1 Introduction

Do you have a topic that requires training? Are you planning on teaching someone a new skill, competency or knowledge with established, communicated and validated intentional learning outcomes?

This document takes you, in detail, through the process of developing, delivering and updating this training. This guide is primarily for training developed by the Europeana Foundation (EF), but it can also be used by other organisations and in other contexts. “We” in this document refers to the EF. 

1.1 Why we made this guide

The Europeana Initiative is focussing more on the development and delivery of training on a broad range of topics. A few examples include training on:

1. Technical tools, like the Metis Sandbox and Data Statistics Dashboard

2. Rights (for example determining copyright and selecting appropriate rights statements)

3. Diversity & Inclusion, like the facilitators guide developed for a D&I workshop that was developed for the WEAVE project

More training resources are being and will be developed in the future. This guide supports the development of these resources and aims to ensure that future learners have a consistent overall experience when it comes to the quality, methods of delivery and learning opportunities on offer as part of Europeana’s training. 

1.2 Who this guide is for

This guide has been written for anyone involved in the development and delivery of training in the Europeana Initiative, ranging from employees of the Europeana Foundation to members of one of Europeana Network Association and aggregators. It can also be used by professionals in the cultural heritage sector who are looking for examples and inspiration to design or review their own training development processes.

1.3 How to use this guide

This guide has been written to be as practical as possible. If you are using this guide to develop training resources for the first time, and do not know how often you will be doing this in the future, we advise you to follow the steps as they are described. Are you using the guide to prepare yourself for the development of a larger set of training resources? Or are you using this guide to (re)design your own training development processes? Then we advise you to read through the entire guide once first to get a better overview of the process. 

Relevant documents and resources are indicated in two ways: links are blue and underlined in the text or they are included as footnotes, also with the same type of links.

1.4 Definitions

The definitions used in this document can be found in the glossary on Europeana Pro and in the annex.

2 Development process

The development process for training course material should be a standardised, structured and incremental process. 

1. Standardised: There is an aligned approach for training resources and activities, with consistency in the structure of learning activities, use of video and supporting documents, scripting demos, etc.

2. Structured: There is an intake process to discuss outcomes, associated learning goals and needed training course material and activities. Material developed is tested and validated 

3. Incremental: Development is conceptualised as early as possible and in parallel to the development of tools instead of after completion. Ideas and decisions made earlier in the process are continually reviewed and adjusted if this improves the eventual outcome.

In addition to this there are several guiding principles for the development of training resources: 

• Develop resources for a learning mindset: Our activities aim to support development not perfection, reflecting the process of digital transformation and that it takes place within an evolving technical landscape.  Just like our users, our capacity building resources must develop as our products, services and environment evolve.

• Learning is a community effort: The Europeana Initiative reaches thousands of professionals and cultural heritage institutions across Europe. Our collective knowledge, curiosity and shared purpose can be put to good use by working together to develop and distribute our sector wide knowledge and practices.  

• Be responsive and user-led: Developing training iteratively based on feedback directly from users, and responding to the recommendations and feedback of professionals across the sectors, is crucial.  Our capacity building activities will be responsive to our users, and we will encourage feedback loops and gather data to help us understand their usefulness.

• Sustainability is key: Whether it is using Train the Trainer models to enable knowledge to flow organically through existing networks, or actively seeking ways to reduce the carbon footprint of our capacity building activities, sustainable actions are at the heart of what we do.

The image below is a detailed visual representation of the development process. This guide follows each of the stages of this process.

While the development process may look like a sequential process in this image, in reality it will be more incremental. You will be shaping the training by going back and forth between steps. Throughout this guide you will be asked to go back to previous steps to review if the ideas that you collected still align with the insights you’ve gained in the later stages.

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Figure 1, Visual representation of the training development process.

A. Needs determination

The first stage for developing training is the determination of needs. What is the problem you are trying to solve? What would the ideal situation be after the training has taken place? 

