INDEPENDENT REVIEW AND EVALUATION OF SEARS AND MEIJER ON-LINE TRAINING

I worked part-time at Sears and at Meijer after completing my Masters in Educational Technology and while looking for more permanent work in my field. This gave me the opportunity to go through some extensive and high dollar on-line training programs. This was also the perfect follow-up opportunity for me to recognize, appreciate, and observe the challenges of putting Instructional Design principles to use in large commercial enterprises - and to see some very clever ideas being tried in the workplace - both CD and server-based multi-media products that employed both linear instruction with feedback, and simulation to help the employee practice using the cash register, making change, using the various bar-code scanner screens, or handling a customer complaint, or learning to handle hazardous material, or about sexual harrassment.

I also worked for a company called Product Action - which put us in various factories around the state of Indiana (and beyond) as Parts Inspectors doing containments and sorts of auto parts. Supervisors used a prescribed set of guidelines to come up with a formal set of work instructions for each sort that came along. Parts Inspectors read and signed off on these work instructions before they commenced the sort. I blog about this experience in my job hunt and photography blog.