There are five distinct forms of training manuals.  Each has a specific purpose. (No, not as a booster seat for a visiting toddler)  Choosing the right document to accomplish your goal is helpful in ensuring you are successful in assisting your learners the most effective way. 

Pick what type of training manuals you will create.

1.    Determine what type of training you are creating.  Is it a process training, a

task training or a conceptual training.

2.    Decide how you will deliver the training.  Will it be in person, over the web,

self-paced?

3.    Use this chart to select the type of manuals you may want to create.  The

 more complicated the information being trained, the more likely you will be

 to use multiple types of training manuals.

	In Person Training	Web Based Training	Self-Paced Training
Process Training	Workbook Reference Material Handouts Job Aides	Reference Material Job Aides	Self-Paced Guide Reference Material Job Aides
Task Training	Reference Material Handouts Job Aides	Reference Material Job Aides	Self-Paced Guide Reference Material Job Aides
Conceptual Training	Workbook Reference Material Handouts Job Aides	Reference Material Job Aides	Self-Paced Guide Reference Material Job Aides

Here are the five types of training manuals and their most common uses. 

Workbooks

Workbooks are unique in the training manual world, because they combine two critical components.  They provide explanation or lessons as well as places for the learner to interact with the material within the document.  A workbook is most useful in live training presentations and when there is critical thinking or complex concepts that need to be digested by the learner.  These are not color copies of the primary school tracing workbooks your child is using to learn to print.

1. Use workbooks for live training courses.

2. Include your key points in the text.

3. Provide space for the learner to complete exercises.

Self-Paced Guides

Self-paced guides are meant to allow the learner to engage with the lesson or information on their own. Kind of like home schooling, only for grown ups! These documents must include all of the information a trainer may impart to the learner if they were present.  This can make self-paced guides complicated to develop.  They need to also be built to ensure they are engaging and keep the learners attention.  Since there is no instructor to guide the learner it is up to the learner’s own self-motivation to make him or her continue and work through all of the information being presented.  The worst thing a self-paced guide can be is dull or bland. Wake up, will you!  You’re falling asleep already and you haven’t even started writing the guide!

1. Make sure all of the needed course information is include.

2. Keep the tone interesting and engaging.

3. Chunk content in to small pieces taking no longer then ten minutes to

complete.  Assume learners will not complete the training in one sitting.

Reference Materials

Reference manuals are meant to contain a lot of information all in one place.  They are also meant to be easily searchable.  Remember that big stack of Encyclopedias your Grandmother spent her year’s savings and bought from the traveling salesman for you when you were eight?  They weighed more than you did! Learners most often use reference materials to refer back to after a training session or to look up a very specific piece of information.  Reference materials are tools used to consolidate information in one place for the convenience of the learner. One stop shopping for the learner, kind of like Walmart, if it’s not in there, you must not need it. Often this information is complex or has several components to it that it is not reasonable to expect the learner to memorize or remember over long periods of time.

1. Use reference material to document lots of detailed information.

2. Create detailed table of contents and section off content to make sure

 the content is easily searchable.

3. Include glossary terms, complicated details and other items that you

do not expect learners to memorize.

Handouts

Handouts are used during training sessions to provide learners with information they need while they are engaged in the training.  For example, handouts document examples, training exercises small chunks of reference material or worksheets.  Handouts should be concise and crisp.  They encompass just enough information to cover the immediate need. This will reduce the likelihood that your handouts will be used as a place to write down the phone number of the super cute trainer or create one’s shopping list for the evening.

1.Use handouts in live training presentations.

2.Include only key points, not the entire training script in handouts.

3.Provide space for the learner to complete exercises.

Job Aides / Pathfinders

Job aides are step-by-step instruction documents that serve as memory devices for learners when they go to accomplish a task or skill they were taught during the training.  Like yellow sticky notes all over the edge of your monitor screen, only better.  Job aides are a resource for the learner to refer back to, and provide the learner a crutch until they have fully mastered the new task or skill.  They are also helpful if the learner does not perform the new task or skill on a regular basis.  In this case, the Job aide acts a memory tool and jogs the learner’s memory enough to allow them to complete the task they have previously learned.

1. Job aides should list step-by-step instructions.

2. Keep text to a minimum.

3. Assume learners will use job aides in their work settings.  Format them

to be easy to use in that setting.