Hello. I have been tasked with rolling out a new leadership training program. The classes have been purchased and I am comfortable w/the material. I need to justify a pilot, just one class with 10 or so people before training those who need it. Those above me don't find it neccessary. I have my own reasons, but if anyone can find any articles etc. on the net, I'd appreciate it. I've been looking for an hour and can't find anything. Just pilot, as in "airline pilot" training !!!

Here's the reality. You never know how good things are until you test them with actual users. If there is little or no risk, you don't need a pilot. There is absolutely no harm in having a friendly audience give you feedback before you roll things out.

Here is one from a company describing its pilots
http://www.intulogy.com/addie/pilot-testing.html

Try googling for
"pilot course" OR "course pilot" addie OR astd
keep the quotes, and make sure the ORs are in uppercase. You'll find a lot more.

I believe it is also in the ASTD CPLP "body of knowledge". I don't have a copy of the set of books, so I don't recall where it is. Maybe someone else will remember?
--john

Pilot courses are still with the actual people who would be taking the class. The difference is the way you frame it for them. They become the important test run. They should be the best of the best from within your pool of participants. You allow at least an extra day or two so that you can do meta-debriefing about the success (or lack thereof) of particular parts of the learning experience. (paced and placed throughout the learning - not all at the end)

quote:

They should be the best of the best from within your pool of participants.

While I agree with the rest of FF's comments, I do not agree with this. I've done it this way and actually prefer to have a cross-section of the participants I'll ultimately get.

If I only get the "best of the best" I run the risk of not meeting the needs of the ill-prepared and other common classes of participants. What I do is send a questionaire to potential pilot participants asking about their experience, etc. Then I try to choose those who'll represent the participants in the actual runs of the course.

I've also found that an extra hour at the end of each day beats extra days.

--john