In a quasi-experimental field study, two posttraining interventions composed of relapse prevention (RP) strategies were compared and tested for the effects on participant transfer outcomes. Participant retention of training content, skill maintenance, use of relapse prevention strategies, and self-efficacy served as the dependent variables. Self-efficacy was also tested as a mediator between the experimental treatment levels and both participant skill maintenance and participant use of RP strategies. Participants (n = 39) included managers, directors, and supervisors from various departments within a multi-national telecommunications organization located in a large southern city. After participating in a four-hour leadership development training, two of the three groups participated in a 30-40 minute training where they received one of two RP interventions. One intervention included the steps of (1) identifying potential obstacles to positive training transfer, (2) predicting the first lapse to pretraining behavior, and (3) applying relevant coping strategies to thwart a lapse. The alternative RP intervention included the same steps in addition to a goal setting step. Descriminant descriptive analysis was used to test for group differences across the response variables and to identify on which variables the groups differed. Three separate regression equations were used to test for the mediating relationship of self-efficacy between the RP treatment levels and participant skill maintenance and participant use of RP strategies. Results indicated minimal, but non-statistically significant results between treatment levels and each of the response variables. Self-efficacy was not found to mediate the relationship between RP treatment level and participant skill maintenance or participant use of RP strategies, but did function as a strong predictor of both variables. Suggestions for future research include using additional motivational and efficacy variables to better explore group differences and including efficacy-inducing methods both in training design and as part of a transfer intervention to enhance training transfer. Further, specific suggestions concerning conceptual and psychometric refinement of the RP construct are discussed.

Approved for public release; distribution in unlimited. / This thesis examines the effectiveness of the Indoor Simulated Marksmanship Trainer (ISMT) as a tool to train shooters in the fundamentals of marksmanship. Key concepts explored in the research are verification of skills transfer resulting from practice and the predictive value of simulated performance to proficiency at real task performance. There was no statistical difference in the scores of recruits trained in the ISMT versus a control group that was not trained in the ISMT. Scores on simulated firing were not a strong predictor of live fire performance. In a second experiment subjects were evaluated on their proficiency and improvement during un-coached practice at the task of simulated precision fire on a target at a simulated known distance of 300 yards from the shooters. After comparable amounts of practice in the ISMT, subjects who had not previously received formal marksmanship training failed to demonstrate levels of proficiency comparable to those subjects who had previously received formal marksmanship training in the military. Consequently, the research found no evidence to suggest the ISMT qualifies as a black box training apparatus capable of imparting skill through practice without the added presence of expert instruction or an existing knowledge of marksmanship techniques. / Major, United States Marine Corps

