Branching Scenario

An innovative training that will teach field associates core selling skills that would provide each patient a vision solution that they need.

Project Details

This project came out of a need to teach our field associates core selling skills that would provide each patient a vision solution that they need. Since this was an important initiative brought forward by our CEO, we committed to building an interactive branching scenario, an eLearning we’d never created in our organization before.

For the project, I served as the project lead. I organized the rest of the team and delegated tasks in order to complete the project within a short-time frame. I met regularly with senior leaders serving as stakeholders and subject matter experts to provide updates and get feedback. Materials for feedback were always sent out in advance for review and I would schedule working sessions in order to allow for a collaborative feedback experience.

I built all the technical aspects of the project. This includes three unique branching scenarios and five videos that highlighted key concepts that we wanted to share with our learners. Unless noted, I created all the video scripts, the imagery used throughout the training, the video voice-overs, captioning for the videos to make them accessible, and editing of the videos.

Tools Used

Planning & Drafting the Scenarios

This project took the whole team cooperating to get it completed in a short span of time.

3 of my teammates each worked on creating an interactive scenario that demonstrated a topic we wanted to highlight to help associates provide the best solution for our patients.

We used the online software Twine to outline our scenarios. This made it easy to draft out the possibilities, rather than building directly in Storyline.

I taught the team how to use the software, and once the scenarios were finished, I was able to export as an interactive PDF so that it would be easy for subject matter experts and stake holders to review.

Building the Scenarios in eLearning

Once the scenario outlines were approved by our SMEs I created all the images and built them directly into Storyline.

At the request of our stakeholders, if an associate goes down the wrong path in the scenario, they are automatically taken back to the beginning until they are successful. As well, at the bottom of each “slide” associates can restart the scenario as well.

After an introduction video, learners are immediately taken into an interactive scenario. Once they complete the scenario, they watch a teaching video highlighting key concepts our SMEs and Stakeholders wanted to touch on.

They are then led into the next scenario, through the course, finishing up with a final closing video.

eLearning Preview

Each interactive scenario starts off with an introduction of the patient. If other characters are introduced (in this case our front desk worker, called a Patient Service Coordinator), we’ve made their interactions interactive for the learner too. These quickly lead into the learner’s role as the eyewear consultant looking to serve the patient’s needs.

At the end of an unsuccessful scenario, the associate is given feedback based on their response.

They will restart the scenario in order to be successful.

The course is set up that if an associate is unsuccessful, their answers remain marked so that they don’t take the same unsuccessful path twice.

Additional Project Details

All of the images used throughout the project were created using imagery from Canva, Microsoft PowerPoint, and internal images/footage where necessary.

The videos were edited in Adobe Premiere Pro. Additional edits to the characters (facial expressions/poses) were done in Photoshop.

Quick eLearning

In order to help associates brush up on skills, a short eLearning course was developed in under a week to meet the organization’s needs as soon as possible.

Project Details

One of the skills our associates continuously need to brush-up on and practice is assisting patients with their glasses. With a few quick adjustments to a frame an associate can transform a pair of glasses. However, many associates don’t have the optical experience to know how to adjust a patient’s glasses to fix his/her problem and may be intimidated to do so, since glasses are so expensive.

We needed to create a learning module quickly (about 1 week turn-around with edits) so it could be distributed to associates. My teammate and SME took an older in-person presentation I’d found, updated the material and sent me the updated presentation with narration to use in the eLearning I created.

To avoid sharing proprietary information, I have omitted confidential information in this case study.

Tools Used:

Making content interesting

While my SME explained the concepts clearly in his narration, in order to make the content come alive I created animations to further illustrate what he was talking about.

Sample of animation created within Storyline to illustrate concepts explained by on-screen text and narration.

Communication to succeed

Our team had to work closely together in order to get the final product completed on time. I made sure to send final products to my SME for review and would reach out with a phone call if I had questions or needed quick approval. Our teamwork allowed us to roll out a product that we were proud of and met the needs of our associates.

Establishing Procedures

Taking our current processes/procedures, they needed to be incorporated into a better flow and with our updated culture values.

Project Details

While my company had established processes and procedures for taking care of patients, it was very operational. Senior leadership wanted to make it more patient focused and explain the patient journey in light of our company’s purpose, promise, vision, and values.

The process had been presented to field leadership; now it had to be rolled out to the rest of the company. We had already released an introductory video with two senior leaders providing an overview of the process. Our next step was to go through each part of the process in more detail.

To avoid sharing proprietary information, I have omitted confidential information in this case study.

