Kicking off the Conversation
This scenario-based eLearning experience is geared toward helping instructional designers determine a solution to a business problem via the action mapping process.
Audience: Instructional designers, L&D professionals
Responsibilities: Instructional design, eLearning development, visual design
Tools Used: Articulate Storyline 360, Adobe Illustrator, Figma, Miro, Keynote, Canva
Overview
It can be difficult for instructional designers to navigate an “information dump” during a kickoff meeting after being asked to create a course. Simply producing a course without analyzing the problem through a performance-based lens can cost an organization time, money, and produce an ineffective solution to a business problem.
To address these issues, I focused my project on the action mapping process. Action mapping is a visual design approach created by Cathy Moore. It drives analysis conversation by identifying a measurable business goal and real-world behaviors that help achieve that goal. Through this analysis approach, an instructional designer can effectively identify if training is necessary and further focus the kickoff conversation around performance or behavior rather than knowledge.
To allow instructional designers to fully experience the action mapping process, I landed on a scenario-based eLearning experience. The experience immerses learners into a kickoff meeting while allowing them to take the lead in the conversation and refer to optional mentor help or resources.
Process
I created this eLearning experience by conducting my own research and consulting with two subject matter experts (SMEs). I worked with an instructional designer familiar with the action mapping process as well as a produce manager. Consulting with the produce manager allowed me to create a believable client and scenario within the eLearning experience.
After creating an action map, storyboard, visual mockups, and an interactive prototype, I developed the final product. Throughout the process, I received continuous feedback and made adjustments as needed.
Action Map
After conducting my own research, I met with the instructional designer SME to create an action map in Miro. This process helped me identify what learners need to do in order to effectively focus an analysis conversation during a kickoff meeting. We landed on four high-priority behaviors.
Text-Based Storyboard
The behaviors identified in the action map allowed me to further brainstorm realistic scenarios for the learning experience with both the produce manager and instructional designer SMEs.
We landed on a scenario in which the learner, an instructional designer at a local grocery store, navigates a kickoff meeting with a produce manager after being asked to create a course on waste reduction protocols.
Throughout the conversation, the learner decides what to ask the produce manager next. These points of engagement reflect each of the high-priority behaviors identified in the action map. Each incorrect response has a consequence while the correct responses allow the conversation to continue. Additionally, the learner can ask a mentor character, Tony, for help navigating the conversation.
I captured all of this in a text-based storyboard. The storyboard contained the full course script and programming notes.
Visual Mockups
After receiving approval on the storyboard, I began working on visual design. Once I landed on a color palette, I sourced various vector graphics and edited them in Adobe Illustrator. Multiple graphics were combined to create the home office and kickoff scenes as I wanted learners to feel fully immersed in the experience.
After the color palette, graphics, and fonts were solidified, I used Figma to design several iterations of the overall layout. The layout included the opening, conversation, question, and mentor slides. Mockups of animated email and action mapping slides were also added to further immerse the learner in the scenario.
Additionally, I created mockup infographics in Canva of the optional resources learners could refer to in the last two question scenes. These infographics were designed with the idea in mind that learners could download these for future use after the course.
By being as detailed as possible in this stage, I was able to easily identify any missing elements and reduce my time spent on development.
Interactive Prototypes
I used my visual mockup and text-based storyboard to build out a prototype in Articulate Storyline. This included the opening slides, the first two questions, as well as the progress and animated action mapping slides.
To create the keyboard animations within the email and action mapping slides, I used Keynote. These animations were then imported into Articulate Storyline as mp4s.
To make the learning experience more personable, I used a variable to address the learner by name.
At this time, I presented the storyboard, infographics, and interactive prototype to the SMEs as I wanted to ensure they could visualize the overall flow of the training and provide feedback. Some of the feedback I received included adding audio effects and rewording pieces of the conversation. After addressing this feedback, I tested course functionality thoroughly on desktop, mobile, and tablet devices before moving into full development.
Full Development
Once the prototype was approved by the SMEs, I finished developing the rest of the course in Articulate Storyline. This was a smooth process as any major changes to the course design were addressed during previous stages. After testing the course on different devices myself, I had my SMEs test the course. Following final refinements, I published the course.
Results
I released this course to four of my instructional design colleagues and assessed their initial reaction. They appreciated the visual design, interactivity, and overall flow of the course. They mentioned that this course would be especially valuable to our team and the underlying processes could be used to effectively drive our kickoff meetings in the future.
Four months after initially releasing this course to my colleagues, I evaluated their behavior change. 75% of my colleagues noted that they had incorporated action mapping strategies into their instructional design process. Additionally, 75% of my colleagues noted that they had successfully identified performance or behavior-based solutions to business problems when using action mapping strategies with stakeholders.