Customer Reviews

The New Mager Six-Pack

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Imagine a "6-pack" sitting on my desk untouched for almost three years! No, not beer, these are six Learning & Development books written by the L&D guru, Robert Mager. I had a formal Needs Analysis to conduct and needed a quick refresher (a shot of help). And not the swill that many training books provide that leave you parched, thirsting for more. I tapped into the 6-pack and cracked open the first book "Analyzing Performance Problems, or you Really Oughta Wanna" and began to drink in the information. I need models to follow and Mager provides actual flow charts with appropriate questions to ask. These helped guide me in formulating a Needs Analysis. (Truth be told, they worked pretty well with this metaphor too!)

In the end, I conducted the Needs Analysis and received feedback that the questions were "sober", "on target", and not at all "canned". These books provide genuine guidelines (not draft or lite versions) on creating needs analyses, learning objectives, and measurement tools. They are fun-to-read, easy to understand, and are full of real-life examples. Each volume is $19.95, and the cost for the "6-Pack" is $95. 1. Analyzing Performance Problems, or you Really Oughta Wanna 2. Developing an Attitude Toward Learning, or SMATs `n' SMUTS 3. Preparing Instructional Objectives 4. Making Instruction Work 5. Measuring Instructional Results, or Got a Match? 6. Goal Analysis

If your mission is instruction, your companion should be the Mager Six Pack. Mager's approach to instruction is concise, practical, example-oriented, practice-centered, and mastery-certified. If you care about the learner and you care about effective training, this set of books will help you dispell the myths, end the wasted time, identify the problems, and find the solutions. No fancy words, no difficult concepts, no hidden agendas, and no advanced degrees are required. Just pay close attention to the common sense approaches Dr. Mager offers, and you will be a better instructional designer and your students will be more successful learners. Especially useful are the three core books on Analyzing Performance Problems, Preparing Instructional Objectives, and Measuring Instructional Results. These should be on every instructional designer's shelf.

This set of books by Mager is well put together. These books offer a common sense approach to training and development. Included are how to design a program, realistic objectives, implimenting the program and then tracking the benefits of the training program. These books do not offer super-fancy techniques of teaching, what they do offer you are a set of basic approaches that will work in many different situations.
These books teach through humor and anecdotes as well as real-life stories that can help you place the possibly daunting task of training into a task that you can complete.

If you are involved with training, course development, or performance improvement then this set is a MUST for you. Each book "reads" with the greatest of ease. The concepts and techniques are so simple, yet so POWERFUL! This set is truly an excellent investment for your personal development and growth. Buy it today. Trust me!

This series is such a great resource going into the field of instructional design and technology. Mager writes in a super simple and fun style that keeps you interested from chapter to chapter. I recommend this to anyone and the price is great!

I'm retired now - after three careers, through some of the most challenging economic times ever. I've got three pension checks coming in every month proving that these books work! I've used these books for almost 30 years in my work, and they've literally made a lifetime for me. My life objectives were that my family prosper, my kids mature, my home/cars/credit cards get paid off, and my financial situation in terms of savings and investments be affluent. Note that each of these objective-verbs is measurable by some means! Objectives achieved - thanks to my use of these little books in my careers. If you want to 'impress' others with the complexity and difficulty of educational/training/assessment development, then go elsewhere. If you want to get the job superbly done in a common sense, to-the-point, rapid manner then buy these books and for God's sake use them. My life-objectives have been achieved in no small part because of them...Thank you Dr. Mager!

First off: The individual titles are still available, most of them new and in paperback. The versions in the six pack are all paperback anyway. Shame on these resellers for price gouging--$500-$900 for the set? Used? Come on!

If you're a manager involved in training, or if you're a professional trainer, these books are a lifesaver. Mager is a master at making what should be simple---simple! The trouble is that most people put little thought into what it is they're teaching--and even less into how to support the learning once the training event is over. Mager will disabuse you of those notions forever. His style is light, breezy, irreverent, and very engaging. You'll find lots of correct and incorrect examples, stories, quizzes to check what you've learned, challenges to your everyday thinking, etc. In short, Mager teaches what he preaches.

The other title I'd recommend if you're unsure is his book, "What Every Manager Should Know About Training." This is an absolute must for all managers--and all trainers.

I recently (November, 2010) put together a two-day instructional design course for a military contractor. The contractor is teaching 18-year-old Army privates how to operate communication gear in support of warfighting operations. They were already using some of Mager's approach, but, after dusting off Mager's methods and evaluating the contractor's training against Mager's approach, they made some changes to the "condition--action--standard" rubric that is at the center of Mager's teaching.

You'll thank yourself for investing in solid material that you'll use throughout your career. My six pack is old and worn, but I'll never get rid of it. It's too valuable (but not worth $900 as some of these sellers are charging).

I've used this series countless times to work with my team. It has helped me and them since I purchased it. It was well worth the cost and time.

I am in a class titled Training: Design and Delivery and it is an upper level university class. This book is required and is TERRIBLE. First I can't stand that it is in seperate books. Especially paperback that cannot hold themselves open, you have to hold it open which makes taking notes virtually impossible. It is large childish print with such boring examples, blank pages and huge cartoon pictures. Seriously each book only had a minute amount of valuable information. Why didn't Mager design a textbook? Because I don't believe he could. I am so frustrated with these books. It's impossible to "reference" a topic because they are in seperate books, with terrible indexes. So not only is it impossible to remember where you found that piece of information you may have barely found within his terrible stories and pictures but you more than likely didn't write it down because you have to hold his book open. Robert Mager believes he is being funny through the entire series and it only annoys you because he is not funny and he uses terrible references throughout the entire series. I am not alone in my class, everyone all agrees the books are terrible. Robert Mager might be highly regarded in the training world and he might have useful information in this series but he did a good job of hiding it within a bunch of stuff you don't care about so that he could create six books and charge $100 for it. I believe the valuable information could honestly be condensed down into a ten page pamphlet. Do not buy this series unless you are required to, or unless you like childish writing with big cartoon print and terrible examples.

I am a lecturer and teach management and training - this pack is great as a resource to use for lessons