Forskningsresultat tyder på att det idag finns en problematik för anställda gällande att applicera utbildningskunskap i praktiken. Denna problematik refereras ofta till transfer problem vilket handlar om utebliven kunskapsöverföring. Vissa forskare föreslår att möjligheten till kunskapsöverföring är beroende av individens kognitiva kapacitet medan andra anser att kunskapsöverföring beror på utbildningsdesign och faktorer i arbetsmiljön. Nästan all tidigare forskning gällande detta ämne har varit kvantitativ, det finns därmed ont om kvalitativ forskning kring hur anställda faktiskt upplever och beskriver övergången mellan teori till praktik i arbetslivet. Syftet med studien var därför att undersöka arbetstagares upplevelser och beskrivningar kring de faktorer som påverkar kunskapsöverföring mellan internutbildning till praktiskt utförande. I denna uppsats var samtalsmetoden MI (Motivational Interview) ett exempel på denna kunskapsöverföring där fokus riktades mot socialarbetare som arbetstagare. Studien antog en abduktiv ansats och ett hermeneutiskt angreppssätt gällande tolkning. Ämnet har undersökts utifrån fem socialarbetare som alla arbetar med MI i praktiken med hjälp av semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Den empiriska datan har analyserats genom en tematisk analys och har därefter tolkats utifrån teorin training transfer som tittar hur faktorer hos individen, utbildningsdesignen samt arbetsmiljön påverkar möjligheten till kunskapsöverföring. Resultatet visade på att socialarbetarna upplevde faktorer i deras arbetsmiljö som påverkade möjligheten till kunskapsöverföring av MI. Sådana faktorer handlade bland annat om tidsbrist, bristande direktiv och stöd samt att MI som metod krockade med socialarbetarnas praktik. Trots dessa faktorer var socialarbetarna fortsatt positivt inställda till MI som metod. Resultatet visade också på att ökad kvalitetssäkran och kontinuerligt lärande är viktigt för att socialarbetarna ska kunna fortsätta använda MI i deras arbete. / Research results indicate that there is currently a problem for employees regarding applying training knowledge in practice. This problem is often referred to as transfer problem, which is referring to lack of knowledge transfer between training and practice. Some researchers suggest that the possibility of knowledge transfer is dependent on the individual's cognitive capacity, while others believe that knowledge transfer depends on education design and factors in the work environment. Almost all previous research on this subject has been quantitative, thus there is a shortage of qualitative research on how employees experience and describe the transition between theory and practice in working life. The purpose of the study was therefore to investigate employees' experiences and descriptions of the factors that affect the transfer of knowledge between internal training to practical execution. In this essay, the interview method MI (Motivational Interview) was an example of this knowledge transfer where the focus was on social workers as employees. The study adopted an abductive approach and a hermeneutic approach to interpretation. The topic has been investigated from five social workers who all work with MI in practice with the help of semi-structured interviews. The empirical data has been analysed through a thematic analysis and has subsequently been interpreted based on the theory of training transfer that looks at how factors in the individual, the educational design and the working environment affect the possibility of knowledge transfer. The results showed that social workers experienced factors in their work environment that affected the possibility of knowledge transfer of MI. Such factors involved, among other things, lack of time, lack of directives and support, and that MI as a method crashed with the social workers' practice. Despite these factors, the social workers remained positive towards MI as a method. The results also showed that increased quality assurance and continuous learning are important for social workers to be able to continue using MI in their work.

Learning and development (L&D) professionals in a Fortune 500 company were unable to determine whether managers who completed leadership development courses were transferring what they learned to their work practices. The purpose of this qualitative single instrumental case study was to uncover the factors that accelerated or impeded the transfer of training for employees in the workplace. The conceptual framework was social cognitive learning theory with emphasis on the triadic reciprocal causation model. Guiding questions were used to explore 2 areas: (a) how managers described their preparedness to transfer the training to their jobs, and (b) how managers described their perceptions of the transfer of training from the concepts learned in class to practical job application. Data were collected through one-on-one online interviews with 12 managers who had completed a leadership development course. Data analysis included organizing the data; reading them multiple times; developing codes, categories, and themes; and interpreting the findings. Over 90% of the participants stated that they felt prepared to implement the training after the class. However, only half reported a moderate to high level of confidence incorporating the training into their work. A 3-day professional development project was designed to heighten awareness of the benefits of advancing the transference and application of training with a strong focus on driving social change in the workplace through improved interpersonal skills between managers and their direct reports.

Organisations are often faced with many challenges when they attempt to implement an entire workforce to a technologically advanced and complex platform that will alter the skill-set requirements for performance. Training can be ä very effective intervention strategy to implement this organisational change. However, theorists have proposed that training can also enhance organisational effectiveness, and it is believed that individual outcomes from training that emerge upward to achieve organisational objectives vertical transfer would strengthen the link between training effectiveness and organisational effectiveness. Using these theories as a foundation, this case study examined the effectiveness of an organisation's training to achieve performance objectives. Expansion from these theories was possible as this case study presented the multiple influences involved during successive interdependent team training to support the performance of safety-critical operations for a new working platform. In achieving interdependent team vertical transfer in emergency management during this training, results have revealed that training must first focus on individual level skill proficiency and collective enabling process skills horizontal transfer as they are a critical antecedent to ensure cohesion in interdependent team performance. Findings have further identified that the training content and methods must both support and determine the achievement of individual required skills. While simulation training that reflected the working platform benefits both learning and performance. Conclusions can also be drawn from this exploratory case study that the efforts by individuals upward through to teams and across teams has enhanced training performance outcomes. This empirical case study has shown that a multitude of factors and cumulative events that occurred prior to training and during training influenced the effectiveness of team training from multiple levels. Thus, this case study has been able to verify and expand current postulated models to provide foundation support for the design and delivery of interdependent training.

