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Decomposing a Well-Composed Learning Experience.
Decomposing a Well-Composed Learning Experience.
Written by: Andrea Cordovez
July, 2022
This training created by Tim Slade, presents us with three clients with three different issues: a billing problem, a new customer and an account closure. In the demo, we are only able to interact with the first scenario - "billing problem".
The customer is upset and contacts the call center when she gets a surprise bill of $50. She wants that resolved. The goal of the training is for the learner to use critical thinking skills to be able help the client resolve the issue, while asking the right questions, keeping calm and showing respect to the customer, so the situation does not escalate.
According to Christy Tucker, a branching scenario is appropriate for this situation because it adheres to the following:
It has shades of gray - there is a good, ok and bad outcome depending on the decisions the learner makes. Certain decisions can be correct in certain situations, but they could easily be inappropriate in a different context.
Strategic, not procedural - there is no checklist for what a person should say to every customer in every situation. The customer service representative needs to develop interpersonal skills that will make the client feel comfortable and respected.
"Unlike procedures, strategic tasks cannot be decomposed into a series of invariant steps. Instead, strategic tasks require a deeper understanding of the concepts and rationale underlying performance in order to adapt task guidelines to diverse situations" (Clark & Mayer, 2012).
"Unlike procedures, strategic tasks cannot be decomposed into a series of invariant steps. Instead, strategic tasks require a deeper understanding of the concepts and rationale underlying performance in order to adapt task guidelines to diverse situations" (Clark & Mayer, 2012).
Multiple decisions - the learner has to make multiple, consecutive decisions to affect an outcome. The learner has the ability to self-correct and change paths with her/his next choice.
“Critical Thinking Skills - The ability to monitor problems, assess desired outcomes and adjust as needed" (Clark & Mayer, 2012).
“Critical Thinking Skills - The ability to monitor problems, assess desired outcomes and adjust as needed" (Clark & Mayer, 2012).
Risky or uncommon situations - the ability to practice in a simulated environment poses less risk than making mistakes in real life situations. In this scenario, a customer service employee without sharp interpersonal skills could confuse customers, leaving them unhappy, or worse, losing them to other businesses. A branching scenario gives the learner a chance to practice the same situation multiple times, while exploring what the outcome of different choices would be.
Some things that I learned after picking apart this training
Some things that I learned after picking apart this training
Storyboarding - while it was relatively simple to back-engineer a storyboard for this training (after-all, the information was there, and visuals and interactions already done), the benefit of carefully planning and mapping a course are greater than the time that would take to storyboard, even from scratch.
Mapping - storyboarding brings me to mapping. It would be very hard to visualize a training without mapping it. A simple pen and paper doodle, sticky notes on a whiteboard or a beautifully professionally done map using software will do, just map it! A visual map will help avoid bottlenecks, road-blocks and will clearly show if there is a linear/direct path to the BEST answer.
Personas - having a real (fake) person in mind when producing training is very important. A course needs to serve the learner and design should follow that principle.
Scope, Terminal and Enabling Objectives - these have to be clear, from the beginning. A simple training with clear objectives help the learner achieve the best outcome without becoming overwhelmed or confused. As designers, we need to keep in mind that it is better to have many short and simple modules rather than overly complicated ones or we risk cognitive overload.
Feedback - including specific feedback, in many forms (and frequently for novice learners) is important. There is so much that can be done with graphics and visuals besides just instructional feedback.
If you want to interact with the training yourself, give it a try!
If you want to check out the original document for this post, click here. This document was adapted from a template from Dr. Giacumo (2020).
Below I have included a flowchart, some persona images and a handful of storyboard slides that helped me visualize this course's "behind the scenes".
Branching Scenario Path (i.e. flowchart)
Branching Scenario Path (i.e. flowchart)
This map was created using xmind.
This map was created using Jamboard. Although less fancy, and not as professional looking, it does the job. Also, because of how my brain works, sticky notes (closer to the pen and paper method) are just easier to visualize and work with for me.
Relevant Characteristics of the target learner audience
Relevant Characteristics of the target learner audience
A good course needs to be relevant for the target audience that is intended. I am not very familiar with a call center structure, but after searching for job postings for call center representatives, as well as some research into several organizational structures and some general training modules targeted to customer service representatives, I was able to come up with a a few characteristics for my learner audience. I created three different personas that might benefit from this course.
Creating a detailed persona would help create training to fit their needs. For this training, I decomposed who the learner would be. The training was already done of course, so I just made the persona fit the training materials and technical requirements, the goals, terminal and enabling learning objectives, environment, learning domain and knowledge skills that this specific course addresses. To see the break down of each of these features, please see the original document.
Estimated Contact Time, Interactions, Visuals and Other Technical Specs
Estimated Contact Time, Interactions, Visuals and Other Technical Specs
It is important to know how long the learner will be interacting with the course. This will help with designing training that won’t overwhelm the learner, as well as time allocation for training.
Storyboarding the whole training would make it very easy to estimate the time almost perfectly. For this assignment, I story boarded the introductory slides and the first choice.
Introduction/summary/objective: about 1 minute and 30 seconds.
Content Presentation: 45 seconds to 1 minute.
Knowledge Check (KC) / Practical Exercises (PE): 1- 2 min per slide
References
References
Redfearn, N. (Nicola), Storyboard Templates. Community.articulate.com https://articulate-heroes.s3.amazonaws.com/nredfearnstoryboardtemplate3uupaq.pptx
North, C. (2022). Lectures, videos and zoom conversation. Retrieved from my.boise.state.edu
Slade, T. (2015). Portfolio Demo. Dealing with Angry Customers. Retrieved from https://timslade.com/portfolio/dealing-with-angry-customers/
Tucker, C. When to Use Branching Scenarios. Experiencing eLearning, Christy Tucker: Building Engaging Learning Experiences. https://www.christytuckerlearning.com/when-to-use-branching-scenarios/
Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R., E., (2012). Scenario Based eLearning: Evidence-based Guidelines for Online Workforce Learning. Center for Creative Leadership. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/boisestate/reader.action?docID=1097790
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