I know that ASTD is the big professional association for trainers, so I was surprised and disappointed in the limited usefulness of a book sponsored by them.
Other books present design and delivery in a more thorough manner. You can skim this book in a few minutes and get the key points. Whether this is entirely due to the lack of substantive content or due to the book's format is debatable, but I am thinking more the former than the latter.
The key points that are useful are not adequately backed up by sufficient supporting detail or research. I don't think the "Delivery" part should necessarily be backed up by research, but the "Design" part surely should. I would like to know why the techniques they suggest should work and how cognitive processes relate to those techniques. But my thinking that this is important may be more due to my own background, rather than a real flaw of the book. However, even if that is true, I have found other books that do give sufficient supporting detail and/or research.
The other books I recommend instead of this one are:
- Beyond the Podium by Rossett
- Developing Training Courses by Hassell-Corbiell
- Web-Based Training by Horton
- Multimedia for Learning: Methods and Development by Alessi and Trollip
- Building Expertise by Clark
Whether you want an overall picture of Training Design & Delivery or a beginner on his/her first steps and even when you become an expert, you'll find yourself referring to this book again and again.
The Handbook is divided into three section;
1) Instructor Based - Covers such topics as instructional systems design, using technology and games during training and evaluating training programs.
2) Design & delivery of Technology Based Training - If you want a more comprehensive coverage of e-learning, then you should refer to the newly published 'Handbook of e-learning.' However, this section remains quite valuable since it covers some of the other media.
3) Design & delivery of Self Directed Training - If they will learn on their own, then these are all the resources and tools you will need.
This Handbook, together with the 'ASTD Handbook of Training & Development' are essential reference for all Training & Development professionals. I predict that they will also be joined by the 'ATSD Handbook of e-learning' quite soon!