Link to the speaker presentation can be found here.
Our second speaker was Mohan Yang. He is an assistant professor and researcher at Old Dominion University, where he focuses on transfer of training, digital transformation, microlearning, accessible design, and online learning. He runs the training specialist program, which teaches graduates how to create training programs for business, higher education, and other work environments. I was late getting into the call, so I watched the recording to make sure I didn’t miss the beginning of it, and I greatly appreciated that Mohan was willing to share the slideshow with the class so we could look it over. There was a lot of information that he shared in his talk on training, transfer of learned skills, and how these things are researched and applied which is widely applicable, and I will be studying over for weeks to come.
For myself, I don’t see this as a field that would work well for me. Listening to his research had me interested, but not invested. Although I do enjoy learning about evaluating the effectiveness of a program (in Mohan’s case, a training program), I much prefer and enjoy studying outreach programs. There are training aspects of running an outreach program that I might apply some of the lessons from this talk; it would be good for me to think about how I train my volunteers and what methods will ensure volunteers feel prepared. Beyond that though, I much prefer to think about the students who are learning from the presentations, how the engagement methodology plays into what they remember, and what students can recall long-term.