Case study: Deloitte

Since 2001 Deloitte has pioneered an innovative employability skills training course for college students through their community investment programme. Through the Deloitte Foundation the firm committed £2m over five years to develop and qualify 800 FE teachers to teach employability skills to up to 80,000 young people across the UK.

The 4-day residential train the trainer course was designed with expert input from training consultants and experienced teacher trainers. The course offers the opportunity to achieve a Level 4 qualification and qualifies for annual CPD entitlements. Deloitte commissioned us to convert two parts of the traditional workshop to digital learning.

The two sessions to be converted to e-learning represented very different kinds of learning experiences. The Introduction to the Employability Skills Initiative was a straightforward piece of presentation, with key facts and figures about the initiative illustrated through quotations from those involved. In the digital version, animations, questions and interactions were used to bring the content to life for the learner.

An Academy Internet Learning Designer attended the workshop and observed the Assertiveness session, recording the learning journey taken by the delegates as well as the activities they participated in. The digital learning design took its cue from structure of the original workshop. The learner was introduced to the key concepts and theory behind Assertiveness, but through e-learning interactions designed to challenge the learner’s assumptions and thinking. "Try it" type questions and a role-play also stimulated the learner to think about their own behaviour and alternatives.

As an additional feature, as well as the in-course content, printable ‘Trainer Notes’ were also provided throughout the content to give the learners practical tips on how they could deliver the content successfully to their FE students in a traditional face-to-face workshop.

The return on investment

The introduction of the pre-course e-learning modules has reduced the classroom-based activities down from a 5 night stay to 3 nights, making an annual saving of £54,000. The courses are planned to run over 4 years which offers a total saving of £516,000 over the lifetime of the course. This represents a return on the original investment in the development of the e-learning programme of over 20 fold.

What the client said:

"We are very happy with the content and design of the e-learning.. and believe it gives delegates a good, solid understanding of the issues and theory.The role-plays are excellent at getting teachers to think about the issues in a practical situation, and we may also go on to use these exercises for students on the face-to-face course also as they will enjoy playing the game. Using e-learning has significant potential impact on costs of delivering the course - a factor which is vital to its wider roll-out and sustainability.”

Getting the best out of authoring tools

Authoring Toolbox With such powerful authoring tools available it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the possibilities. Where to start, and where to end? What question types to use, and when? When should a role play, case study, or simulation be used? How do you create a 20 minute course when you have five hours of material?

Being able to answer these questions (and many others) is the key to using an authoring tool effectively. Some of them can be learned quickly through trial-and-error. Some can be understood by analysing other digital learning courses. Others take years of experience to address.

And there are, of course, all the other activities that need to happen in order to make the project a success. These include achieving the project objectives, getting the right blend, understanding the audience, defining content, developing the e-learning strategy and maintaining design standards, along with managing resources, timescales and technical restraints.

Authoring tools can create the illusion that all these activities are redundant, and that in fact all that’s required to create great digital learning is to open up the tool, sit down at the laptop and get started. The truth is that smooth running, successful digital learning projects are the result of an individual or team, before work begins in the authoring tool.

Interactivity

Of course you want your digital learning to be effective and make a difference. But as many digital learning courses begin life (for example) as Powerpoint presentations, how can an authoring tool enable the designer to turn a presentation into effective learning?
The simple answer is interactivity. We all learn better when we actively engage with a subject so the job of the designer is to design ways in which the learner can interact with the content in a purposeful and productive way.

An authoring tool will provide templates for different kinds of screen interactions. These will include a variety of question and presentation types. These screen interactions all engage the learner in some kind of physical interaction using the mouse. This physical activity (even on a very small scale) is important as it ensures that the learner is active rather than simply passive.

Rich or simple?

Not all courses need a sophisticated approach so how do you know where to put your time and effort? Which courses deserve a more complex approach? When you’re planning a digital learning course, consider the following questions:

How interested in the content will the target audience really be ? Is there a direct, clear personal benefit for them in engaging with it or is the learning more to the organisation’s benefit? The more personal benefit to them, the more motivated they will be to learn
What do you expect the learners to do having completed the course? If the course is for information, awareness or knowledge transfer and the learner isn’t expected to actually do anything as a consequence, then the digital learning activities can be simpler. If the course is intended to change what the learner does in the workplace then richer learning activities will be needed

Digital Learning Activities

Deciding on and creating interactions to use at the individual screen level is usually fairly straightforward. Creating more sophisticated digital learning activities, for example branching role-plays, simulations, learning games and workshop activity emulations usually involves going ‘off-template’.

Your in-house team might therefore do the bulk of the development work using the templates within the tool however to add the wow factor and increase learning effectiveness, enlisting the help of an external developer will go a long way. If you want to find out more about how we can help you with this, call us on 01273 648970 or email aiwebcontact@redtray.co.uk.

You can also download a more in-depth look into using authoring tools effectively with our Insider’s Guide to Authoring Digital Learning.

Case study: The National Trust Focus on Customers

The National Trust runs two half-day workshops to help staff and volunteers understand the importance of excellent Customer Service, called Focus on Customers, and Handling Difficult Situations. As the two workshops covered complimentary aspects of customer service, the decision was made to combine them into one ‘Focus On Customers’ e-learning course.

