Self-Paced Training
This training experience was designed for the Baltimore Humane Society to improve the decision-making skills of volunteers who interact with fearful shelter dogs. It is currently in the final stages of development.
- Audience: Animal shelter volunteers
- Responsibilities: Instructional Design, eLearning Development, Visual Design, Storyboard, Mockups, xAPI & JavaScript Implementation, Data Analysis
- Tools Used: Articulate Storyline, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe XD, Mindmeister, Visual Studio Code, Veracity LRS (Learning Record Store)
Overview
The client is a non-profit animal welfare organization in the Baltimore, Maryland suburbs. A major problem that the client faces is getting volunteers to attend a two day, in-person workshop to learn important dog handling skills. If volunteers do not receive effective training then they are more likely to misinterpret a fearful dog’s body language; this can lead to bite incidents and, in some unfortunate cases, dogs being euthanized.
I determined that a scenario-based eLearning experience could help solve the problem by allowing volunteers to practice making critical decisions and experiencing consequences for their actions before even stepping foot into the kennel. This decision was made after performing a needs analysis and collaborating with subject matter experts to create an action map.
My Process
During the analysis phase, I invited key stakeholders from the client’s organization to investigate the question: “What do volunteers need to do and what is keeping them from doing it?” Armed with the client’s training manuals and input from subject matter experts (certified dog trainers), I created an action map that outlined the specific actions volunteers need to take to successfully approach fearful dogs. The next phase involved designing and developing the scenario-based eLearning experience. After completing a text-based storyboard and getting it approved by the client, I designed a style guide so I could match the client’s branding with my visual design elements. I then created mockups and an interactive prototype, which I am currently gathering feedback on. The next steps will involve the full development of the product, testing, and evaluation.
The style guide that I created for the client
Action Map
Action mapping is an effective way to identify high-priority actions that, with practice, can lead to measurable improvements in performance. According to Cathy Moore, author of Map It, the action mapping process focuses on what people need to do as opposed to what they need to know; this prevents an “information dump” style of training, which is ineffective but very common. Instead, once high-priority actions are identified through an action map, learning experiences can be created that give learners the opportunity to practice these actions in a meaningful way. Below is the action map I created for my client with their goal in the center surrounded by specific actions volunteers need to take to reach the goal.
Action Map created with Mindmeister
Text-based Storyboard
With the input of the dog training team, I selected the highest priority actions from the action map to include in the scenario-based eLearning experience (stay low, be calm and quiet, let the dog come to you). I then created a text-based storyboard to outline the entire scenario-based eLearning experience including creating a story, introducing a mentor character, and setting up scenarios where users can practice decision-making skills with positive and negative consequences.
Text-based storyboard sample
Visual Mockups
I first created a mood board and style guide based on the client’s website. Working with their marketing team, I was able to gather the vector files for their logo and website banners to use in my design. I created a few custom elements in Adobe Illustrator and then built wireframes and mockups in Adobe XD. This allowed me to iterate on the design multiple times and gather feedback about my design before developing my interactive prototype.
Adobe XD mockups (first draft)
Interactive Prototype
After gathering feedback and improving my mockups, I created an interactive prototype in Articulate Storyline. This allowed me to test the functionality of my eLearning experience and get suggestions about which animations I should include to enhance user experience. The prototype includes seven interactive slides up to the second question. It also includes a mentor button on question slides that allows users to obtain expert advice before answering a question if they choose. Giving learners a choice in whether or not they access knowledge during the learning experience was an intentional decision based on research.
Question screen with mentor button on the top right (dog image from ASPCA)
Full Development
The dog training staff at the humane society is working to collect pictures of dogs at the shelter to feature in this eLearning project. The lead dog trainer explained that high-quality training materials with pictures are more effective but hard to find; for example, drawings are most commonly used to depict a fearful dog’s body language in training materials. To make this eLearning experience as impactful as possible for training volunteers, we agreed to take the time to get the most effective images that we could even if the project took longer. Once I have these pictures, I can complete the full development of this project. The client has requested that I then add custom code (xAPI and JavaScript) so we can collect user performance data to evaluate the learning experience and to identify which volunteers need more training.Get in touch!
I am a tech-savvy learning designer, facilitator, and consultant who is always looking to build new partnerships.