Your training needs can arise in different ways. There might be practical needs indicated by users (bottom up) or strategic needs based on long term visions and plans (top-down). No matter where the need comes from, it is still important to document this in such a way that it is possible to measure if these needs have been met after the training has been delivered. 

A.1 Practical: User demand

Training needs can be identified from a practical level: users or other stakeholders that reach out to you to request training on a specific topic. In these cases it is advised to determine the impact of your training: what will be different after the training has taken place, not only on a personal scale for the trainees, but on a larger scale in the sector or society? The change pathway exercises of phase one of the Impact Playbook can support you in articulating this impact.

A.2 Strategic

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Training needs can be a direct result from strategic priorities. What is it that you are trying to achieve in the upcoming years? It is possible that you have already determined these priorities in earlier work or projects. In this case it is advised to look critically at the role of training. Where will training make the biggest difference? What other kinds of activities should be undertaken alongside the training to reach your strategic goal? The Capacity Building Playbook can be used to determine your training needs from a strategic perspective. It supports you in creating a roadmap for capacity building for digital transformation and can be used by organisations, communities and other partnerships.

B. Inventorisation

Once you have gained a better insight into your initial training needs, it is time to look at the needs in more detail in this inventorisation stage. 

We have produced a  Training Development Template which asks you the most important questions to consider before the development of training can be started. Make a copy of the Template and fill it in as much as possible. This template can be your own reference document when you are developing the training yourself, but it can also function as a central document for a meeting with a training development expert to determine your needed support. The template asks you to think about the following questions:

1. What is the impact of the training?

2. Users and use cases: who will benefit from the requested training and in what way will they be able to perform better than before the training? 

3. Intended learning outcomes: what should trainees remember, understand, be able to apply, etc. after the training? More information on this can be found in the part on learning objectives. These learning outcomes will also be reviewed to see their connection and/or overlap with existing training offers and learning paths.

4. Learning pathway: what is the route a learner will need to go through to build knowledge or a specific set of competences?

5. Training resources

   1. Existing training resources: what resources are there already available? This could be earlier training material, but it could also be resources that might be remixed or used as a reference for the training that needs to be developed.

   2. New training resources: what new resources will need to be produced and how will they be used for the delivery of training?

6. Timeline and actions: are there specific events or deadlines for when the training should be delivered? And if so, what would the planning look like to go through the different development stages?

7. Contact information: who is involved in the development process and who will be the contact person for future updates?

B.1 Impact

You have probably answered this in the needs determination phase. If not, it is still advised to think about the eventual impact you want the training to have. Please refer to A.1 and A.2 for more information.

B.2 Users and use cases

Users and use cases are an ideal method to gain insight in the people you are developing the training for. You might have already described the users and their use cases before, for example if the training is to support a tool or service that has already gone through development stages. Or if you used the Capacity Building Playbook or Impact exercises. In those cases, it is sufficient to copy that information or refer to it.

If you have not described users and use cases yet, then think about the following:

1. In what capacity would the person be acting when they attend the training - what is their professional role and responsibility?

2. What is the problem this person is trying to solve where this training offers a solution?

3. What other aspects of this person can you think of that might be relevant to this training?

The Capacity Building Playbook also has several examples of users and use cases.

B.2.1 Group size

One element of users and use cases is the group size. How many potential users are there in total and how many of those do you expect will need the training? The group size is important to determine the best delivery strategies of the training. For example: training hundreds of potential users in batches of 10 trainees in instructor-led training will take very long. On the other hand, it might not be necessary to develop self-paced training with video tutorials if only a handful of people need to follow the training.

B.3 Intended learning outcomes

Intended learning outcomes (ILOs) are brief, measurable statements that describe what trainees will be expected to learn (know, understand, able to do) by the end of the training and/or training course. A useful method to describe ILOs is Bloom's taxonomy.  Bloom’s Taxonomy can be used to classify educational learning objectives into levels of complexity and specificity. The illustration shows the increasing skill, competency and knowledge level from the lowest level on the bottom to the highest level on the top. 

