Assessment Plan for Duck River Electric Membership Corporation New Hire Orientation

to Electric Cooperatives

The purpose of the Duck River EMC Assessment Plan is to provide guidelines for assessments

for newly hired employees at the cooperative. New employees will be trained on the history of

rural electrification, the history of TVA, the history of Duck River Electric, as well as the basics

of generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. The DREMC Assessment Plan will

assist in formative, summative, and confirmative evaluations for the orientation to electric

cooperatives training.

Demographics: The plan addresses two audiences: New hires and the DREMC management

team. New hires will complete the training, while the management team will make

recommendations for improvements to the training.

Assessment Plan Objective

The objective is to strategically assess the effectiveness of new hire orientation training and to

provide guidance to management in making necessary adjustments to the training.

 Use data from new hire assessments to determine if further training is necessary

 Use consistent evaluation and training practices throughout DREMC’s eight districts

 Use data to monitor and make adjustments to the training program, materials, and

delivery methods

 Establish a timeline for reviewing the assessments for applicability and value in new hire

learning and course improvement.

Learning Objectives

 Employees will understand the seven Cooperative Principles and incorporate them into

their interactions with members, peers, the community, and other cooperatives.
  Employees will understand the basics of power generation, transmission, and distribution.

 Employees will understand an overview of the history of rural electrification, TVA, and

the cooperative.

Required Assessments

 Throughout the training program design phase, a core team of cooperative employees

will assess the content, materials, and delivery methods for effectiveness in meeting the

desired course objectives and make recommendations for course improvements.

 New hires will participate in discussion and/or reflection prompts to assess their

understanding of how learned topics apply in the workplace.

 New hires will complete short quizzes on new terms learned in the course.

 The management team will assess new hires on the job for their understanding of topics

covered in the training.

 New hires will complete a survey following course completion to determine the

effectiveness of the training program as well as their attitude regarding the training.

 The management team will review the course program and materials to determine if

adjustments should be made to the training program, based on the performance of new

employees who have completed the training program.

Required Assessment Windows

 The core cooperative team assessment of content, materials, and delivery methods will

occur during the development phase of the training program.

 The discussion and reflection prompts will be completed during the course.

 The quizzes will be completed after new terminology has been covered in the course.

 On-the-job assessments will be on-gong to determine if additional training is necessary.

  The course review by the management team will occur semi-annually at the start of

program implementation. After the first year, an annual review will be required going

forward.

Recommended Assessments

 New hires should be assessed for knowledge retention each quarter, or as necessary to

determine if additional training is necessary.

 New hires should be assessed at their 30-day, 60-day, and 90-day performance reviews to

determine their level of knowledge of the covered material in the training program.

Morrison, Ross, Kalman, and Kemp (2013) state that, “evaluation is a continuous process that

should occur early in a design process and then be repeated at different phases” (p. 273).

References

Morrison, G. R., Ross, S. M., Kalman, H. K. & Kemp, J. E. (2013). Designing effective

instruction (7th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.