Entrepreneurship and business training programs have been created and administered throughout the world and particularly in developing economies to help entrepreneurs open new businesses and grow their current businesses. Evaluations of these programs have shown that most of them successfully help entrepreneurs expand their knowledge and understanding of business principles and practices, but few entrepreneurs will then apply or transfer what they learn into their businesses. Without many entrepreneurs making changes in how they run their businesses, it is no surprise that these training programs generally show little impact on sales or profits. This research explores how business training programs in developing economies can help entrepreneurs go beyond just learning about business principles to making changes in their businesses based on those principles. Put simply, this research explores how training programs can help entrepreneurs act on what they learn. The research for this dissertation is presented in three articles. Article 1 includes a review and analysis of findings from a decade of evaluations and research on entrepreneurship training programs in developing economies around the world. In this analysis, I identified factors that have been found to positively affect training transfer, and then based on these findings I developed a theoretical framework of how training transfer can be facilitated. Article 2 is a multiple case analysis of seven trainers from two different entrepreneurship training programs based in Lima, Peru. This article includes an analysis of six months of in-field observations and interviews conducted in Peru, revealing several challenges trainers face while helping entrepreneurs apply what they learn as well as strategies the trainers use in their efforts to overcome those challenges. Article 3 includes a field experiment to test if using learning contracts in a training program will help more entrepreneurs begin following new business practices. This article also includes a quasi-experimental impact evaluation of the training program as a whole on entrepreneurs' business knowledge, application of business principles, and sales and expenses. The learning contracts showed some impact but not on all business practices. The training program as a whole had a statistically significant impact on knowledge and application but the impact on sales was not statistically significant.

Developers of Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) gaming software are making remarkable strides in increasing the realism of their software. This realism has caught the attention of the training community, which has traditionally sought system and operational replication in training systems such as flight simulators. Since games are designed and marketed for entertainment and not designed for training of tasks, questions exist about the effectiveness of games as a training system in achieving the desired transfer of skills to the actual environment. Numerous studies over the past ten years have documented that PC-based simulation training environments can offer effective training for certain types of training, especially aircraft piloting tasks. Desktop games have been evaluated from a case study approach for use in aviation training (Proctor, et al., 2004) and education planning and evaluating small unit tactics) (Proctor, et al., 2002) with positive results. Based on the review of selected studies in this area, PC-based simulator platforms have been found to have a positive training impact on cognitive skills (as opposed to psycho-motor skills). Specifically, the literature review has identified that skill sets involved in team resource management, intra- and inter-team coordination, and tactical team maneuvers have been shown to benefit from the use of PC-based simulation training. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the training transfer associated with a Tactical Decision-making game, using Close Combat: First to Fight as a case study. The null hypothesis tested was that traditional field training is equivalent to virtual training combined with field training. Measurements of the subjects' performance in live training were recorded. Additionally, self assessment questionnaires were administered.

