Instructional Design and Methodology

• Overview
• Adult Learning Principles
• Learning Methods
• Faculty
• Accelerated Learning Techniques
• Focus on Objectives
• Quality Assurance

Adult Learning Principles

At AMA seminars, we recognize and apply the major tenets of adult learning, including:

Adult learners are autonomous and self-directed.  AMA’s staff and subject matter experts (SMEs) may design seminar content and provide instruction, but we recognize that every participant has his or her own objectives.  They decide what is important to them and, therefore, what they will focus on learning.

Adult learners want to connect what they learn to their own life experiences and knowledge.  We have designed all AMA seminars to help participants apply the skills gained to their own unique situations.  Plus, we encourage each of them to share his or her own accumulation of experience and expertise and learn from each other, as well as from our faculty.

Adult learners are goal-oriented.  And so is every AMA seminar.  At the beginning of each course, we ask participants to share what they want to achieve during the seminar, so that the faculty can ensure, to the greatest extent possible, that these individual goals are addressed.

Adult learners seek relevance in the seminars they attend.  AMA faculty work to help participants connect the course content to their own learning needs and personal situations in order to provide relevance and value.

Adult learners are practical, looking for skills that can improve the quality of their daily work and personal lives.  All AMA seminars include an action plan, in which participants apply what they’ve learned to the challenges back on the job—and make a personal commitment to do so.

Adult learners demand respect. AMA faculty not only respect the wealth of experience and knowledge that participants bring to the classroom but help them share this wisdom to enrich individual and collective learning.  AMA also demonstrates this respect by ensuring that all faculty are subject matter experts, with many years of experience as practitioners, consultants, authors or instructors.