Are you a learning and development professional responsible for creating training programs for your organization? If so, you probably know that every training project faces the constraints of time, cost, and quality. Real World Training Design employs the time-tested ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation) model as a starting point in giving you the tools and knowledge you need to implement your training goals. In Real World Training Design, you will learn how to assess the needs training of your company, how to design a program that meets your criteria you face, how to develop the program efficiently and cost-effectively, how to implement your training protocol, and how to evaluate the results of your work so you can demonstrate the benefits and return-on-investment of your plan. Separating Real World Training Design from the rest of the training manual pack is its recognition that real-world challenges and opportunities are part of the process of developing every training program. Rather than gloss over the potential difficulties faced by trainers, managers, and other L&D staff, this book explores and addresses these issues head on, and offers creative and pragmatic advice on how to overcome these obstacles. In addition to an in-depth analysis of the ADDIE protocol and coverage of the potential pitfalls you may encounter, Real World Training Design also delivers useful tools, detailed templates, well-researched case studies, and a list of additional resources to help you create truly productive and cost-effective training programs. Real World Training Design is a tremendously valuable for every professional who is involved with the design, implementation, maintenance, and evaluation of personnel development tools.

Summary Real-World Machine Learning is a practical guide designed to teach working developers the art of ML project execution. Without overdosing you on academic theory and complex mathematics, it introduces the day-to-day practice of machine learning, preparing you to successfully build and deploy powerful ML systems. Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. About the Technology Machine learning systems help you find valuable insights and patterns in data, which you'd never recognize with traditional methods. In the real world, ML techniques give you a way to identify trends, forecast behavior, and make fact-based recommendations. It's a hot and growing field, and up-to-speed ML developers are in demand. About the Book Real-World Machine Learning will teach you the concepts and techniques you need to be a successful machine learning practitioner without overdosing you on abstract theory and complex mathematics. By working through immediately relevant examples in Python, you'll build skills in data acquisition and modeling, classification, and regression. You'll also explore the most important tasks like model validation, optimization, scalability, and real-time streaming. When you're done, you'll be ready to successfully build, deploy, and maintain your own powerful ML systems. What's Inside Predicting future behavior Performance evaluation and optimization Analyzing sentiment and making recommendations About the Reader No prior machine learning experience assumed. Readers should know Python. About the Authors Henrik Brink, Joseph Richards and Mark Fetherolf are experienced data scientists engaged in the daily practice of machine learning. Table of Contents PART 1: THE MACHINE-LEARNING WORKFLOW What is machine learning? Real-world data Modeling and prediction Model evaluation and optimization Basic feature engineering PART 2: PRACTICAL APPLICATION Example: NYC taxi data Advanced feature engineering Advanced NLP example: movie review sentiment Scaling machine-learning workflows Example: digital display advertising

Better Learning Solutions Through Better Learning Experiences When training and development initiatives treat learning as something that occurs as a one-time event, the learner and the business suffer. Using design thinking can help talent development professionals ensure learning sticks to drive improved performance. Design Thinking for Training and Development offers a primer on design thinking, a human-centered process and problem-solving methodology that focuses on involving users of a solution in its design. For effective design thinking, talent development professionals need to go beyond the UX, the user experience, and incorporate the LX, the learner experience. In this how-to guide for applying design thinking tools and techniques, Sharon Boller and Laura Fletcher share how they adapted the traditional design thinking process for training and development projects. Their process involves steps to: Get perspective. Refine the problem. Ideate and prototype. Iterate (develop, test, pilot, and refine). Implement. Design thinking is about balancing the three forces on training and development programs: learner wants and needs, business needs, and constraints. Learn how to get buy-in from skeptical stakeholders. Discover why taking requests for training, gathering the perspective of stakeholders and learners, and crafting problem statements will uncover the true issue at hand. Two in-depth case studies show how the authors made design thinking work. Job aids and tools featured in this book include: a strategy blueprint to uncover what a stakeholder is trying to solve an empathy map to capture the learner’s thoughts, actions, motivators, and challenges an experience map to better understand how the learner performs. With its hands-on, use-it-today approach, this book will get you started on your own journey to applying design thinking.

