Student-Centred Learning
Recognizing that it would be difficult to maintain the delegate’s interest and concentration throughout a 6 week classroom-based “induction” programme. Liemur recommended that it would be better to adopt a Student-Centred, workshop and groupwork-based teaching model, rather than using traditional “talk and chalk” PowerPoint presentations.
- “…this encouraged and aided learning greatly, as well as building team spirit within the group. It also allowed further discussion of matters that where unclear”
- “…I am convinced that this is the biggest reason why the group have 'gelled' so well and not split off into little social groups as can quite often happen in this sort of situation.”
- “…In terms of hindrance it was sometimes annoying when working in groups and a member simply didn't understand what was going on and was preventing the group progressing”
- “…group working was an excellent way of developing our skills and also a way to get to know our fellow trainees better. I think this helped my personal development…”
- “…working in groups allowed us to use each other’s knowledge and help each other which would often clarify any confusion.”
- “Personally I found this very beneficial. I’m naturally quite a shy person, so working like this not only introduced me to people I had never met before, whom I can now refer to as friends as well as colleagues, but it also encouraged communication with people from various areas of the business. In the long run this will benefit all of us, as we’ll all have at least 12 people we all know we can count on for support.”
Student Notes
As a core skill of the Analyst is to gather, analyse and organize the project team’s information, Liemur recommended that this should be practiced from the outset. Therefore, delegates were required to keep their own notes, which were regularly discussed and merged with those of their colleagues.
- “I think that this is a good approach because … it focused our attention on the task of extracting important information from the presentations ourselves.”
- “…if people knew they were getting handouts on the topics they wouldn't pay as much attention…”
- “I did learn a lot from this exercise, as I don’t think I would have made such comprehensive notes otherwise.”
- “I have a tendency to find myself simply copying down what I see as being important information from slides during presentations (being worried that if I fail to write anything down it may trip me up later) which prevents me really engaging with what is being presented.”
- “…free availability of notes … would have been to our disadvantage, as it would have led to an ‘I’ll read them tomorrow’ attitude.”
- “…at the start it caused the problem that delegated needed to spend more time concentrating on actually taking notes than on the actual presentation … Once I became accustomed to this it became much easier to keep up with notes, as we could either slow the pace down by asking questions or sharing notes at the end of the session (info in regard to handbooks etc) depending on the situation.”
- “…on some occasions (if the group didn’t have a complete understanding regarding a certain issue). There could be different opinions on how to complete the task. If this happened, generally we had to seek clarification on an issue, that way we could get a better understanding of the situation and how to resolve it.
- “I felt I learned more by taking my own notes – certainly, the section of the course in which notes were given out beforehand was the section I and other delegates had the most trouble with, which I do not believe was coincidental.”
Presentation Skills
Developing the confidence to develop and deliver effective presentations (both written and verbal) is another core skill of the Analyst. The delegates practiced these skills, to consolidate their learning of the subjects of the presentations as well as gaining confidence through experience.
- “Reports and presentations help beat the information you need to know in your memory and when it is with a group can help you learn good group co-ordination.”
- “…I had little presentation experience, Richard spend extra time with me on this subject, highlighting where I could improve and how.”
- “Doing the presentations and writing reports not only refreshed the skills that the group already had but enhanced them in the sense that we knew what was required from the business in these areas: i.e. Standards”
- “…helped me to build up my confidence and remove most of my fear for doing presentations, it allowed me to build up team working and work management skills.”
- “The benefit for me was I become a lot more confident as the weeks went on.”
Effective Planning
Role play exercises attempted to teach that effective planning is essential to a successful workshop or interview. This included design and analysis of the questions the Analyst(s) intended asking.
- “I’ve learnt not to do any of that (most especially to never go to a requirements meeting with more than four attendees), and what happens if you do – I’d say it was an eye-opener, and avoiding those minefields is a great head-start in the workplace.”
- “[Most beneficial part of programme was] Question and Answer Logs, including who will be asked and how the question will be asked, along with signoff for traceability. Simply by writing down every question I’ve had and who I’m going to ask about it, my project has leapt on – not only do I have a record of who said what, but the organisation of it allowed me to blitz through my clarifications in two days by following a pre-prepared plan of attack.” – “[This used to take] Twice as long? Three times as
- long? Something like that.”
- “…it was an eye-opener, and avoiding those minefields is a great head-start in the workplace…”
- “We are much more careful to ask lots of questions before starting an exercise and to find out what the aim of any process is.”