With such a geographically diverse audience of 55,000 volunteers and staff, the training team was over-stretched and the Trust identified that an effective tool to aid the dissemination was required.

The solution

National Trust Focus on Customers

Effectiveness was a key concern. The workshops were popular and the digital version needed to engage the learners with the same content but – crucially - without the motivating influence of the trainer and other delegates. The National Trust was keen to understand how ‘live’ team-based learning activities could be translated into digital interactions.

Through discussions with the traditional course designers, the digital designers were able to take this underlying ‘learning journey’ and create digital interactions that took learners through the same thinking process in a different way.

It was critical that the digital version didn’t ‘stand alone’ from the performance management process. There had to be links back to the learner’s line manager so that there could be follow up afterwards. Therefore, the digital course was designed around a simple three-point action plan that the learners would take away with them and implement (what they would continue to do, what they would start doing and what they would stop doing). This ensured that when the learner’s line manager looked for practical outcomes from the course, the learner had already been through the action planning process.

The Focus On Customers e-learning course took the two half-day workshops (approximately seven hours of content) and condensed them to around an hour of e-learning.

In the design phase that followed, different kinds of content were ‘treated’ differently.

- Content that was designed to stir an emotional response (for example customer testimonials) was designed into animated mini-movies.

- Content that was intended purely to inform was then designed into simple ‘click to reveal’ type interactions or ‘try this’ type questions.

- Content that needed to take the learner through a journey was designed into much more complex, multi-stage interactive activities that built understanding. The kind of content that was designed in this way included interactive activities that enabled the learner to:

consider their personal experience of different high-street brands, what emotions those brands created and what kind of brand the National Trust has itself
compare what they thought were effective ways of implementing the customer service standards with best practice
identify different kinds of body language and what emotional impact they create
explore how the assumptions that people make about each other affect their behaviour
try out their customer service skills in two virtual role plays

The results:

Despite the evident challenges of taking a popular ‘live’ event and redeveloping it for the digital medium, the finished e-learning course was an engaging, highly interactive experience that was not afraid to challenge the thinking and assumptions of the target audience. It built on and developed further the ideas and best practice covered in the traditional workshop, and provided a route (through the action planning process) through which the learner and their line manager could discuss and put into practice what had been learned – and, in the end, improve customer service at the National Trust.

What the client said:

'From the outset Academy Internet provided an enthusiastic, professional and pragmatic approach. Working through the face-to-face workshop content and really stripping it down to the key messages, was not only essential to ensure a high quality end product, it enabled us to re-visit the content itself in a systematic and highly effective manner.

Their understanding of the National Trust as an organisation and the different target audiences, coupled with the attention to put the learner at the heart of everything, has meant we have ended up with an e‑learning solution that not only delivers its objectives but truly engages the user. This will prove to be a valuable tool in our quest for delivering customer service excellence in all areas of our organisation.'

Academy Allstar XI: Match Report

On the 5th June, the Academy Allstar Xl met the mighty ROCC cricket team for the third game of the now infamous ‘Bashes’ cricket series. Following two games last year, in which Academy managed to snatch victory in the last over of each match, ROCC were determined to get their own back in the series.

The game took place at the picturesque ground of Braypool on the outskirsts of Brighton, and above the roar of the evening traffic much banter was exchanged between the two team captains Tim Harrington of AI and Alan Gould of ROCC. This banter was of course helped by the crates of beer and wine which now form an integral part these crucial Bashes games.

AI went to bat first and posted a total of 140 from their 20 overs, with notable contributions from Eloi ‘Petit Mirage’ Casali, the AI overseas player. As a Frenchman who had never played cricket Eloi flayed the bowling to all parts of the ground with typical Gallic flair and abandon, although was unsure about how to run between the wickets. Jason ‘Mr Trees’ Woodford scored a rapid 40, and in between cans of beer ensured the scoring rate stayed high.

Honourable mentions go to Rachel ‘Tinker’ Lovejoy and Damon ‘Go’ Lightley who both batted well to post a strong final total.

Following a short tea break, ROCC’s batsmen started the run chase in beautiful evening sunshine but soon fell foul of some excellent bowling from opening attack of Richard ‘Boy ‘ Pearson and Phil ‘Clean shirt’ Ashford. After 6 overs ROCC were wobbling on 28 for 6, but sterling batting from Alan Gould and Luke Aldrich (and comedy fielding from AI) meant that ROCC eventually finished on 111 all out.

Cricket June 2008

Although AI now have a 3-0 lead in the ‘Bashes’, battle will continue this summer where ROCC will no doubt be keen to break their duck and try and regain the much coveted ‘Bashes’ trophy.

Jason Woodford, AI Digital CEO said, “It’s more than a game of cricket, there’s the exercise and the chance to get to know my team mates better, in a relaxed environment. This is a fun example of how AI Digital encourages great teamwork as part of its mission to become the best place to work in digital media in Brighton.”

The Academy Allstar Xl is always looking for more corporate teams to a cricket challenge over the summer and team captains can respond directly to Tim Harrington at tim.harrington@academyinternet.com to organise dates.

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This month's articles include:

Welcome

Our new website

Case study: Deloitte

Insider's Guides to e-Learning

Getting the best out of authoring tools

Case study: The National Trust Focus on Customers

Academy Allstar XI: Match Report

eLN Showcase 2008 - come and see us there

News: What we've been up to

Vacancies