Just like the first day of school, jumping on this journey of learning to create and analyze e-learning projects brings me equal parts excitement and hesitation. The possibilities that come with learning new skills and exploring different tools, bring about that butterfly feeling, a whirlwind feeling that makes it hard to decide if it is pure joy, nerves, uncertainty, or all of the above. 

This is how I imagine the people who are taking this training at Blue Beta Inc. must feel. At least, that’s the feeling that I, as the learning designer, would want to elicit when a new employee starts an onboarding training. This course, an orientation for new employees to the facilities and resources of the organization, made in Articulate, is aimed at novice learners. New employees who are excited about the possibilities at their new job. 

In this article I will describe and analyze the Blue Beta Inc. training design document while I draw from evidence based concepts that support the design process. My experience with e-learning is limited to reading about it. This exercise will give me the opportunity to explore this topic and gain experience with a real-life case study. I will disassemble the training, look at the different pieces objectively, and reflect on what I would like to see done differently.

Course Topic - 

Operations onboarding - Orientation of the facilities and employee resources.

Target Learning Audience - 

Adult learners, who are new to the organization. The learner has little knowledge of the company or the new role. 

Knowledge and/or Skill Required for performing tasks - 

The learners need to remember and access facts. They are able to recall or know where to look for relevant information. 

*The learner will learn about facilities and describe employee benefits. They will name objects, such as which printer to use for a specific printing job or how to identify which is the better option for their commute and parking. 

⏯ An important part of this kind of training is knowing where to look for the information if/when needed. It serves as a user manual that the employee can keep referring to long after the onboarding training is over. For example, there is an interactive map that the learner can click on to learn more about the facilities, including which printer to use for which jobs. 

It is important to note that information that is not used frequently may not transfer into long term memory and therefore can be harder to retrieve in the moment  (Merriam & Bierema, 2013). Having the skill to know where to look for it when you need access, is a good use of training resources. 

Learning Domains - 

Compliance of policies and procedures is one of 8 domains that lend themselves to scenario based eLearning. In the case of the Blue Beta Inc.’s training, the desired outcome is that the new employee learns and responds with appropriate action to best comply with policies and procedures. 

*The learner will be able to identify relevant policy and procedures.

 ⏯  In this specific training, the pet policy as well as certain rules or procedures (both formal and informal) in the kitchen, bike garage and mail room are clearly identified. Consistent with hierarchical training design, the learning designer chose to list each policy into a different tab and repeatedly included who to contact in case of questions. 

Assessment Method(s) -

Multiple choice quiz with only one correct answer.

⏯ Limiting the options for the learner, there is a quiz at the end with specific questions about policy and procedure, with only one correct answer and no room for gray areas.  The learner finds out the correct answer right away after taking the quiz. There is also immediate feedback that guides the learner with an explanation of why their answer was, or was not, correct.

While the learners can take the quiz as many times as they wish, there is a mandatory 80% passing grade. This ensures that the learner has retained the information, or has looked for the correct answer at a rate that is satisfactory for the organization.

The Trigger Event(s) [leading to a consequence] -  

⏯ A trigger event should be job-realistic, compelling, and pull the learner immediately into the scenario based training while giving him a clear idea of the outcome (Clark 2012, p. 64). Based on that definition, this course’s trigger event is weak. I am tempted to question if there is even a trigger, as much as some of the criteria are met. In my opinion, this is a generic start to a course where the learner clicks on the next page after completing the previous one. 

As much as I understand the rationale behind keeping the training very simple, presenting small chunks of highly structured information in a specific sequence (Clark, 2012), I think a simple trigger event could have been effective to catch the learner’s attention.  That being said, Clark also suggests that when training is mostly about compliance, there is no need for case data, as too much information will overwhelm the new learner. 

The guidance technique - 

This course is a guided course, where the learner has very little control over the learning.

⏯ Guidance, also called scaffolding, is a technique that allows the learner to learn in small steps before having less support. The fact that it is contained to small chunks of highly structured information and it culminates in a multiple choice quiz makes this training a highly guided learning experience. Also, allowing the learner to receive feedback at the end and to repeat the quiz as many times as needed, is another form of guidance.