Simplified examples of learning objectives are:

1. You will be able to examine the data

2. You can use tool A to perform action B

ILOs are preferably written in measurable verbs that also connect to the determined impact. See this resource for a list of measurable verbs for more information.

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 Image source: Blooms’ Taxonomy, Center for Teaching Vanderbilt University, CC BY 2.0

B.3.1 Establish ILOs

Establishing ILOs can be done in different ways and with the support of different stakeholders. Examples are:

1. Bottom up: 

   1. Users: if users have asked for the training, make sure that their requests are represented in the ILOs

   2. Community based: when a community has indicated that they would like to receive training in a specific topic, then ask them to contribute to the ILOs

2. Top down: If the training is the result of a strategic ambition, phrase what the different users should be able to do. This might need consultation from experts in a specific field of interest who might be better suited to indicate a necessary training topic for a specific target group.

Involving stakeholders in determining the ILOs increases the overall quality. 

B.3.2 Validation of ILOs

The next question to answer is: how can ILOs be validated or assessed? In what ways can evidence of learning be collected? How can you measure if trainees remember, understand and can apply their new knowledge, skills and competencies? This could take place through different ways, such as:

1. Self evaluation, based on quizzes and questions

2. Peer review by fellow trainees

3. On-the-job observation

4. Feedback from an instructor 

The validation of ILO’s can potentially determine the needed training resources in the next step as there is a direct relation between the type of training resource and the possible assessment methods. There are many online resources on assessment design. An example is this document of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

B.4 Learning pathways

Your training needs may serve an isolated goal, but most of the time, training is part of a larger learning pathway. Learning pathways are a group of capacity building activities and intended learning outcomes that guide a learner through a route designed to build knowledge or a specific set of competences. Learning pathways are different for each individual, but they can be designed with specific goals in mind. 

For example, the goal ‘I want to learn how to improve the quality of my data on Europeana,’’ will be different for each cultural heritage professional. It depends on someone's role and responsibilities what training will help them to achieve this. 

For someone in a smaller institution it could mean that they need to become more of a generalist and learn about Europeana’s standards and frameworks, from the Europeana Data Model to identifying copyright and choosing rights statements for objects. Someone at a larger institution might need to become an even better expert in a single topic. 

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Figure 3, visualisation of learning pathways. All portraits are generated by This Person Does Not Exist.

Both of these people already have their own set of skills, competencies and knowledge as a starting point and both of them have different end goals. 

For one person your training activities might result in them learning new skills from scratch, for others it might be a confirmation of several skills they already have.

B.4.1 Prerequisites and follow up

The training you want to offer can also be the starting point or a continuation of a learning process. Are there any prerequisites trainees need to meet before they can fully benefit from your training? Are there any follow up opportunities for trainees that want to increase their skills, competencies and knowledge even further? 

It is impossible to design training resources that take every individual's background and their intrinsic and extrinsic motivations into account. It is possible to create an overview of possible learning pathways of your potential trainees. This will ensure that the training will benefit each of them.

B.5 Training resources

In this stage you are asked to describe what you would need to deliver your ideal training. You can go back and forth from the users and use cases and the ILOs. This can be both short term and long term. 

Part of the intake process is to list the existing resources and determine new training resources that need to be developed. 

B.5.1 Existing resources

Existing resources can cover a wide range of available documents, training materials, presentations, slide decks, video recording, quizzes, etc. These resources might not be developed for training purposes or used in training yet, but they could be used as a reference or starting point for the training material you want to develop. Very often these resources contain information that connect with the ILOs. Examples of resources are slide decks, recordings of presentations, user guides, manuals, use cases and test scripts. 

The questions for any resources that cannot be considered to be training material are:

1. What information does it contain that is relevant to the training?

2. Is the information still relevant?

3. Can the resource be used as is, for example as reading material, or does it need to be adapted to better fit the training needs?

