Performance Assessment Instruments for Instructor-Led-Training

Project Overview

In this post/ portfolio piece, I reflect on my experiences working with my to create a performance assessment instrument for assessing frozen foods for the Idaho Food Bank.

Please read on to learn about my process or scroll to the bottom to see the performance assessment instrument.

The Challenge:

The challenge was to develop an assessment tool that the client could use to determine if learners had mastered the skills needed to assess frozen food donations with little to no supervision.

Design and Development

Tools: Google Slides, Google Docs, and Microsoft Office

We had two major requirements:

1. That an instructor assesses learners one-on-one.
2. That learners perform the task as they would perform it on their job under conditions that are at least similar to those that exist on the job.

Roadblocks

As we discussed with our SME, we realized was that it was impossible to assess frozen food in a way that didn’t waste food that could have been provided to people in need. A primary goal of Idaho Food Bank is to feed people, and to remove food for assessment would render it unfit to go back into rotation. Though it would have been ideal to assess this training with scenario-based eLearning, but it was beyond the scope and budget of our project.

Rather than provide real food items on the job for learners to examine, we decided to provide paper images of food items. In this way, learners could view a picture and follow the directions in the job aids to decide whether to accept or reject the donation.

See Prototype 1

As we prepared for tryouts, we anticipated another roadblock. Assessing frozen food donations is a cognitive task, and we couldn’t ascertain if learners had mastered the steps if they just looked at the images and made a decision.

When performing similar tasks in the workplace, learners would be taking temperature readings, and visually inspecting the product packaging etc. before making a decision. Having them assess frozen food donations simply by looking at a picture was a cognitive task and we couldn’t ascertain if learners had mastered the steps if they just looked at the images and made a decision.

Even though they could be making the right decisions, we wanted to be sure that they weren’t just guessing. As an example, a learner could observe that a beef donation is discolored and reject it. While this is the right decision, and experienced learners can accomplish this task without needing to review each step, we were concerned that novice learners would not grasp the steps necessary to make the right decisions when things are not so clear-cut. So, we designed an assessment that learners could use to visibly demonstrate to the instructor that they had followed the required process.

Prototype 2

Once again, we anticipated a roadblock. Our attempt had resulted in an additional workload for the instructor which we did not see as being commensurate with the tool’s benefits. We decided to send Prototype 1 to our client for a formative evaluation while we continued to brainstorm as a team.

Final Deliverables.

We decided to stick go with Prototype 1 and have the learner verbalize their process during the one-on-one assessment.

Since we could not reenact a workplace scenario and eLearning based on a scenario was beyond the scope of our project, we decided to simulate on-the-job situations by:

1. having learners assess paper images of foods for practice.
2. having learners verbalize the process during assessments to demonstrate mastery.

We figured that in addition to helping learners demonstrate mastery, verbalizing the process would also reinforce learning and help learners build the confidence their employer requires them to demonstrate when assessing food items.

In the end, to the extent that scope, time and budget allowed, Prototype 1, along with the PAI most closely aligned assessing how learners are expected to perform at the food bank.

See the Performance Assessment Instrument.