What Went Wrong at University Hospital? An Exercise Assessing Training Effectiveness

Abstract

Many organizations struggle with effective training interventions—in particular, the transfer of skills learned in the classroom to the workplace. The present experiential exercise allows students, who are asked to play the role of consultants, to assess training effectiveness from pretraining to posttraining. Student feedback demonstrates that this exercise provides a practical and realistic simulation that aids in the understanding of effective training interventions. This article presents the University Hospital exercise, its linkage to Goldstein's Instructional Systems Design framework, instructor notes, and questions for students. The exercise can be used for undergraduate, graduate, and professional courses.