The questions to answer for any existing training resources are: 

1. How effective was this training material? 

2. If ineffective, what barriers were stopping people from using the material properly?

3. How will development of new training materials solve that issue?

These questions are also important to answer every time you want to do an update to training material (see also ‘F. Upkeep and improvement’ later in this guide).

If there aren’t any existing training resources, the question is if you anticipate any challenges in developing and/or rolling out new training.

B.5.2 New training resources

It might be that there are no existing resources that can be used for the training, or that the inventorisation described above leads to the conclusion that it is better to start from scratch. The table below gives examples of the different kinds of resources you can consider. They are listed in order of dependency. For example: a user guide is needed to make written instructions.

B.5.3 Update frequency

For each of these training resources you should indicate how often these need to be updated. Updates can be the result of scheduled or unscheduled events.

Examples of scheduled events that require updates of training resources are planned releases of software updates and review processes of services. 

Unscheduled events are ad hoc changes to the topic the training discusses. This could be the result of the new opportunities and methodologies of delivering training. In either case it is advised to think about an interval to review the training materials and  the need for an update.

Keep in mind that the training resources are dependent on each other. A software update might need adjustments to the user manual, and those changes should then be reflected in the training resources based on the user manual, etc. It is advised to leave enough room in the update frequency to process any changes. On the other hand, the training material updates should ideally not be made available later than a public release of a software update.

B.6 Timeline and actions

In this part you are asked to plan the different stages for the development of your training. The stages of the development process are detailed in the next section of this document. A short summary is:

1. Template review: Your development plan is complete and discussed with  other stakeholders and or training development support.

2. Alpha version: Written documentation and exercises are developed, with illustrations and pictures in one language.

3. Beta version: The Alpha version is reviewed by internal users and/or experts plus any video production. This includes any needed checks of language, brand guidelines, etc. 

4. V1 public version: The beta version is reviewed with external users and is made publicly accessible. This includes any needed checks of marketing material of the training resources.

B.7 Contact information

Provide the contact information of the people involved in the development of the training resources at the end of the document. These contact details are important for the development of the initial training, but are also to have a record of the people that can or should be involved in future iterations of the training resources. Indicate who should be seen as the primary owner of the training resources and responsible for their upkeep and improvement. 

This is also a good moment to think about the roles and responsibilities needed to develop the training resources. Examples of these roles are:

• Experts: the people who will need to provide information, examples, exercises, etc.

• Training development support: designers, writers, test script developers, people who can make test data for exercises, etc.

• Testers: the people who will test the training resources and delivery in the alpha and beta stage.

B.8 Template review

After completion of the template it is advised to do a review. For the Europeana Foundation, this will be with a colleague experienced in the development of training resources. In case you are using this guide for other training development purposes it is advised to do this with at least one colleague with the same role in your organisation. If there is no such person, you could look for others involved in the development and/or delivery of training. These could be stakeholders (product and service owners), communications colleagues and representatives of the target audience. 

This review is meant to fill in any existing gaps and to complete any sections that have not progressed enough to make a decision on the development of the training.   

B.8.1. Fit with existing curriculum

The Europeana’s training offer consists of training courses and individual training sessions related to Europeana products and services. These range from technical how-to’s, to walk throughs of self evaluation tools, from graded guided courses with live and hybrid sessions with a coach to self paced study opportunities. The capacity building playbook is an essential tool to develop the curriculum and supports:

1. Listing the products and services that require training courses and material.

2. Making a gap analysis: comparing the needed and current available documentation and training course material.

3. Determining priority and feasibility of developing training courses.

C. Development stages

The table below details the development process for training resources. These steps are described in detail in the paragraphs below.

More information on accessibility is given in paragraph C.4.1. Learning styles refer to a range of theories that aim to account for differences in individuals' learning. In this guide the VARK theory is being used. Also see the Wikipedia page on learning styles for more information and resources.

