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Start with some basic books on training. Sometimes a discussion forum cannot substitute for good old-fashioned research, nor should it.
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Agree totally on this.I wanted to know any book that someone can recommend that has a robust explanation about audience profiling for a learning Management system,thought this forum would be the best to enquire .....

Disclaimer: I am teaching out of the office this week so I am not in the office.

Try Training for Dummies if the info is not in there, it might be in a book referenced by it.

Thanks will look it up

Check our this site I found by Googling.......
http://www.wikieducator.org/Training_Educators_to_Desig...ers%E2%80%99_Profile

This looks like a very good, concise article on developing learner profiles. At the end are several references you might want to check out too.

Also, check out the book "Planning a Course" by Ian Forsyth, Alan Jolliffe, and David Stevens on Amazon.com - Chapter 4 is on developing learner profiles.

Good luck!

Pkanthan,

The "learner profile" you may be describing seems to have at least two parents.

The first is the knowledge the instructional designer gathers about the target population. This information provides a basic start point for the actual training event as well as serving as a reference point for various methods and media to use.

The second has to do with the actual people who will attend a specific event. This information represents specific learner preferences (styles) as well insights into where they are from an existing competency perspective. This information can help the deliverer of the training better adapt the methods and media to maximize the learning potential. You can begin to get at this during the course registration process (build a simple tool that works for you) and is further tuned during the initial start up activities ("here's the outcome and agenda....does this look like we're on track....does anyone have suggestions for making this even better?")

You need both in order to create an excellent learning opportunity.

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"Mr. Spock from Star Trek had a great training technique called "the Vulcan mind meld." Spock placed his fingertips on another person's head, which in turn, transferred knowledge, vivid images, and memories from their brain to his, or vice versa."

"Unfortunately, we do not have that capability...yet. So for the time being, we use a systematic method of transferring knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSA). This method is known as ISD. Just as Spock could extract only the information he wanted, the goal in ISD is to make the transfer quickly, cheaply, and tailored to the learner's needs."

Stolen from Don Clark's website