Redesigning Under Constraints: Condensing 8 Hours of Training into a 1-Hour eLearning Module

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.