Project Management

Tools Used:

As the project lead, I had to make sure everyone was on the same page throughout this project, as it took a few months from idea to completion. To keep the lines of communication open, at the beginning I scheduled weekly meetings with the project team and stakeholders to provide updates on the project. Since the stakeholders were part of senior leadership, setting the time early on held them accountable to attend and if we needed to move or cancel, that was an option as well.

In addition, the team working on the project deliverables met in a separate weekly meeting. This allowed us to get into the details of each deliverable during the meeting and ensure that everyone had what they needed to deliver on time. It also gave everyone the opportunity to provide peer feedback on the products so that everything went together.

Throughout the project, we had various stakeholders reviewing the work. For example, for our products to have the same look and feel as our marketing material (even though they have different outcomes). Once our main job aid, detailing all the steps and the procedures associated with the process, was completed, our marketing team was able to review and provide feedback so that we created a clean and cohesive visual product.

Video Production

My main deliverable was creating the videos that demonstrated the steps of our process. My first step involved reviewing the content presented to the field leadership and using it to create the script. Once the script was ready, I had subject matter experts review the content to ensure it accurately portrayed the patient experience and that it demonstrated our best practices.

While finalizing each script, I reached out to high performing offices, recommended by senior leadership, to coordinate filming. I worked with the store managers to determine the best date and make sure they had enough people to participate based on the script. I made sure that the reviewed scripts were sent to the managers to provide to the cast prior to the filming date.

On the day of filming, I would come in early and set up the equipment. While I would occasionally have a team member to help with the cast, I would otherwise direct the filming, making sure it was performed as envisioned and that we got through all the material. I would defer to the office managers to help make sure the scenes were realistic and that the associates were following the best practices.

Once the filming was completed, I then would take the footage back and edit it down to fit the time-frame allotted for the video while still ensuring it demonstrated our best practices. This finished footage would also go through the same review as the scripts.

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An image from one of the videos illustrating how “pop-up” notes would lay over the video demonstration.

Interactive PDF

After all the content was created our senior leadership requested a simple one-page resource for all the materials that were created. While all of the content was stored in our Learning Management System (LMS), they still requested a resource that had everything in one place.

For this request I wanted to create something that was visually appealing and interactive so that our associates didn’t have to go searching for resources. My solution was to create an interactive PDF that allowed me to learn new skills and stretch my abilities. As associates rolled their cursor over the steps, they would be highlighted. When they clicked on the step, the resources specific to that step would appear. When they clicked on another sets of steps, than the original ones would disappear and the new ones would appear. By creating this as a PDF, it was a file type that everyone would be able to easily access without any special software.

The senior leadership stakeholders were pleased with the outcome and many other stakeholders asked to use this presentation with future projects.

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Animation of interactive pdf. It includes links to resources and learning modules directly in the document.

Turning ODs into Teachers

Working closely with my SME, we worked to create a series of resources to help our OD population share optometry information with the rest of the staff.

Project Details

The leadership team for our doctors wanted to enable them to share optometry information to the rest of the staff to, in turn, educate our patients. We worked together to create a short and simple in-person training guide that would allow the doctors to share their professional knowledge on the topic while making it interactive for the team.

To avoid sharing proprietary information, I have omitted confidential information in this case study.

Tools Used:

Making the content accessible

I took this project over from another team member who had originally created everything in PowerPoint. While I had access to other professional tools, using PowerPoint would allow anyone to edit it in the future, since most individuals have a subscription to Microsoft Office Products through the company or personally. I kept with PowerPoint as it allows more flexibility with image and text placement.

In addition I had to make sure that the content was accessible to the learners. My subject matter expert was very passionate about the topics, however it was presented at a very detailed level, which wouldn’t resonate with the staff who didn’t have the same medical background as my subject matter expert and the optometrists presenting the material. I was able to provide a novice audience’s perspective so that the material could be adapted to make sense.

For the project we decided to create a learner guide for the associates that provided information about the topic and to accompany it the optometrist would use a leader guide which had an image of the learner guide with additional notes on the side to lead a session on the topic of the series. This way, the optometrist leading the session could see what the learner was viewing and work through the resource together.

I worked closely with the SME to create a product that would appeal to the optometrists so that they shared it with their staff. We added extra information that would appeal to them but made sure the design was simple to implement.

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An example of the Leader Guide, which included an image of the Learner Guide and notes to assist the leader during the presentation.

Design Inspiration

As with any of our products, we wanted to make sure to match the look and feel of the style guide outlined by marketing. For this project in particular I took inspiration from informational bookmarks we have in the offices. These bookmarks for the patients provide information about particular eye diseases or conditions. This way an associate could use the book mark as a starting point to talk about what they had learned with their optometrist.