During the development process you will also create different resources. The image below is a visual representation of these resources, their moment of creation and their dependencies.

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Figure 4, Training resources creation flow and their dependencies

C.1 Pre-alpha stage

The pre-alpha stage consists of the development and internal review of essential documentation needed for the training resources. Examples of these documents are user guides, manuals and glossaries. This could also be a list of available resources from external suppliers. 

One of the reasons these documents are essential is that they often describe tools and services in a level of detail that is needed for the training resources. Examples are the names of graphical user interface elements: what are buttons, input fields, etc. called? 

C1.1 Internal vs external

The pre-alpha and alpha stages are internal. This means that they only require involvement of the people you work closely with on the topic of the training. This could be the team you’re working on, the organisation you work for or fellow community members. Ideally internal contributors:

1. Already have previous knowledge of or experience with the topic of the training;

2. Have knowledge of the target audience and their use cases and can look at the resources from that perspective.

There is no minimum or maximum size for the internal testing, but it is advised to ask feedback from 3 to 10 people. If this is not feasible, for example because you don’t have that many involved people, then it is suggested to ask for feedback externally. 

C.2 Alpha stage

The alpha stage consists of the development of the first version of the training resource. It should contain at least:

1. The training content fully written out; 

2. With exercises; 

3. With explanatory images and illustrations.

Feedback on this material should be gathered in, at least, one internal instructor-led training with several participants. The participants should ideally reflect or connect with the target audience of the training. 

C.2.1 Written training

The training material can be written in different ways. This could be a text document with all the instructions and exercises or a slidedeck with the instructions in the speaker notes. Ideally it is both: 

1. The text document - the entire script for the training, including images, exercises, answers and feedback on the answers.

2. The slidedeck - a visual summary of the text document, with the script for an instructor in the speaker notes with an emphasis for an instructor.

If your training requires a live demonstration, it is advised to pre-record these instructions when possible. Including screenshots of the key points for your explanation in your slidedeck can be useful if you intend to share this slidedeck with trainees too.

Include the status of the documents you are developing. In this case clearly state that this training material is in alpha stage.

C.2.2 Exercises

The kind of exercises you will need to develop depends on the type of training, the training topic, and the intended learning outcomes. The table below has several examples of the kinds of exercises that can be used for the different types of training.

Time for reflection

Make sure to look back at the impact (B.1) and Intended Learning Outcomes (B.3) to design the exercises. This is also a good moment to reflect on the intake process. Are the impact and ILOs still relevant? Or do they need revision based on the learnings of working on the pre-alpha and alpha stage of the training?

C.2.3 Images and illustrations

Complex topics are  often better explained in an image or illustration. In the alpha stage you should identify the opportunities for using images and illustrations. The alpha training material should contain draft images and illustrations. For technical tools it is advised to add extra information to screenshots (for example the names of graphical user interface elements that are explained). The example below shows the same image with and without added information and description.

Providing images and descriptions with this level of detail allows for a smoother learning experience, both for a learner and instructor.

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Figure 5 (left), screenshot of the Data Statistics Dashboard 
Figure 6 (right), screenshot with added information from the Data Statistics Dashboard User Guide 

C.2.4 Advertising and delivery of training 

The alpha version of the training should be delivered to an internal test group. The purpose of this training is to go through the process of the training once and to gather feedback from the participants. Try to replicate real world training as much as possible. Think about:

1. The composition of the test group:

   1. Do they (collaboratively) have knowledge about the target group for the training?

   2. Do they represent the target group well enough?

2. How and where to advertise the training.

3. The delivery of the training, for example: 

   1. Will it be in person, online, or hybrid?

   2. What kind of support do you need for your training? For example whiteboards, a projector, sound devices like a microphone and speakers, sticky notes, alarms for time keeping, etc.  

4. Asking one of the testers to be the notetaker and record all the suggestions for improvement that come up during the training. This allows you to focus on the delivery of the training and the others to stay in their role as trainees.