Molecular property prediction has a vast range of applications in the chemical industry. A powerful molecular property prediction model can promote experiments and production processes. The idea behind this degree program lies in the use of transfer learning to predict molecular properties. The project is divided into two parts. The first part is to build and pre-train the model. The model, which is constructed with pure attention-based Transformer Layer, is pre-trained through a Masked Edge Recovery task with large-scale unlabeled data. Then, the performance of this pre- trained model is tested with different molecular property prediction tasks and finally verifies the effectiveness of transfer learning.The results show that after self-supervised pre-training, this model shows its excellent generalization capability. It is possible to be fine-tuned with a short period and performs well in downstream tasks. And the effectiveness of transfer learning is reflected in the experiment as well. The pre-trained model not only shortens the task- specific training time but also obtains better performance and avoids overfitting due to too little training data for molecular property prediction. / Prediktion av molekylers egenskaper har en stor mängd tillämpningar inom kemiindustrin. Kraftfulla metoder för att predicera molekylära egenskaper kan främja vetenskapliga experiment och produktionsprocesser. Ansatsen i detta arbete är att använda överförd inlärning (eng. transfer learning) för att predicera egenskaper hos molekyler. Projektet är indelat i två delar. Den första delen fokuserar på att utveckla och förträna en modell. Modellen består av Transformer-lager med attention- mekanismer och förtränas genom att återställa maskerade kanter i molekylgrafer från storskaliga mängder icke-annoterad data. Efteråt utvärderas prestandan hos den förtränade modellen i en mängd olika uppgifter baserade på prediktion av molekylegenskaper vilket bekräftar fördelen med överförd inlärning.Resultaten visar att modellen efter självövervakad förträning besitter utmärkt förmåga till att generalisera. Den kan finjusteras med liten tidskostnad och presterar väl i specialiserade uppgifter. Effektiviteten hos överförd inlärning visas också i experimenten. Den förtränade modellen förkortar inte bara tiden för uppgifts-specifik inlärning utan uppnår även bättre prestanda och undviker att övertränas på grund otillräckliga mängder data i uppgifter för prediktion av molekylegenskaper.

As ações educacionais ofertadas em ambientes de trabalho buscam suprir uma demanda crescente para atender novas exigências de desenvolvimento de competências individuais e organizacionais em contextos de diferente natureza. A análise dos resultados produzidos e da eficácia desses eventos instrucionais é de fundamental importância para verificar se os trabalhadores alcançaram aprendizagem satisfatória e se estão conseguindo aplicar o que aprenderam nos locais de trabalho. Nesse sentido, a identificação e a avaliação de resultados produzidos por meio de relatos empíricos trariam contribuições significativas para suprir lacunas de pesquisa. Dessa forma, a presente pesquisa objetivou avaliar uma ação educacional ofertadas a distância, visando relacionar a transferência dos conhecimentos, habilidade e atitudes (CHAs) aprendidos para o ambiente de trabalho com as características da clientela (dados sociodemográficos, e Estratégias de aprendizagem) e às Reações ao curso. A organização parceira oferece um curso a distância para funcionários de bibliotecas públicas do estado de São Paulo. Para a coleta dos dados, foram aplicados virtualmente os questionários de Estratégias de aprendizagem, Reação aos procedimentos instrucionais, Reação ao desempenho do tutor, os quais, anteriormente à coleta de dados, sofreram modificações para se adequarem às especificidades do contexto no qual ele foi aplicado. Também foi feita a aplicação do instrumento Transferência de treinamento, que foi construído de acordo com os objetivos instrucionais do curso. Para constatar as evidências de validade do instrumento, foram realizadas análises exploratórias fatoriais (Principal Components e Principal Axis Factoring) e de consistência interna (Alfa de Cronbach). Todas as escalas são estaticamente válidas e confiáveis. Os resultados encontrados mostraram que os participantes, durante o curso, fizeram uso principalmente das estratégias de aprendizagem Busca de ajuda ao material didático, Controle da emoção e Controle da compreensão. Os participantes apresentaram, em sua maioria, reações positivas ao curso e foram capazes de transferir a maioria do conteúdo aprendido para o ambiente de trabalho. Análises complementares, realizadas por meio de Teste T e ANOVA, não apresentaram resultados significativas. Em contrapartida, as análises de correlação mostraram uma correlação positiva entre a Reação aos procedimentos instrucionais e a Transferência de treinamento. Tais achados mostram a importância das Estratégias de aprendizagem para cursos dessa natureza. E apontam a Reação aos procedimentos instrucionais como variável relevante para a ocorrência da Transferência de treinamento. Mais estudos são necessários para sistematizar conhecimentos sobre Transferência de treinamento em organizações públicas e ampliar as discussões acerca da eficácia e aplicabilidade da modalidade EAD. / The educational actions offered in work environments seek to fulfill a growing demand for development of new individual and organizational skills in distinct contexts. The analysis of results and effectiveness of instructional events is relevant in order to verify how much the workers learned and if they are able to apply the acquired knowledge at the workplace. Respecting this, the evaluation and identification of the results obtained by research reports yielded relevant contributions to fill the research gaps. Thus, the present research aimed to evaluate distance educational actions, seeking to link the transfer of acquired knowledge, skills and attitudes to the workplace with the characteristics of the clients (sociodemographic data and Learning Strategies) and Reactions to the course. The partner organization offers a distance course to employees of public libraries of the state of São Paulo. The data was collect through Learning Strategies, Reaction to the instructional procedures and Reaction to the tutor performance forms applied virtually and adapted to the context of this research. The Transfer of Training instrument was also applied and built according to the instructional objectives of the course. In order to find the evidences to validate the instrument, factorial exploratory (Principal Components and Principal Axis Factoring) and intern consistency (Cronbachs Alpha) analysis were made. All the scales are statically valid and reliable. The results showed that the Learning Strategies mainly used by the students during the course was Help search to the courseware, Emotional control and Understanding control. The participants presented mostly positive reactions to the course and were able to transfer most of the content to the workplace. Complementary analysis made with Students T-Test and ANOVA did not show relevant results. Correlation analysis was positive in relating Reaction to the instructional procedures and Transfer of training. This findings show the relevance of the Learning Strategies to this type of course and point the Reaction to the instructional procedures as a relevant variable to Transfer of training. Further studies are needed to systematize the knowledge about Transfer of Training and public organizations and extend the discussion about effectiveness and applicability of Distance Education (DE).

