Design questions - Huge undertaking

Hi Brad! Sounds like a cool project! When you say people will need to use "multiple applications" to get their answers, what are these applications? Are they web-based tools that already exist? Or are they job aids that you need to create?

Also, can you say a little more about the checklist and the actual tasks that learners will need to complete? What kind of learning outcome are you targeting - in other words, what skill or knowledge will learners need to be able to demonstrate?

Jeanette,

Thanks for the response!

Here's what I got.  I am working for the mortgage industry and we have a team of processors that ensure paperwork is present and complete.  To do this, they access several different in-house applications.  These include image and accounting detail software applications.

As they go through this process, they complete an elaborate checklist to ensure each piece is complete (currently 48 items on the checklist).  This can involve jumping back and forth in these different applications find the answers. 

Examples include making sure certain applications are signed/dated, ensure paperwork as completed or included, place images of documents in different buckets in the imaging software, etc.  Their job is to make sure everything is in order for a loan officer to complete the loan.

This can be pretty overwhelming for new employees or someone who is not familiar with all of the terminology and forms.

My goal for this project is to make this process easier to learn, entertaining and more efficient.  They need to be able to go throught this checklist with little or no assistance.  Here's what I've completed so far.

1.  Glossary - includes common terms, acronyms and images of forms relating to the industry.

2.  Divided the checklist into 8 sections.  When they go through training now, they train on new parts of the checklist about every other day.  This allowed me to create 8 separate modules so the processor doesn't have to go through things unnecessarily or if they want to review a certain section.

3.  Creating the "learning journal".  I thought Tom's idea of this was perfect for our company.  When they complete each section, I have placed a notes area, self assessment checklist and trainer reviews to aid in their comprehension of the training.

Again, I am fairly new to eLearning.  I have been a software training for about 12 years.  My experience has primarily been in front of the classroom.  I have completed projects with Adobe Captivate.  My company just purchased Articulat Studio Pro 09, which I think is an amazing program and I look forward to learning all about it.

 Am I on the right track?  Any ideas or thoughts is greatly appreciated!  

Brad

Hey Brad,

Having worked in a similar industry, I can empathize with the number of forms and checklists required to complete a transaction.

Because the forms aren't as challenging as completing every required field and checkbox, you might focus more on teaching learners to use the forms.

One thing we'd include with our elearning was the actual forms--either in PDF, Word or hard copy format. The elearning activities were designed to get learners to use the forms to answer the questions. So, things like red flags, incomplete data or missing data were part of our activities--the content and information was all in the actual documents.

On the flip side, we did include some activities that were not appreciated by learners or those of us creating the training. Captivate-style simulations that forced learners to enter useless, dummy data in every field. Some business units insisted on these activities and it was neither fun to create nor fun to take. The forms aren't hard to complete; what's hard is catching nuances, details and knowing how to correct them.

David,

Great ideas!  Our processors are responsible if they fail to notice the missing data.  I could definitely create activities involving missing or incomplete data.  I was thinking about using the Guided Image or  Labeled Graphics features to add some interaction.

I agree with you on the simulations.  The activities need to be as efficient as the work itself.  Fortunately, I have been given ultimate freedom on design and creativity which is awesome.  The only catch is they want this out quick.

Thanks again!!

Brad - if you had a topic or two you wanted (and could) share with the group, I'm sure some folks could offer more ideas for ways to approach the design.

I'm picturing a "Hot Spot" question where the image is the form and they have to identify the missing data by clicking on it.  Good practice for reviewing the form and catching problems.

One of their main tasks is going to the image software application, locating a file, and go through the file to make sure everything in their checklist can be checked.  The look for certain things on each page as they go through the checklist.  These files can be anywhere from 80-250 pages or images.  Also, each of these pages need to be divided into sections or buckets in the imaging software in preparatiion for the file to go to the next level up.

To me, that's the biggest challenge.  The checklist is quite large and tedious.  They also advised me that these checklists can change quite frequently.

I always look forward to a challenge and love to work under pressure.  So this is right up my alley.  I just need to find my groove on design and then it's on.

Thanks!

Great suggestion Joe!

Hi Brad,

We did something similar for the financial sector and converted documents into flipbooks and highlighted areas that needed careful consideration.  This enabled us to reference a number of forms, booklets etc and allowed the user to download them if included in the attachments tab.

Penny,

That sounds really cool!  How did you create the flipbooks?  This training is setup for mostly a younger crowd (21-29 year old groups).  I think something fun, creative and cool is a great way to win them over.

You can purchase a product called Flip PDF for around £60.  Convert your documents to PDF and upload into the tool.  There are a number of options available before you convert them into a flipbook.  You can then upload the file (index.html) as a web object and include them in your attachments.

I hope this helps

@Brad, if you're into flipbooks and you have Articulate Engage, there is a nice Community Interaction you can use, called the Flipbook Interaction. You can get it here (it's free): http://community.articulate.com/downloads/p/1585.aspx

Another free approach would be to use a tool like Youblisher and embed the content into Articulate Presenter as a web object. Brian has a cool screencast about that right here: https://player.vimeo.com/video/148897549

Wow...you guys are good!  One of the many reasons I pushed my company to buy Articulate was because I followed this forum and to see the rapid respones to the questions was amazing.  This is the first website I check every morning for great ideas and support.  Keep it up!!

Looking at it from the end-user's point of view, I'm wondering if it might be helpful to build help links into the checklist itself, each of which goes to a self-contained demonstration of or information about how to complete the specific task.  This way the checklist itself essentially has a built-in help system.

This approach worked well for me after I'd created a course in Articulate w/little Captivate movies, examples, reviews, etc. housed in the client's LMS. The trouble was that the users had to perform 12 steps to open the course to refresh their knowledge after they'd completed the training in order to re-access it, then search the presentation or navigate to the proper screen. The training was great as training, but it did not serve well as a job aid.

Disassembling the course took time--I would have built it differently had I known I would be asked to create this additional document--but everyone was really happy with the just-in-time help. I used a tiny question mark image at the end of each section (in your case, for each checklist item) as the hyperlink. These were easy to ignore if users didn't need help & easy to click on if they did. 

Not sure if this is appropriate for your situation, but the experience taught me to push back a little harder & dig deeper with my clients at the needs assessment/analyzing performance problems stage!

Maybe benchmark some old hands and see what they do, you might end up with a series of case studies that show how the checklist flows in various ways to achieve workplace outcomes. That way the learning is wrapped in a workplace relevant narrative and you end up with multiple opportunities to practice each of the items.