Training can be delivered internally using existing tools and services. At Europeana, this means that Google Meet and Zoom can be used for online and/or hybrid training sessions. Other examples of available tools are:

1. Google: Docs, Slides, Forms (quizzes)

2. Zoom: survey, virtual whiteboard

3. Mentimeter

C.2.5 Gathering feedback

The following questions are suggested to ask to collect feedback on the training: 

1. Were the Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOss, see B.3) clearly communicated? Was the relevance of ILOs clear to the trainees?

2. Did the training align with the ILOs: 

   1. Were the intended learning outcomes all featured in the training?

   2. Did the trainees acknowledge that they’ve learned what was promised?

   3. Did the exercises allow trainees to test and/or showcase their learning?

3. How much time did the training take? Are there opportunities to improve the flow of the training by splitting or combining exercises and/or breaks?

4. What was the overall satisfaction of this training? Did the participants feel that the duration and difficulty of the training were in balance with the intended learning outcomes?

5. Does the training answer to the needs determined in Section A and will it have the desired impact?

6. Based on the above and any other feedback gathered: what should and can be improved to the training resources?

C.3 Beta stage

With the feedback gathered in the alpha stage, you can start working on the beta stage. The beta stages consist of

1. Improving the training resources;

2. Creating additional training resources;

3. Testing the training with at least one external cohort, including advertising the training to potential trainees.

C.3.1 Creating additional training resources

The alpha stage potentially has led to requests or ideas on how to improve the training resources. This can be the documentation (user guides), written training materials, slides, etc. For archival reasons it is advised to make a copy of the material used in the alpha stage and work on these copies to make improvements. This allows you to leave in any comments and to always go back to the earlier stages of your training material.

The beta stage is also the ideal moment to create draft video content. Video is important if your intention is to offer self paced training and/or to flip the classroom. The explanation given in the alpha stage, with suggested improvements, ideally from the basis for a script. The slides and images potentially can be used for the video too.

C.3.2 Advertising and delivery of the training

Try to advertise the training as if it were a public offering already as much as possible, with one exception: make sure to mention that this is a beta version of the training and that participants are asked to provide their feedback after the training. Make sure to put all the essential information in this advertisement:

1. What will participants learn during the training?

2. What will participants need to bring or prepare before the training?

3. How much time will the training take?

4. What is expected from them after the training took place?

Apart from the above: communicate that you’ll be asking for additional feedback to improve the training. See the alpha stage (C.2.4) for the things to consider for the delivery of the training.

C.3.4 Gathering feedback

Repeat the questions from the Alpha stage (C2.5) and add the following questions:

1. How effective was the communication around the training? Would the trainees change anything to it?

2. Why and how would they recommend this training to their peers?

3. In case people have to pay for the training: what would they be willing to pay for it or do they agree with a suggested price for the training?

C.3.5 Processing feedback

Make sure to process the feedback from the alpha and beta stage before going to the next stage. Do not forget to inform the participants of the alpha and beta stage how their feedback has been incorporated into the training resources.

C.4 V1 Public

After successfully completing the alpha and beta stages you have a tested and validated version of your training. The next step is to make it ready for public release and/or offer instructor-led training publicly. 

C.4.1 Guidelines and checks

There are several guidelines and checks that can or need to be done before you can make your training offers and resources publicly available.

Check for accessible language

In your testing stages you might have used the language that is shared by the people involved in the topic your training discusses. When the training resources are shared publicly, they might be found by people less familiar with the language used. Before publication it is advised to review your training resources from this perspective: what words, concepts or assumptions are in the training resources that can be simplified or need to be explained? This counts for all training resources, including illustrations and videos.

Note: if reviewing your texts leads to many changes, it might be a good idea to ask for additional feedback from testers from the alpha and/or beta stage on the new texts.

Brand guidelines

Make sure that your content complies with relevant brand guidelines. It depends on the type of content that you are putting out what guidelines are relevant. For text documents and slides (Google Drive, PDF’s) you should consider the fonts, colours and document templates.