Rationale: Audiology student training in New Zealand faces many difficulties with a limited number of qualified instructors and suitable external placements. With a continued shortage of audiologists in New Zealand, new methods of training need to be introduced and implemented. One solution is through the use of realistic, computer-based virtual patient simulators (VPS). HIT Lab New Zealand in conjunction with the University of Canterbury has designed a VPS for New Zealand audiology students. A speech audiometry component is to be developed based on best practice recommendations, and needs to be validated. Method: Two studies, one with 18 Master of Audiology (“expert”) and another with 18 (“novice”) undergraduate students, were evenly divided into simulator and non-simulator user groups. Simulator users had to complete 5 virtual patient cases in addition to the non-simulator users’ requirement to refer to provided lecture notes and speech audiometry protocols. Novice students were assessed on declarative, procedural and retained knowledge of speech audiometry; expert students were additionally assessed on training transfer. The intervention period was set at two weeks, and the retention assessment at four weeks post-intervention.   Results: Expert students who used the simulator significantly improved their training transfer skills. No significant differences were found between and within groups for declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge. Training transfer and procedural knowledge were retained for both groups, but only non-simulator users retained declarative knowledge. Novice students who used the simulator significantly increased their declarative knowledge. Both groups’ procedural knowledge significantly regressed post-intervention. Declarative and procedural knowledge were retained for both groups. Implications: Simulator use appears to accelerate learning outcomes otherwise achievable through traditional learning methods, and does depend on the users’ existing knowledge base. Regular use may be necessary to retain desired learning outcomes. Improvements (e.g., more detailed feedback systems) are to be incorporated into the simulator, and sole reliance on the simulator for learning is not recommended. Future research into more holistic aspects of virtual patient use within the field of audiology and allied health care is warranted.