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This scenario-based eLearning concept project was developed for restaurant and food handling employees seeking to enhance their understanding and implementation of safe food handling procedures.
Audience: food handling employees
Responsibilities: instructional design, eLearning, text-based storyboard, action mapping, visual mock-ups
Tools Used: Articulate Storyline 360, Adobe Stock, PowerPoint, Google Docs, Google Slides
The Problem
The Problem
Introducing Serve It Right, a fictitious food and beverage training and certification program. With the staggering statistics revealing that approximately 1 million restaurants across the U.S. employ nearly 14 million food service workers, there is a crucial need to address the lack of awareness and adherences to sanitation and separation practices during food preparation.
Despite having the safest food supply in the world, many Americans (one in six) fall ill each year from foodborne illness. Among the causes of foodborne illness is the introduction of pathogens to food through cross-contamination. Of the 128,000 individuals hospitalized with foodborne illness, 3,000 will die. The total cost of foodborne illnesses in the U.S. has been estimated at $15.2 billion a year. The estimated cost of a single foodborne illness outbreak on a U.S. restaurant ranges from thousands to a few million dollars. Ultimately, the cost of a single foodborne illness outbreak to a restaurant can be substantial and outweigh the typical costs of prevention and control measures.
The Solution
The Solution
Because of my 13 years of experience as a culinary educator, I served as the subject matter expert (SME) for this project.
My experience has shown me that individuals do not have adequate knowledge of the causes, consequences, and prevention of foodborne illness. Therefore, training in this area will protect consumers and improve business performance. For this training, I decided a scenario-based learning experience would best help the participant see how different on-the-job decisions can lead to different outcomes. More specifically, an eLearning solution will help Serve It Right offer their participants flexibility and control over how, when, and where they complete their training. This eLearning experience is easily distributed to a large, nation-wide audience in a low-risk environment.
My Process
My Process
I started the design process by identifying the desired actions that should be demonstrated by employees in an action map and storyboarding various job tasks and consequences. From there I created visual mock-ups of the various scenes and an interactive prototype in Articulate Storyline 360. The final project involved applying frequent feedback and was the result of much analysis and iteration.
Action Map
Action Map
The goal of this training was to focus on actions (what participants need to do) and not just what they need to know. To this end, I selected three observable behaviors that will ensure employees prevent cross-contamination when storing, preparing, and serving food. I used an action map to delineate the steps to successfully completing each of the tasks. Specifically, employees can reduce the risk of food-borne illness by following the proper techniques for cleaning kitchen items and preparing and separating food.
ServeItRight Storyboard.docxText-based Storyboard
Text-based Storyboard
A text-based storyboard provided the structure for developing an engaging, immersive experience. I wrote a story to take the learner through a day on the job. The learner faced three challenges that relate to safe food handling practices. These three challenges corresponded to the high-priority actions identified on the action map. Each question offered two responses, which were followed by the appropriate positive and negative consequences. The consequences were realistic outcomes based on proper and improper kitchen practices. A mentor character provided hints and expert knowledge to assist the learner. The storyboard is also where I organized content, audio-visual elements, and programming notes.
Visual Mockups
Visual Mockups
To start the design process and organize the inspiration and graphics for the project, I created a mood board. Design decisions and repeating graphic elements became part of my style guide (for consistency). I selected a color palette based on both the images on my mood board and suggestions from a design specialist. A set of wireframes helped guide the layout I used for each type of slide. After I solidified my layouts in wireframes, I iterated on my design until I had a set of high-fidelity mockups that I was satisfied with. I made changes along the way to improve color contrast, margins, padding, formatting, and positioning. Among the recommendations was to use the design principle, hierarchy, for the text and to add transparency to content boxes so prompts are not completely removed from the background scene.
Interactive Prototype
Interactive Prototype
I began to transition the elements from my visual mockups to Articulate Storyline 360 to develop an interactive prototype. I organized the content into the following three scenes: introduction, questions, and wrap-up. I tested and applied the many programming elements. I did user testing to test my prototype’s design and functionality. I received advice on the placement of the buttons and assistance with animations, transitions, states, layers, and triggers. The feedback that I applied to the development ultimately contributed to an improved flow of the story-based experience.
Full Development
Full Development
After integrating feedback from my users with the prototype, I was able to complete the second and third scenarios at an advanced pace to finish out the development of the project. Upon completion, I published the course and quality assurance tested it for errors in content and functionality.
Results and Takeaways
Results and Takeaways
Although this was a conceptual project, I am confident that the scenario-based approach and real-world consequences would inform the actions and behaviors of food service employees in a positive way. I look forward to the opportunity to design and develop a learning experience that I can implement with a client and collect data-driven results. I was proud of the interactive content that I designed and developed and use of Articulate Storyline 360 as my authoring tool.
Working on this project deepened my understanding of both the instructional design process and Articulate Storyline 360. Following this project, I am interested in exploring in more detail graphic design and related tools (like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator).
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Contact
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