For videos you should consider templates for start and end screens, how people’s names are shown on the screen, fonts and colours being used in the videos.

Accessibility guidelines

There are many different accessibility guidelines to consider for training. An extensive overview can be found on this W3 web page on standards and guidelines. Europeana content should comply with WCAG2.1 Level AA. For more information also see Europeana’s accessibility policy.

C.4.2 Publication and findability

Europeana Pro is the main channel for publishing Europeana’s training material. Videos, quizzes and other content can be embedded on Pro. Technical training specifically targeted at aggregators can potentially be published on the Europeana Knowledge Base. Please contact Nicholas Jarret or Georgia Evans to discuss the options for publication.   

Version and change log

Make sure to include a version number and changelog from the start. This allows people to see what has changed over time and what they possibly should revisit to be up to date. 

• A version number, for example Version 1.0 to 1.9 for small incremental changes and V2.0 when a completely new version has been added.

• Release date of the different versions and the date of the last change

• Short description of any substantial changes between versions, ideally with links to and/or the names of the parts that have been changed.

Embedding tools

Ensure that you link to the training from the tools that the training discusses. It might be necessary to add a button or link in/on the tool to the training resources. This allows people that use the tool to find the training resources too.

Promoting your training

Apart from making your resources available to the public, think about ways to promote the availability of your training offers and esources. Examples for the promotion are:

• Blog or news posts to promote the training, ideally with reactions from earlier participants. These could be participants from the testing phases.

• Offer shortened versions of your training, such as an introduction, at external event

• Social media posts

• Organising your own training sessions (see D.1 Instructor-led training).

D. Training delivery 

Now that your training resources are available, it is time to offer the training. The main two ways already discussed are instructor-led training and self paced training. In the alpha and beta stages you will probably have gathered most of the content needed for this, such as the texts to communicate the learning objectives, needed time, requirements and follow up opportunities of your training.

D.1 Instructor-led training

Instructor-led training can be organised by setting up your own training event(s) or by offering your training at other events. 

D.1.1 Setting up a Europeana training event

Training can be delivered using existing tools and services. At Europeana this means that Europeana Pro may be used to advertise and communicate about the opportunities. Knowledge base and Google Drive may be used for documentation. Training resources developed with partner organisations or within projects can be offered on their respective websites too. Reach out to our event coordinator, to discuss setting up your event. 

Extensive information about running events can be found in Europeana’s Events Toolkit.

D.1.2 Training at external events

Make sure that your event is added to the Europeana calendar by filling in this events form.

D.2 Self paced training

Self paced training requires training resources to be published and monitored. This is described in C.4.2, E and F respectively.

Even if people do the training themselves, at their own pace and time, they might need to be able to reach out to someone to get questions answered. Likewise you might want to be able to ask questions to the people making use of the training resources. Make sure that you include contact information with your training resource.

Campaigns

Another way to promote the self paced training resources is by organising a campaign. An example of a campaign is the yearly review of the rights statements of cultural heritage objects that will become available as public domain. In some countries this campaign starts in the summer of the year to stimulate cultural heritage institutions to identify these works and prepare the updates of the rights statement for the new year. These campaigns are organised under the umbrella of (international) public domain day. These kinds of campaigns can be organised for different purposes and audiences. You could look around for campaigns that you can join or investigate the possibility of starting your own campaign to promote the use of your training resources.

D.3 Training progress

Currently Europeana does not have a functionality in place that lets learners track their progress. 

D. 4 Certification

Europeana currently does not have a certification program in place. For some events a certificate of attendance is handed out. A certificate of attendance only demonstrates that someone was physically or online present for the event and does not say anything about someone's skills, competencies or knowledge gained through training.

