Here is a short tutorial on getting started with Jira for Agile project management for eLearning teams. I go over the basics, walking you up to the next steps for upgrading to a SCRUM model and story points tracking. I start in the “wish list”, or Backlog, of unscheduled work to be done and show you how to break Stories up into Child Tasks, tracked by associate, to estimate and update the shared work efforts for all designers involved in each Sprint / Story.

Tools Used: Adobe Captivate, Photoshop, HTML, CSS, SharePoint

Problem: The Intake Team was responsible for triaging calls from providers and caregiver locations. Their job was to resolve calls they could resolve in the I.T. home grown tracking system or pass them along to the proper clinical team and note the actions taken. The team needed on demand, self-paced microlearning training that could be indexed on SharePoint by role.

Actions: I worked with the Intake team leads using Captivate to record demos of them performing the various procedures by job role. After I recorded the procedures, I developed Step Action Table documents which also lived on SharePoint to accompany the tutorials. To reinforce this media-based learning, we linked in the course to the written step flows using the Reference Document folder icon you see in the screen shot below. I used some CSS style sheets to create the dynamic menu for an Index section that you could choose your role to take your specific branch of the course. I used Photoshop to create the branding and images.

Results: The Intake Team now had their first video based, microlearning library support system on how to perform procedures in the MAT system. This was used to support all new hires in getting familiar with their systemic job role, as well as provided a place to update processes and procedures for tenured staff.

Tools Used: Articulate Storyline, Photoshop, Camtasia, RE320 Dynamic Mic

Roles Played: Proposed solutioning, all interface designs, branding and graphics. Complete Storyline design and development, scripting, producing, recording and editing of demos using Camtasia. QA tested course, deployed to Cornerstone on Demand. Provided acceptance testing, enrollment and results and reports distribution.

Problem: WellCare Reporting and Analytics was incepting the use of Tableau into their tool set and needed full training to be distributed and consumed within one business quarter.

Actions: Worked with a SME from the department to identify what reports needed to be taught, created an audio script, recorded the SME working inside of Tableau, and produced an Articulate product that was consumed on Cornerstone LMS.

Results: All associates completed the training before the allotted time agreed upon. This was a learning solution that had to be taught and put to work before departmental procedures were even documented.

Tools Used: Articulate Storyline, Adobe Audition

Roles Played: Proposed the solution, wrote the scripts for the simulated demos, recorded and edited the demo audio, chose sound effects, inserted into Articulate, designed and developed the entire Articulate prototype and development coding. Provided voiceover for select slides. Tested the course, loaded to Cornerstone LMS, tested acceptance in the LMS and tracked and distributed completion reports.

Problem: The Behavioral Health department was wanting to improve the ability for its new customer service support staff to better triage both potential and real crisis calls from its members who were calling to report events.

Actions: I proposed that we have Behavioral Health leadership come up with some of the more common scenarios that its agents faced day to day. We used Articulate to present the scenario in a simulated customer service setting, present screencasts of where to go in the system and the correct actions to take for various call triage types.

Results: Triage mistakes as reported by Quality Department went down over 25% for the four quarters following deployment of the training.

Tools Used: Articulate Storyline, Photoshop, Snag-It, Audacity

Roles Played: Proposed the solutioning, drafted the storyboard and prototype, recorded and edited the SME demo scenarios, used Storyline to fully develop the course and all simulation hotpot triggers, QA tested the course, and validated passing results to Cornerstone LMS. My clinical trainer was responsible performing demos, navigating the clinical software interface, and providing the “why” for both demos and “try me” feedback item triggers. (Click on the bolded items to see more of how I did these and loaded to Cornerstone LMS)

Problem: Every Fall, to meet the Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) standards, clinical nurses had to be certified in McKesson InterQual software for determining the medical necessity of proposed clinical procedures when working in a managed healthcare setting. To become certified, you had to pass an online 50 question, McKesson scenario-based test that was live proctored and taken on their web site. Each Spring, McKesson would release newly approved software procedures and governance standards to their clients that would be reflected in that year’s certification test. WellCare would use the McKesson PPT and a clinical nurse to teach the new standards in a large series of web-based training events. The problem was, not all nurse’s comprehension of the new procedures could be demonstrated in a live webinar that was passively experienced. It was costly to have to take our one clinical trainer away from other live teaching responsibilities, and the ROI on Fall testing scores was not where it could have been.

