Instructor: Wesley Scroggins, Ph.D.MGT 450 Human Resource Development Spring 2005 Instructor: Wesley Scroggins, Ph.D. Office: Glass Hall 334 Office hours: Tuesday/Thursday 9:00-11:00 Wednesday 5:30-6:30 Office phone: 836-5505 E-mail: [email protected] Text: Noe, R. A. (2005). Employee training and development (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Kraiger, K. (Ed.). (2002). Creating, implementing, and managing effective training and development: State-of-the-art lessons for practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Assigned article readings. Course description and objectives This course is a general introductory course to training and development in organizations. Training and development is an important human resource management function that has gained importance in recent years. Much of this increased importance is due to the recognition by organizations of the importance of human capital for competitive advantage. The training and development field has also experienced many changes, mostly due to increased computer and internet technology. This course will introduce the student to the issues and major phases involved in the development of a training program as well as current issues impacting the research on and practice of training in organizations. This course will focus on the major phases in the development of a training and development program. Specific attention will be given to the role of training in organizational strategy, training needs assessment, learning theory and training methods, training transfer and the evaluation of training programs. Attention will also be given to issues in team training and other special and current issues related to training. Specific objectives include: 1) An understanding of the role of training for the implementation of organizational strategy and achievement of goals. 2) An understanding of the phases of training needs assessment and the role of this assessment in the overall training process. 3) An understanding and application of learning principles for increased training effectiveness. 4) An understanding of research designs and human resource metrics used to show the value of training programs.Course requirements Exams (350 points) There will be two unit exams consisting of multiple choice and some short answer questions. Test material will be taken from both the lecture notes and the text, so it is important that you read and review both. I reserve the right to include information not in the textbook and periodically will give you information during lectures that will not be in your textbook. Unit exams will be worth 100 points each. Students will need to bring a number 2 lead pencil to each of the exams. The final exam will follow the same format as the unit exams (multiple choice and short answer). It will cover material presented during the last part of the course as well as material from the first two sections. Therefore, it will be comprehensive in nature. The final exam will be worth 150 points. Students will need to bring a number 2 lead pencil to the final exam. Exams will test students' knowledge and comprehension as well as their ability to analyze the material. Make-up exam policy I do not have a make-up exam policy. Make-up exams will not be scheduled under any circumstances nor will students be allowed to take exams early. Plan ahead so that you do not plan activities or make commitments that will conflict with scheduled exam times. If you miss an exam, your final exam grade will be more heavily weighted to compensate for the missed exam. For example, if you miss a unit exam, your final exam will be worth 250 points. There will be no make-up opportunity for the final exam. Group project & presentation (150 points) Students will work in groups of 3-4 to complete a project related to training and development in organizations. Students will complete projects for a local community non-profit organization. Projects will consist of developing or evaluating training programs. Students will present their work to the management of the organizations toward the end of the semester. The project is an opportunity for students to practice and develop skills in the training and development HR function. More detailed guidelines for the project will be given at a later time. The project is due on April 19. Late projects will not be accepted. Team members will conduct peer evaluations of each team member’s performance. This means that a portion of each student’s grade for the project will be determined by other team members. Each student on a team is expected to do his/her part and make a contribution to the team project. Team members will have the opportunity to assess each other’s contribution to the project and this assessment will be factored in to the student’s grade. For example, if your group received 142.5 points of the possible 150 points on the project (95%), and your peers assessed you only contributed about an 80% effort, you would earn only 80% of the 142.5 points on the project (you would earn only 114 points; a 76%). Therefore, it is very important that each group member contribute to the group’s performance. Reading assignment summaries (50 points) Students will develop two questions from and summarize their reflections on the readings for each topic. These summaries should be approximately 1-2 pages in length. Each summary should include two questions based on the readings and the student’s reaction to the content of the reading material. Reactions and reflections might consist of the things the student believes to be important from the readings or the implications and applications of reading material inorganizations. The summary for a topic will be due on the first class period on which that topic is to be discussed. For example, the summary for strategic training is due on January 18, the summary for training methods on February 17, training evaluation on March 1, etc. Summaries will not be accepted late. Grades The following grading scale will be used: A = 100%-90% D = 69%-60% B = 89%-80% F = 59% and lower C = 79%-70% Attendance I will take regular attendance. You are strongly encouraged to attend class regularly. We will cover a lot of material in this class very quickly and material will be presented in class that is not discussed in the text. You will be responsible for this material and it will be easy to get behind