D.5 Scaling up training

There are several ways to scale up your training. The most commons ways are:

1. Increasing capacity to deliver instructor-led training (train the trainer);

2. Offering your training in more languages (translation and localisation);

3. Expanding your training offer to support more extensive and/or different learning pathways.

D.5.1 Train the trainer

There are several factors to take into account when training more trainers. The trainer: 

1. Must be skilled and/or knowledgeable in the topic that is being trained.

2. Must be trained in being a trainer. This includes knowing how to apply concepts like ‘relate, tell, show, do, review’ (see C.2) and knowing about the other processes involved in the delivery of training.

3. Ideally can target a new group of trainees, for example, by giving the training in a new location and/or in a language other than the original training resources.

Other trainers need to be informed about significant changes to the training resources. Ideally these trainers are also involved in identifying opportunities to improve the existing resources.

In addition to this, train the trainer also includes the development of supporting documentation for the new trainers. An essential document is a trainers guide: a handbook for trainers. This guide supports trainers in the delivery of the training.

D.5.2 Translation and localisation

Currently at Europeana, training resources are developed in English first. Unfortunately this only reaches part of the potential learners Europeana wants to reach. Translation and localisation of training resources can improve the reach of the training resources.

Translation 

Translation means that all the resources are being translated to another language. This includes replacing texts in images, making new screenshots if software interfaces are being offered in multiple languages, adding subtitles to videos and/or replacing voice overs of videos. Translation can be done with the help of a community or by experts. The advantage of translation by a community is that this community will probably have more relevant experience, thus knowing the best translations for specific concepts. The advantage of having the translation done by experts is that it’s easier to make agreements on the timelines for completion.  

Localisation

Localisation is the act of putting the training resources in the context of where the training will be offered. Examples of the need for localisation in addition to translation are:

1. Cultural differences, for example in how people address each other (formal, informal);

2. Legal differences, for example the differences in copyright on a national level.

D.5.3 Extend Learning pathways

Once your training is publicly available, it is advised to think from the perspective of the trainees and answer the question of what could be next. Is your training part of a specific process and is a next step to go to the next stage in this process? Or does it make more sense to stimulate trainees to spend even more time and effort on the topic that they’ve just received training in? The learning pathways (discussed in B.4) are a great way to map the potential learning pathways of your trainees and to offer them future learning opportunities.

E. Measuring training impact

Currently there is one required measurement at Europeana for training resources and delivery: measuring the satisfaction. Collecting satisfaction metrics is standardised across the Europeana Initiative. The question template you should use is as follows, with only one option allowed to be chosen: 

To what extent are you satisfied with <the activity/service/event>?

• Completely dissatisfied

• Dissatisfied

• Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied

• Satisfied

• Completely satisfied

The % satisfaction = satisfied + completely satisfied

In the intake form you have determined the impact of your training too (See A.1 and A.2). If you want to ask more feedback from the trainees to measure this impact, then make sure to have a look at the Europeana Question Bank for possible standardised questions.

F. Upkeep and improvement

Training is rarely developed for static topics. Now that your training development has ended, it is time to think about the next version of your training. This could be updating and improving your training resources.

For the upkeep of your training resources it is advised to review your training material at least once every year. Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Have there been any changes to the topic that require an update to the training resources?

2. Have there been any developments in Learning pathways that ask for any updates of your training resource(s) and/or delivery method?

The need to update training resources can also be triggered by changes you already anticipate. An example of this is the update of software. If this is the case, make sure that you start the development of the updated training resources alongside the development and deployment of the software update, (also see the first paragraph of 2. Development process). Now that you have gone through the entire process, you should be able to identify the needed steps for your training updates, from updating user manuals to instructing other trainers about the changes. 

The improvement of your training can be triggered by feedback from trainees, trainers and new insights you have gotten yourself. Make sure that you make the improvements on the right level. For example: the training should still follow the documentation. It is not desirable to have information offered in the training resources that could or should be in the documentation.

G. Contact

For questions about this guide, suggestions for improvements and request for support, please contact Sebastiaan ter Burg.