Training Industry Magazine - Content Development 2017 Special Edition - 37

most experts, everything in a training
program is important. From a learner's
point of view, however, the scope of
content needn't be so broad.
Yes, we need our SMEs and their expertise.
But we don't need it right away. But if
we get in their heads too soon, we set
ourselves up to design to the content
rather than to the desired outcomes.

What should we do instead?
It's time to ditch your preconceived
notions that limit your e-learning
development to, "What does this
course need to cover?" and instead, ask
yourself "What does this course need to
accomplish?" In other words, rather than
focusing on what learners need to know,
as designers we should focus on what
learners need to do after the training and
what learning experience will get them
there. Asking some key questions will get
you to the right place:
* What's the business need?
* What's the problem we're trying to solve?
* What do learners need to do?
* What do they need to know?
Then, use Post-it notes or hand-drawn
sketches to prototype the ideal learning
experience and indicate which content
topics to cover and where.

WAITING
MAKES
GATHERING
YOUR CONTENT
SO MUCH
EASIER.
But what about the content?
Ah, I haven't forgotten about the content,
and nor should you. But keep a lid on that
content until after you get your design
deliverable locked down. Here's why I'm
pushing for this: Waiting makes gathering
your content so much easier.
Rather than gathering content and then
having to sort through and organize

it into meaningful learning chunks,
you can instead go into the content
gathering process with a much clearer
picture of what you need. In fact, you
can build content gathering templates
with specific questions that you can
send to SMEs to complete. And guess
what? SMEs love it. No longer do they
have to guess at what information and
level of detail they need to provide.

responsibility for facilitating the process.
Kickoff. In a kickoff meeting with the
client team, describe the overall process
you'll be following throughout the
project, the meetings you'll need to have,
the desired outcomes of those meetings
and who should attend.

The subtle shift in starting your project
with a design workshop rather than a
content workshop has a profound and
liberating impact. Let me illustrate.

Design Workshop. Schedule your design
workshop to include all key stakeholders
with a vested interest in the design.
Create and send a questionnaire that
your client team can complete as prework so that they come to the meeting
already having thought through the
business needs, target audience, metrics,
post-training behaviors and goals, and
content topic areas.

What would your design look like if your
stated goal was to teach learners about
the company's information security
policy? You might begin with a few
screens to introduce the importance of
the policy and to orient learners to the
structure of the policy. Then, you might
present learners with some scenariobased questions to practice applying the
policy in different situations.

Use your design workshop to map out
what people need to do/how they need
to behave, what mistakes they make and
what kind of information they need to be
successful. Then, move to design. Get the
whole client team discussing the kinds of
exercises that would help teach the skills
and reinforce the behaviors. Do some
Post-it-note-prototyping and capture
your output in a design document.

What would your design look like if you
knew the problem was that employees
fail to recognize and avoid or report
breaches of information security and that
the training needs to help reduce the
number of breaches? You might design
a game-based environment where
learners "spot" risks and hazards. For each
identified hazard, you deliver content
that explains why something is a hazard
and what to do about it.

Content Workshop. Once you have
your design in place, you're finally ready
for your content workshop. Create and
send to your SME a content gathering
worksheet where you outline the topics
of content you identified as part of your
design workshop. Let the SME complete
this in advance of your content workshop.
Then, use your time during the meeting
to get any clarifications needed and to
make sure you and the SME are clear on
what content will and won't appear in the
course and what content will appear as
additional resources.

So how does that help me
design better?

Can you see the difference? Can you feel
the difference?
In the first approach, the content is
the primary focus and the exercises
secondary. The second approach, driven
by a business need and an understanding
of what learners need to do, models and
builds awareness of a desired behavior.
The content is secondary - it's there to
support the learner through the exercises
and help them know what hazards they
may encounter and what to do once
they've spotted a hazard.

Great, so how do I do it?
This approach can be successful with any
client as long as you, the designer, take

Does it work?
Leading with a design workshop enables
you to develop a design framework
tied to the client's business need, that
you can then use to focus your content
gathering on what content is needed to
populate that framework. The result is
a more thoughtful learning experience
that's focused on solving the actual
business need, versus delivering content
for content's sake.
Ashley Reardon is the director of learning
design at Kineo US. Email Ashley.

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