Posted by Instructional Designers (IDs) provide a structural framework to learning thereby participating in the efforts to make the learner engagement efficient, effective and appealing. <!–more–>That is what this blog aims to showcase by recording the account and experience of an ID involved in a maiden project. The electrical engineer, who took up this specialized role at Origin, saw that the technical knowledge gained in the academic pursuit brings in a relevance that adds value to learner engagement.
The project of a mega oil and gas company based out of the Middle East was to offer an interesting and immersive training for its fire-fighters. The linear-designed course had even the basic elements of what is fire all about!What this meant for the ID is to use university knowledge into implementation. A thorough understanding of heat, combustible and other properties of fire enabled the ID to go beyond logical reasoning. Consider the instance of introducing changes to lend authenticity to the course – when a screen was displaying temperatures that seemed to have a technical flaw, the ID and the project team was able to quickly course-correct by using the logical reasoning skills. If analyzing and understanding the problem assisted the process of digging out and sourcing relevant information, it’s the attitude aspect that made all the difference.
It is this attitude and logical approach that makes the entire learning process an immersive one, aiding in the learner engagement. Innovative assessments like introducing color to the ‘drag and drop’ features of the course and an increased level of interactivity brings in a ‘fiery’ spirit to the fire-fighting course. The text-heavy courses were embedded with animated content to make it more appealing to the learners. Also, this customer was clear that instead of internet images, the content should have pictures of its employees! Therefore, learning could get real-time with the customer sharing video clips and pictures of fire-fighters.
Even technical content – be it the description of equipment or the terms used in the fire-fighting exercises, came with a refreshing presentation that is aimed at enhancing the learner engagement. For all this to happen, it would be worthy to note that the IDs and their involved approach are what makes this kind of a learner engagement possible. For instance, the emphasis on audio annotation with the right pauses after every word and required levels of speed tags adds to the user experience. In this case, the words like ‘apparatus’ and ‘organization’ were given the emphasis through the use of audio annotation.The step by step method to complete ‘gearing’ the SCBA in less-than-a-minute is shown through animated illustrations innovatively.
Transformation in learning is happening in a way that is giving a holistic edge to the delivery of the learning solutions. Listed below are key features of the project:
- Use of Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus – how to wear technique in seconds!
- Step by step approach
- Not restricted to PDFs and PPTs as the video inputs from customer added to user experience
- The challenge of not being well-versed in English overcome by appropriate audio annotation
- Logical design embellished with animated and interactive content