Instructions instructions
Who is a trainer?

You may be an AWIPS, CHPS, or even safety focal points, in which case part of your role would include training staff members. You may be an outreach coordinator and train COOP volunteers. You may just be an early adopter and are asked to share what you have learned about some new software with your peers. In any of these cases, you are acting as a trainer.

What do trainers do? Trainers wear many hats...
About Training

How will you interact with your learners? How will your learners interact with the training materials? Actually, we can shorten this even more by saying that good instructional design is about ACTION.

Instructional Design

Instructional Design is the systematic practice of creating instructional materials. Many instructional design models are based on the ADDIE model with the five phases: analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation.

At the NWSTC

As mentioned previously, good training requires planning. At the NWSTC, we use the Instructional System Design (ISD) version of instructional design. You can learn more about ISD from Big Dog & Little Dog’s ISD page by Don Clark
Images & More

Presentations often times requires graphics. Here are some sites to acquire and create free graphics:

 

NOAA Photo Library

FreeImages.com

Big Huge Labs - a fun site that generates a variety of graphics

 

Note: Always read licensing, restrictions, and rights statements before using any of the sites above. For example, while rights are provided at stock.xchng, they do not collect model release agreements. We therefor advise against using any pictures with identifiable people from that site.
Advice, Blogs, & More

Here is a list of sites that I believe you may find useful:

 

The Rapid E-Learning Blog by Tom Kuhlmann

Let's Save the World from Boring Training! by Cathy Moore

E-Learning Heroes - Advice and ideas from the Articulate Community

Performance, Learning, Leadership, & Knowledge  by Don Clark

 

Note: Many of these articles are described as "eLearning" or tips for a specific product; however, most ideas can be extended to any form of training.