Table of Contents

Designing Milestones

designing milestones

It’s graduation season. While kids are tossing caps in the air and determining their next steps, I am reflecting on why and how we celebrate milestones in the first place.

Classically, milestones are something we set out to achieve, but I think they a bit more than that. Milestones often come with levels of achievement either by completing something in a timely manner or at a high level of proficiency. These milestones come with extra accreditation like “with honors” or awards for completing something early. This accreditation doesn’t diminish the milestone for anyone else, they are simply there for additional recognition.

Training programs, too, can be designed with milestones, and there are several ways to execute this in the learning and development world. Let’s take a look at a few ways to incorporate milestones into your next training program.

Leaderboard

Basic leaderboard can be a great way instill a small amount of friendly competition amongst training peers. My favorite leaderboards involve some sort of graduation to a new level that indicates the progress that is applicable to the topic at hand. Examples may be superheroes, types of animals (tigers, lion, grizzly bear, Phoenix, dragon…), or minerals(Copper, Silver, Gold, Dimond).

Progress Indicators

Some training programming requires spaced learning to acquire all of the skills necessary to gain a new skill. In these programs, it may be helpful to regularly check in with the learner’s progress by assessing knowledge and allowing them to graduate to the next level when they show adequate progress. In these programs, regular pre-tests are helpful as progress indicators that allow you to place learners in the right learning track each time they enter the classroom. This is especially helpful in eLearning or a Microlearning environment. Pre-test and then place learners based on assesment each time them enter the classroom.

Gamification

I am using a gross overgeneralization with the term here, but gamifying your milestones in a general way lends itself to the human competitive nature of wanting to win. When you go beyond learning outcomes and ask your learners to win a Relay Race, virtual or live, it changes the flavor in the room. People, no matter how old, like a game. They pretend they don’t, they resist, but wait until you say “Three, two, one, go!”. It is rare that you have arm-crossed grumps when that electricity happen.

Do you build milestones into your training programs? How do you do it? We would love to hear how others are making this happen. Let’s keep this conversation going in the comments below!

Instructor-Led Training Resources

These are some of our favorite resources to support everyone involved with instructor-led training.

Training Delivery and Facilitation Competency Rubric

A rubric is a way to assess performance with a standard set of evaluation criteria. The next time you need to assess the performance of someone delivering training (even if that someone is you), you may find this rubric helpful.

The Role of Co-facilitators

Co-facilitators play an important role in a training workshop. The most obvious benefit is that when you co-facilitate, you get a break from leading the

18 Instructor-led Training Activities

Engaging, intentional, face-to-face and virtual instructor-led training activities can make the difference between a session that helps learners to apply new skills or knowledge and one that falls flat.

Articles Similar to Designing Milestones

Nate Martin on Escape Room designs for training
Instructional Design
Brian Washburn

Instructional Design & Escape Room Design

If you’ve ever been to an escape room, you can observe what a group of highly engaged people look like for 60 straight minutes. Is there a way to harness escape room design elements and bring them into the world of corporate training?

facilitator competency rubric
ILT & VILT
Brian Washburn

Training Delivery and Facilitation Competency Rubric

A rubric is a way to assess performance with a standard set of evaluation criteria. The next time you need to assess the performance of someone delivering training (even if that someone is you), you may find this rubric helpful.

instructor becomes the pupil with kassy laborie and zovig garboushian
ILT & VILT
Brian Washburn

Turning the Tables: From Trainer to Student

As people who have designed and delivered effective training, Kassy Laborie and Zovig Garboushian know a thing or two about good learning experiences. So what nuggets have they gleaned from a 9-month course that they’re both attending, and that all of us should consider when designing our own programs? Today’s podcast answers that question.

John Crook on role play
ILT & VILT
Brian Washburn

Is this the world’s most effective role play?

When it comes to your training participants, two of the dirtiest, or perhaps scariest, words you can say during a session may be: role play. In today’s podcast, John Crook, Head of Learning at Intersol Global, offers some thoughts on how to make role plays more authentic and robust.

Subscribe to Get Updates from Endurance Learning

Brian Washburn, Author

Brian Washburn
CEO & Chief Ideas Guy

Enter your information below and we’ll send you the latest updates from our blog. Thanks for following!

activities cookbook

Download the Training Activity Cookbook

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the Endurance Learning Activity Cookbook.

Find Your L&D Career Path

Explore the range of careers to understand what role might be a good fit for your L&D career.

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the What’s Possible in L&D Worksheet.

What's possible in L&D

Let's Talk Training!

Brian Washburn

Brian Washburn
CEO & Chief Ideas Guy

Enter your information below and we’ll get back to you soon.

Download the Feedback Lesson Plan

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the lesson plan as a PDF.

feedback lesson plan
MS Word Job Aid Template

Download the Microsoft Word Job Aid Template

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the Word version of this template.

Download the Free Lesson Plan Template!

Enter your email below and we’ll send you a Word document that you can start using today!

free lesson plan template
training materials checklist

Download the Training Materials Checklist

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the Training Materials Checklist.

Subscribe to Endurance Learning for updates

Get regular updates from the Endurance Learning team.