Paragraph Structure Storyboard

Working with the content specialist, this storyboard was developed as part of a larger collection of learning resources for a non-profit organization with the goal of assisting refugees adapt to living in the United States

The Who: For non-English-speaking refugees seeking to improve their writing skills

The What: A storyboard to be used in the development of a learning module within the EdApp program

The How: Google Slides

The Problem

I've been volunteering with a non-profit organization to develop learning content for their mentorship system where young adult refugees are assisted and supported in their transition to American life. A variety of topics are covered in these modules, from seeking medical care to applying to college, and even skills as simple as writing emails or basic essays.

For this storyboard, I was given a course outline written by a content specialist and tasked with developing it into a storyboard and then learning module through EdApp. With most of my design experience coming from programs like Storyline 360, I found EdApp to be fairly limited in its capabilities, which was initially frustrating. After some time tinkering with it, however, I found that its simplicity allowed for not only much faster development, but also a paradoxical freedom; because of its limitations, I didn't have to think so much about design choices and could focus more fully on the quality of learning itself.

The Process

Prior to using EdApp or even developing a storyboard, I familiarized myself with its various functions so that I could develop a vision of what I wanted to accomplish. The program includes a lot of interactives, activities and quiz templates which I wanted to explore; one piece of feedback I got upon delivery of the final product was how interactive it was!

To develop the storyboard itself, I worked off of a document provided by a content specialist who created a plan with a list of key terms the learner needed to know, a series of key points, a few suggested activities and some extra resources. From my K-12 experience, the content specialist's work seemed to me to be much like a textbook; it introduced the body of knowledge that the learner needed in order to succeed, and my job was to make it digestible. In order to do that effectively, I used interactives like expandable lists, sliders, comparisons and others to create a module that mentors and learners could go through together in 10-15 minutes.

A big focus with this particular organization is ensuring the content we develop is accessible. As I already possessed experience working with refugees, English language learners and first-generation immigrants, I was comfortable with keeping language simple and easy to understand. The organization also provided a language and culture guide for reference to ensure the learning solutions we developed had no barriers.