Action: I proposed to clinical nursing leadership that when the Spring updates came out, instead of scheduling months of passive webinars, we create a pre-learning eLearning curriculum using Articulate Storyline and case study examples that would reflect the case study test questions the associates would face in the Fall. We could record our clinical trainer presenting and demonstrating a clinical scenario, then screen record the trainer taking the actions in McKesson InterQual software while the audio provided the “why”. Using Storyline’s “try” screen recording feature, we’d have the learner walk through a new Practice Review scenario click through for a true hands on experience. This process was used for eight clinical and four behavioral health topics that each had their own course assigned to the specific clinical roles of the learners in Cornerstone LMS. The data for each learner’s performance and gaps could be identified. Gaps that were the most common across all learners had scheduled live summer webinar sessions to close them before Fall testing and was a much better use of live trainer time.

Results: The results were very strong on several levels. The pre-learning gave everyone a chance to experience the new InterQual annual updates and rule changes in an on the job, experiential and meaningful way. Our clinical nurse saved hundreds of hours of live proctoring of the same content and was able to target other projects and use gap closing follow up live events far more strategically. In the Fall, testing scores went up to a 97% pass rate on the first exam take from just under 90% in years past. This saved the time of having to build and send successful intervention training data to CMS.

Perhaps the biggest win was presenting our courses to CMS, who after testing out their accuracy and validity, allowed us to use our courses’ LMS results data, with of course case study swap outs, as an equivalency to taking the Fall test in year two of our curriculum project. These saved dozens of hours of test proctoring time and clinical trainer productivity.

This was one of those projects that showed what could be accomplished when everyone’s skills, expertise and talents come together to do something no one could have done on their own.

Before you identify objectives at the course level, a good high-level analysis will help answer:

• What departments make up the organization?
• What job roles make up each department?
• What routine tasks does each role perform?
• How does the workflow between departments?
• What are the key gaps in performance that training will need to prioritize?

A solid understanding of performance gaps and the related performance the training will strengthen will help you to decide what delivery formats and design tools will give the best chance of success.

To understand experiential design, at its core, is to understand the difference between content and context in your course building.

Content is what most designers get from subject matter experts (SME’s). SME’s normally gather a huge amount of policy and procedure and send them to the designer to make sure that all of it is represented in the course. Sequenced content is often followed by a quiz or other purely memory-based activity.

Contextual or Experiential design takes into account who the learner is, where the task is performed, what are the common possibilities of failure, and what must be overcome. It is rooted more in problem solving and trial and error than memory.

Challenge

The key to a good eLearning challenge is that it should have some real-world risk. The learner should have to overcome a real job challenge. In many ways, the challenge of the task being learned often drives the course interface. Adult learners know from experience right away if they are thrust into their real world, or if the “challenge” is to read all of the slides and then remember what they were told. This kind of false challenge is demotivating to the learner, and they will quickly find a way to navigate your gates while multitasking, and ultimately no learning will take place.

Challenges can mean many things.

Some tasks are time bound, others like customer service can face the challenge of angry customers, etc. Whatever the observable challenge is when you watch someone doing the job, make sure that it’s in your course. A football team that needs to play in a dome on Sunday might bring in speakers to practice so the players can practice in a loud environment that mirrors what they will face in the game. It’s the same with our learners.

Activity

This one can have hidden time and costs, but it does not have to. When creating activities, they should contain both the challenge and the risks of the task being performed, and with appropriate feedback. While some activities built into rapid development tools can serve a performance purpose, watch out for ones that ask the learner to “click to reveal” an object that they then have to read. Slowly revealed reading is no more interactive than providing a PDF document. Make sure your activities are real, contain relevant complexity and treatment, and aren’t just a clever way to present static content.

Feedback

Completely contrary to a read and remember course, a good eLearning course delivers more learning in the feedback presentation than any of the other three areas we just discussed.

Q: Why is feedback so critical, and why is well done feedback better than the experience of a live event?

A: Feedback is personal, and it is customizable.

Think of a time you have been in a classroom and the same person answers all of the facilitator’s questions. Maybe you felt like you were falling behind but did not want to slow the class down and be stigmatized for it. Good eLearning is contextual, safe to fail privately, and provides more feedback to those who need it while skilled users can quickly demonstrate competency rather than be forced to have the same longer and more didactic experience as those new to the topic.

Good feedback is more than saying “Correct” when a learner makes a quiz selection.

Feedback allows for meaningful up skilling on the spot. Think of a time you may have failed a post quiz. You are sent back in the course navigation to take it over, but what did you learn about your gap in knowledge or skill? Likely not much. More likely you will guess differently and hope for the best. None of these scenarios lead to a performance changing moment and leaves us quite unsatisfied with the overall self-paced experience.

If you equate “CCAF” into your next experiential eLearning development plan, your chance of success will be exponentially better.

Good luck!

A new feature in Rise 360 is the ability to crop your images right inside the course itself. Let me show you how easy it is!

Camtasia 2019 has a really easy, one click feature for making your audio levels have a consistent loudness. Let me show you how!