Inspiration needed - Insurance product training

Q. Why would you want to create an e-learning course to make a sales pitch? Not sure if an e-learning course would be appropriate. If the goal is information a video may be more appropriate or a simple sales presentation.

I'd put a story behind it.  Something like "Oh good, you made it!  The marketing department needs your help immediately!  They are trying to put together an advertisement for our new motocycle insurance product, and they're having a bit of difficulty." 

Then you could always have it survey based so that they can input feedback, but not have right or wrong answers.  Something like "below you will see the five categories of people that this product can benefit - who would you like to try to market to first?"  Then, "look at this list of advanages/benefits of this product.  Which do you think would be most helpful to the audience you selected on the previous screen?"

You may have to add some things throughout the course to make sure that they're actually learning the material and not just thinking through it as a marketing activity - but this could be a good way to make the info interesting.  I think a refresher quiz would be helpful at the end.  Something like "I think you're ready!  Before I send you off to marketing, however, let's do a quick review..."  Then put in a few interactive quizzes.

Thanks James, Heidi.

James, it's not a sales pitch. Underwritters will get calls from the insurance brokers about questions the have that are related to the product, in this case the Motorcycle product. Underwritters have the task to evaluate the client's risk, based on the broker's proposition and then approve or refuse it.

That's why I was looking at a brached scenario ...  

Heidi - I love your suggestion. I think I'll have to tweek it a bit since it's not marketing related.

Oh, I know it's not marketing related - I just thought that was a fun little scenario you could use to help the educate on the material while making interesting.  Like Kevin Thorn's Guru example.

Hope this helps! 

Hi Heidi,

Thanks for the tip, I might actually go for it  : )

Gotcha.. Here is an idea.. Yes you need a branched scenario but do this with a person setting behind a desk and they get a phone call. Then you split the screen diagonally to show the other party. Then you create a phone conversation where the underwriter asks questions. You'll need to come up with scenarios where the underwriter will ok the sale or they will not. You can guide the course based on the responses to questions asked. Kind of like a course Kathy Moore did for the US Army where a LT had to enlist the aid of a local Afgan chief. The LT had to listen to two parties and then based on his conversation he gave a response. The LT's responses resulted in different levels of success or an overall failure.

Oooh, I like that, James!

That's a great idea James. Thanks for your help !

This is just an idea of a conversation scene.

Hi Julie! If you have a minute (or 10), check these out! They aren't eLearning courses, but are excellent examples of non-linear interactions.

http://www.jellyvisionlab.com/examples.php 

You have a lot of potential here. What a fun project! Let us know what you ultimately come up with.

I think the simplest way to go about it would be to present the learner with different customers, each one with a different level of risk and need.  Your end user would be able to learn about each customer, choose questions to ask to learn more information, then guide them through making the proper risk assessments.  You could scaffold the learning as they go, presenting an early example, guiding them through another, then they're on their own for the last. 

You can make the presentation of each customer's information in a linear fashion but letting the user choose which customer's story they follow and evaluate would be up to them, at least making them feel they have more choice.  In the end, you could give them a new customer as an evaluation, letting them choose what questions to ask which will branch them in one direction or another.

It would be a lot of work but way more effective than "Here are the policy features, the kind of customers your looking for...."

I know this is a very brief explanation of it but I've done courses like this before in Adobe Captivate so it can definitely be done.

I would start with a "case study". Showing a case where the product was a "life-saver".   An accident, theft, whatever, happened to a client and how this insurance gave him so much more than the competitor's insurance product. So you start with a short story, and then allows the learner to get more info on any topic he likes.

Personally I think that having a non-liner course is over-rated. 

How about sending learners on a motorcycle road trip down Route 66. At various points they face the actual problems that make getting motorcycle insurance worthwhile (advantages like accident insurance, accidental damage etc). They could also meet various people and customers along the way and have to learn/demonstrate their understanding of the product. Road signs could provide opportunities for branching learning (off ramps, side trips to small towns etc) and they could also indicate upcoming content (Slow Down, Test ahead). They could be pulled over by police and quizzed on their knowledge Perhaps they could be rewarded with mods to their ride that then requires further modifications to their policy?

Hi everyone !

Thanks so much for all of your input !  I LOVE them all !

This is a great suggestion and will use this in my medical insurance training!