Avoiding gender and age issues in an elearning course

Hi Matthew,

Have you considered using silhouettes instead of characters? That would allow you to get around any possible demographic issues. However, it may make it more difficult for learners to pick up on the "signs of abuse", depending on what those are.

I like Allison's idea but have the same concerns.  You could add a disclaimer at the beginning of the training that says something like "Domestic Violence is a serious issue that effects many people from all walks of life. This training is a representations of what you could encounter. Please keep in mind the general principals of this lesson and if you have any questions, comment or concerns regarding the safety of someone you come in contact with please speak with "insert authority"."  It could be a good chance to educate the learner by providing statistics about domestic abuse in your country as a visual.

The use of illustrated characters might be helpful. Some of them can be modified to change skin tones.

This is a complicated issue. You have competing forces involved. Being inclusive but not being seen as just throwing every minority into a course so you can't be accused of being bigoted. You also have issues where realistic characters may trigger problems with people who have experienced abuse (the whole topic might do that though) and illustrated characters might be seen as not serious enough for the subject matter.

Hi, Matthew: 

I agree with Cary. This can get tricky--quick. I like the idea of photographs of real people. You can't represent everyone, but you could at least represent a male, female, young, old, minority.  

You could possibly design a super complex system in which the user generates a character they will follow through the course, altering their skin tone, height, weight, hair colour, eye colour, and anything else you can think of. Of course, this would be a massive amount of work, but it takes the onus off you, and puts it onto the person using the activity.