quite seem to work for office suites includes things
for tougher concepts like acting out what happens when a browser sends a
command toan Enterprise JavaBean. I would definitely make people do this
type of thing, though, if I thought it would help people learn how to do
mail merges. ;>

Thanks for any tips,

Solveig
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
solveig -at- techwriterstuff -dot- com

"X is for XML, buzzword du jour; for great docs, world peace, and of
course hair loss cure"
http://www.techwriterstuff.com
Products expressing the agony and ecstacy of being a techwriter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



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