Question and Answers with the Learning Design team #Part 1

Please can you introduce yourself and explain your role within the Learning Design team and how long you have been working for the company?

My name is Dean Simpson and I have worked for Resource Group for just over six years. Along with a colleague, I am one of the original members of the team that established the grass roots of the Learning Design department.  With over thirty years in the aviation industry both in the military and civilian sectors, my background is as an Aircraft Engineer (mechanical systems) and aircraft type rating instructor. Having the most aviation industry experience, my role is to support the Learning Design Team with specialist technical knowledge during project development phases.
As the department grows and new projects are agreed, my role will be as the technical liaison between subject matter experts and the department’s Instructional Designers and Developers.

Have you always had a background in Learning Design?

My background is mainly technical, however, as an Instructor I have been required to develop training material for various clients within the both the Military (DSAT compliant) and Civil (EASA compliant) aviation industries.

Is there a project you have or currently working on that you really enjoy?

The biggest project to date for the department has been the development of City & Guilds aligned training material. As project lead and along with a small team of developers, I was responsible for the development of training material to satisfy the requirements of C&G 2675-03, Level 3 Diploma in Aircraft Maintenance (Military Aircraft). A year-long project that brought with it many challenges, especially tight time deadlines and changes to the scope. Although under extreme pressures at times, the team excelled, and the project came in under time. It was greatly satisfying to know that we met all the expectations of City & Guilds in providing material for training new and suitably qualified aircraft maintenance engineers.

Do you think COVID-19 will have an impact on Learning Design?

COVID-19 will most definitely have an impact on Learning Design. As our current training moves away from the normal ‘face-to-face’ instructor led delivery, I feel as a department we will be required to develop training to support online distance learning, and in the case of remote delivery, enhancing the current training material to aid the Instructors and make it more engaging for the students. The pandemic has and will inevitably raise numerous challenges for the Training Delivery Team. It is somewhat early days and we are still adapting but I am sure as a Learning Design team we will be in a good place to give our utmost support to all areas of the business.

How do you think Learning Design can support the aviation sector with its return to ‘normality’?

These are somewhat testing times for the aviation industry. Aircraft fleets remain grounded and revenue that would normally be generated at peak times of the year are rapidly drying up resulting in the prospect of reducing employee numbers. For those who will remain, the workload will inevitably increase and the time that would normally be set aside for training and learning will diminish. With round-the-clock operations, a dispersed workforce and diverse range of job roles comes the requirement for a flexible approach to training and development. Learning Design has realised that eLearning has become widely adopted throughout the industry and can develop and adapt eLearning as a means of achieving the necessary control of training costs and accessibility. eLearning can be purely stand alone or integrated into more traditional delivery methods with the generic benefits it provides:

•  It is more cost-effective than most other methods of training.
•  eLearning ensures that information is current.
• It offers geographical flexibility, as the course can be taken in any location.
• It also offers temporal flexibility, as training is available 24/7.
• It creates a culture of learning and encourages users to seek information as needed, and to seek local mentoring support.
• Content standardisation is promoted between instructors across entire organisations and businesses.
• It provides interactive exercises, as well as resources that can potentially be shared with others.
• eLearning encourages compatibility as software must become standardised, so practically any computer can run training in an identical fashion.
• It enables immediate learner feedback, tailored specifically to exhibited performance.

Dean Simpson

Instructional Designer