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Digital Eye Strain bookmarks created by Marketing that were used for visual consistency/inspiration.

Procedural Change

A new procedural change that needed to be taught to experienced associates and new associates, each requiring a unique approach.

Project Details

My company was updating a well-established procedure. The training approach needed to tailored to meet the needs of the two different groups of agents that would need to learn about the change.

To avoid sharing proprietary information, I have omitted confidential information in this case study.

Tools Used:

Tenured Agents – Relearning What They Know

The first would be targeted toward tenured agents who already know the current process and would need to understand the updates. In order to ensure a consistent message was delivered and that training could take place when there was availability, an eLearning course was developed to teach the procedural changes. A follow-up supervisor session supported the eLearning and helped agents practice discussing the changes with their customers.

The eLearning component began with a video introducing the change. It then went into the components, describing them in detail and providing illustrations where applicable.
The eLearning course included interactive sessions to help agents remember the changes that were being implemented. eLearning introduced conversation examples that would lead into the supervisor session where they would practice.
The supervisor session reviewed the components learned during the eLearning course. The session also provided scenarios to allow agents to apply what they had learned within the context of the call, where they would need to explain changes to the customer. Agents were also given a guide, outlining the changes that they could reference on future calls.

The second audience would be our new hire agents who would be learning the new process for the first time. For this group the instructor led course was updated with the changes and ensured that the new agents would have a solid understanding of the process.

For new hire agents, this procedural change is typically taught near the end of training. An instructor led approach was applied in order to teach the foundational skills of the procedure. Training included modeling, checks for understanding, as well as opportunities for agents to practice the conversation. These agents were also given a reference guide.

State Specific Training

Update in-person training to interactive eLearning on state specific procedures.

Project Details

While our phone agents generally handle the same group of states on a daily basis based on their location, we offer specialized training to our more advanced agents to allow them to handle calls on a countrywide scale. This specializing training is typically offered as an instructor led session. However, to help agents learn the material in a more engaging manner, the training was adapted into a self-paced elearning course. Once they had completed the full course, they would be prompted to take a quiz to test their knowledge. With a passing score, they would then be qualified to handle calls from that state.

To avoid sharing proprietary information, I have omitted confidential information in this case study.

Tools Used:
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Screenshot of menu from eLearning

Planning helps with Progress

State specific course material was developed into an exploratory iPad format where agents could review topics at their own pace. Due to the free-form nature of the eLearning module, an outline was created to illustrate the paths an agent could take while exploring the various topics.

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Outline of course content

This material was developed with a teammate in a different office, so we had to work together to develop courses that were clean and consistent.

A mock-up of the eLearning was created using PowerPoint to understand the layout and order of the final course.

These images illustrate the difference between the PowerPoint mock-up and the final eLearning course.

The eLearning course included interactive games for agents to test their skills and call clips to listen to real life examples.

Illustrations of two of the interactive components of the eLearning module.

A reference guide was created for each course for agents to use while handling these states on phone calls.

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Reference guides have everything that agents need to know right at their fingertips.

Call of the Day Modules

Create eLearnings that demonstrate “as trained” expectations for new service agents.

Context

Our Call of the Day eLearning modules are targeted towards our new hire agents. Each module focuses on a specific topic they have learned in training and illustrates the “as trained” expectation through a call example with a debrief at the end.

To avoid sharing proprietary information, I have omitted confidential information in this case study.

Tools Used:
Screenshot of Call of the Day narrator explaining important concepts.

Teamwork to Speed Up Development

The creation of the Call of the Day modules required efforts from everyone on the team.

The eLearning storyboards were written by team members in different offices and I worked with them to create the eLearning content that brought their vision to life.

I worked with a team member in another office to quickly turn-around development of the eLearning courses. We communicated frequently and developed an organizational system to ensure that our content was consistent and that the same stock characters weren’t used too frequently, since agents would be reviewing these on a daily basis.

Development also included editing our stock characters to make them look like phone agents and creating scenes that illustrated what was described in the storyboards.

Screenshot of course illustrating how the team had to coordinate on the look/feel of each module.
Additional assets were created in Photoshop to illustrate the issues raised on the call. In this instance, the customer was calling from the parking lot about a flat tire.
Stock characters had to be edited in order to make them seem like they were in the call center environment and their facial expressions to match the tone of the call. Edit on left.

In Photoshop I was able to create the illusion that during a call a new hire agent could watch as the tenured agent worked through the system during the call.

Open Screen Edits: The white portion is transparent in order to allow the video to show through.
Open Screen with video imposed