Assignment 2: RA 1: Experiment: An Organization's Study of Training Programs Presentation

Individuals in the field of training and development need to be able to evaluate and compare various training methods to assure the best and most effective means to boost employee skills, improve staff performance, revitalize team dynamics, or encourage employee development and promotion.

For this assignment, you will design a faux experiment (you will design the experiment but will not actually conduct it). This experiment will compare different types of training modalities. You will include an explanation of how this task would be measured and achieved. It is a complex assignment that also builds on what you learned in your Research Methods course. Review the following definition, scenario, and directions to complete the assignment and summarize it in a presentation of approximately 6- to 8-slides.

Experimental Research Design Definition:

Morrison-Beedy and Melnyk (2012) provide a comprehensive definition for experimental research design:

The only type of research that allows us to draw conclusions about cause and effect relationships between an intervention or treatment and an outcome. A true experiment or randomized controlled trial is the strongest type of intervention study for testing cause and effect relationships. There are three components required in a true experiment: An intervention or treatment, a comparison or control group and random assignment of participants to experimental or comparison/control groups. (p. 1)

Scenario: You are working as a consultant with a large national corporation and have been assigned the task to discover which training method option gives the best results for the organization. Specifically, leadership is interested in discovering which training modality has the best rate of training transfer.

Directions: The training topic to compare will be "How to Design and Manage Effective Meetings." In 6- to 8-slides (including detailed speaker's notes), design an experiment that will compare the effectiveness of three different training modalities.

1. Analyze the following training methods:

• On-site training

• Virtual training

• No training (this is your control group)

2. Design an experiment comparing three modalities of training. You should include "no training" as your control group.

• Identify the three groups you will include in this experiment. What is included in these training modalities?

• Identify the variables within this training study and explain how they will be manipulated or controlled.

• Discuss how you will randomly assign your participants (i.e., employees in your organization) to each of these groups.

• Analyze and determine the ethical considerations in such a study.

• Determine how you will measure the results, particularly in regard to Kirkpatrick's model.

3. With all of these elements explored, the next step is presenting this information to leadership. Discuss how you will approach the leadership team and present how you have designed and will conduct this experiment.

Your final product will be a Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation approximately 6- to 8-slides in length (including detailed speaker's notes). You will utilize three to five scholarly sources in your research (beyond your textbook). Your presentation should be written in a clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrate ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; and display accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation.