Forum Discussion
Redesigning Under Constraints: Condensing 8 Hours of Training into a 1-Hour eLearning Module
In most projects, SMEs provide slides, facilitator guides, or at least some documentation.
In this case, I received none.
The request was to convert a full-day (7–8 hour) onboarding workshop into a 1-hour e-learning course. Instead of materials, I was invited to attend the live session as if I were a new hire.
The onboarding itself was highly activity-based (discussions, reflections, group exercises...). As a training workshop, it worked well, but that's exactly what made the conversion harder.
The real challenge was this:
How do you compress a full day of experiential learning into one interactive hour without simply digitizing the activities?
That alone would have been enough to deal with. But then another constraint surfaced.
The original workshop had been designed by an external consulting firm. Leadership later raised concerns about copyright and ownership. I was instructed not to replicate or closely resemble any of the original activities, even the ones that had consistently received the best feedback.
That meant redesigning everything from first principles.
How I decided what to keep from the 8-hour workshop
Rather than starting with the activities themselves, I focused on understanding what the workshop was really trying to achieve.
Observing the learning intent behind each activity While attending the workshop, I paid close attention to several things:
* What the company expected learners to gain from each activity
* What learning goals those activities were meant to support
* How participants reacted during the session and what feedback they shared
After the workshop, I asked the HR what they had observed from employees who previously completed the onboarding? Which behaviors seemed to reflect the intended outcomes, and where they still noticed gaps?
One question I specifically asked was:
What behaviors or thinking patterns do you expect a new hire to demonstrate after this training?
Once I understood what the training was really trying to do, it became much easier to decide what to keep and what to cut.
Have you ever had to redesign training under similar constraints? I'd love to hear how you handled it. And if there's interest in the design side of this project, drop a comment. I'm happy to share more.
6 Replies
Hey JoanneChen this is such a stellar conversation, we'll be featuring it in the ELH weekly soon!
I bet Thomas_Shayon lriback jvtwillie sakinabrandford or others from the recent Peer Pod have some insights to share on this. If not, tag someone you think would!Hi MaryEmma_Gary, thank you for highlighting this in ELH Weekly! I’m looking forward to hearing more perspectives from the community. This community always sparks great ideas.
MaryEmma_Gary thanks for the tag.
🚨LONG POST ALERT - est reading time 4 - 6 mins🚨
My experience is not identical; however, I hope it sparks an idea for a fellow ELH community member and maybe offers general value.
When I got hired as a sales trainer (prior employer), I was a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT). As such, my previous experience focused on helping organizations' employees upskill in Microsoft desktop apps. E.g., I ran half-day and full-day Excel training sessions: public open enrollment at our training facilities and private classes for our enterprise clients.
That experience carried over a bit into my role as a sales trainer, where I also taught internal Excel classes to our employees. The scenario came up where a manager needed to have her team (daily, effective Excel users) upskill even further (think advanced and power-user skills).
CHALLENGE:
Her employees could not be away from their desks for 6 or 4 hours (my typical session lengths).
I went in the opposite direction, making the learning experience longer (5 days) but shorter in terms of instructional time with me, and leveraged the employees' expertise to support others on the team. My breakdown looked (something) like this.
SOLUTION:
A week-long blended learning approach, with short in-person virtual sessions, peer support, office hours, and post-training support.
➡️ 2 weeks PRIOR to Excel bootcamp ⬅️
Tue:
Survey:
- What skill(s) do you most need help building?
- What are your top 3 work-related Excel challenges?
- Other questions.
Based on the survey results, I developed a lesson plan with activities, practices, and related materials.
Thu:
Zoom meeting with planned attendees:
"Folks, here's the lesson plan based on what you shared in the survey. Talk me through what to add/delete/expand on.” The manager was on as well and filled gaps she knew about on her team that they might not have been aware of.
➡️ 1 week PRIOR to Excel bootcamp ⬅️
Tue
Learning primer:
Sent participants Excel challenges and pre-work.
- "Team, please complete these exercises before our session next week. Additionally, as you move through your work this week, capture real examples that you can bring to our bootcamp sessions."
Thu
- "Team, this is what you can expect next week..."
5 days of learning...
- Group sessions with me via Zoom (1-2 hours), breakout sessions on Zoom, review pre-work, small cohorts will work together over the week, self-directed independent work, help one another, dedicated chat group - if you get stuck on something, drop it in the chat for all of us to tackle, office hours, wrap up, support 2 weeks following bootcamp.
➡️ Excel Bootcamp Learning Week👩🏾💻⬅️
Mon: kick-off session; demo'd formulas, shortcuts, tackled real work problems learners brought to the session (2 hours max)
Tue: office hours / all day available via dedicated chat group
Wed: Back together via Zoom; demo'd formulas, shortcuts, tackling real work problems learners brought to the session (2 hours max)
Thu: office hours / all day available via dedicated chat group
Fri: wrap up, next steps, explained how the 2-week post-event support would work.
📈 Outcome 📈
It turned out to be one of the best Excel training events I'd ever run to that point in my career; the team loved it❣️
And the manager (based on her survey responses 2 months post-event) saw a 30% decrease in time to complete, in how quickly her team could turn around a request from the business for product + channel analysis.
Not apples-to-apples🍎🍊, but the same "thinking through process" 🧠 applies.
Hi Thomas,
Thanks for sharing your experience. This was definitely a solid blended learning example! Although it wasn’t similar to my main focus area—asynchronous eLearning courses. Your approach still highlights key points relevant to any training: needs analysis, work-related focused, preparing learners, teaching–coaching–practice, and follow-ups.A good training isn’t just a one-time learning event, it’s a learning journey that connects directly to on-the-job performance.
Wow, very interesting. I have not had this experience. However, it sounds like you are on the right track. Do you know why the elearning is being requested? It seems like the in-person training is effective. The copyright concern does make it hard to condense and replicate. The more feedback you receive from HR and employees directly the better. I will say if the LMS platform allows for employee-to-employee interaction you may can design a follow up elearning with an on the job usage activity or focus your elearning on the one or two main intended objectives. These are quick thoughts I have. I’m interested in what you decide to do.
Hi sakinabrandford,
Thanks for your comment. Yes, I agree, if the LMS platform allows interactions between employees, it will create more room for designing follow-ups. I'd worked on another project using the UMU platform, which supports this kind of interaction within its microlessons, and I really loved it. It solved the feeling of isolation that often happens in eLearning courses. But that’s another story.
Beyond designing highly interactive activities within the course, what I did to create interaction among new hires was to design a final activity where learners share their thoughts and send them to HR via email. HR would then share these with other new hires and follow up after the onboarding eLearning training, so new hires could at least see others’ perspectives on the final event.