What is understanding and how does it differ from knowledge? How can we determine the big ideas worth understanding? Why is understanding an important teaching goal, and how do we know when students have attained it? How can we create a rigorous and engaging curriculum that focuses on understanding and leads to improved student performance in today's high-stakes, standards-based environment? Authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe answer these and many other questions in this second edition of Understanding by Design. Drawing on feedback from thousands of educators around the world who have used the UbD framework since its introduction in 1998, the authors have greatly revised and expanded their original work to guide educators across the K-16 spectrum in the design of curriculum, assessment, and instruction. With an improved UbD Template at its core, the book explains the rationale of backward design and explores in greater depth the meaning of such key ideas as essential questions and transfer tasks. Readers will learn why the familiar coverage- and activity-based approaches to curriculum design fall short, and how a focus on the six facets of understanding can enrich student learning. With an expanded array of practical strategies, tools, and examples from all subject areas, the book demonstrates how the research-based principles of Understanding by Design apply to district frameworks as well as to individual units of curriculum. Combining provocative ideas, thoughtful analysis, and tested approaches, this new edition of Understanding by Design offers teacher-designers a clear path to the creation of curriculum that ensures better learning and a more stimulating experience for students and teachers alike.

In response to budgetary constraints, satellite offices, and advances in computers and software, training and education is evolving. For all organizations, technology-based training has become a viable option to traditional instructor-led training. This book allows professionals to survey the available options and make reasoned decisions about when technology-based training is or is not useful. The CD-ROM is packed with useful tools, ask-the-author sessions, and links to Web-based resources.

A comprehensive framework for effective real-world instructional design Mastering the Instructional Design Process provides step-by-step guidance on the design and development of an engaging, effective training program. The focus on core competencies of instructional system design helps you develop your skills in a way that's immediately applicable to real-world settings, and this newly updated fifth edition has been revised to reflect the new IBSTPI Competencies and Standards for Instructional Design. With a solid foundation of researched and validated standards, this invaluable guide provides useful insight and a flexible framework for approaching instructional design from a practical perspective. Coverage includes the full range of design considerations concerning the learners, objectives, setting, and more, and ancillaries include design templates, PowerPoint slides, lecture notes, and a test bank help you bring these competencies to the classroom. Instructional design is always evolving, and new trends are emerging to meet the ever-changing needs of learners and exploit the newest tools at our disposal. This book brings together the latest developments and the most effective best practices to give you a foolproof framework for successfully managing instructional design projects. Detect and solve human performance problems Analyze needs, learners, work settings, and work Establish performance objectives and measurements Deliver effective instruction in a variety of scenarios Effective training programs don't just happen. Instructional design is a complex field, and practitioners must be skilled in very specific areas to deliver a training program that engages learners and makes the learning 'stick.' Mastering the Instructional Design Process is a comprehensive handbook for developing the skillset that facilitates positive training outcomes.

Master the fundamentals, hone your business instincts, and save a fortune in tuition. The consensus is clear: MBA programs are a waste of time and money. Even the elite schools offer outdated assembly-line educations about profit-and-loss statements and PowerPoint presentations. After two years poring over sanitized case studies, students are shuffled off into middle management to find out how business really works. Josh Kaufman has made a business out of distilling the core principles of business and delivering them quickly and concisely to people at all stages of their careers. His blog has introduced hundreds of thousands of readers to the best business books and most powerful business concepts of all time. In The Personal MBA, he shares the essentials of sales, marketing, negotiation, strategy, and much more. True leaders aren't made by business schools-they make themselves, seeking out the knowledge, skills, and experiences they need to succeed. Read this book and in one week you will learn the principles it takes most people a lifetime to master.