Development Methodology

Kickoff – The kickoff marks the formal start of the project.

  • understand the key projectrequirements and evaluation parameters.
  • hand over reference material,
  • introducing teams
  • sharing project plan
  • management processes
  • Who is the SME
  • review turnaround times
  • communication protocol
  • status reports

Prototype –

  • Envisioning the learning solution
  • creating templates for production
  • programming the base engine

Learning/Instructional Design (ISD) & Storyboarding

  • Conceptualizing the instructional strategy,
  • creatingtraining content outline based on the training objectives specified by the client,
  • creating training storyboards

Media Creation Phase–Visualizing and creating media such as

  • graphics
  • animations
  • simulations

Construction –

  • Integrating storyboard and media within the user interface,
  • programming of the pages,
  • creating of interactive elements

Internal Review – Reviewing the training program for quality assurance and mapping it to quality standards

QA Fixes – Fixing issues arising from internal review

Delivery - Delivering learning modules to the client for review

Deliverables

Kickoff –

  • Use the Client First Contact Sheet to help organize and conduct the Kickoff meeting(revise)
  • Create a high level project plan that includes
  • Dates
  • Resources
  • Tasks
  • People
  • Follow-up Meetings

Prototype –

  • High level designs that reflect the look of the template
  • Flow chart for course
  • How it will interact with Blackboard
  • Enrollment options
  • Assessment options
  • Reporting options

Instructional Design

  • Instructional Strategy Document outlines the contents in a hierarchical manner, explicitly stating objectives, and the depth and breadth at which the subject will be covered.
  • Describe the overall learning approach
  • Identify instructional media choice
  • Cluster and sequence objectives
  • Describe course exercises, activities, and assessments
  • ISD is reviewed by the SME for technical accuracy
  • Storyboarding begins with the finalization of ISD. This includes the textual content of each frame and inputs for graphic/simulation visualization.
  • The script is reviewed SME for technical accuracy
  • Work on media creation (graphics, simulations etc.) starts with the finalization of storyboard.

Graphics –

  • Create the A/V resources required by the Storyboard
  • Develop the Captivate/Articulate/Camtasia files required by the Storyboard

Construction –

  • Merge the content elements into a single file
  • Upload the file into the TSS Content Collection
  • Create the course elements in the TSS
  • Establish the interaction within the TSS course

Internal Review –

  • Turn the course over to the designated Quality Assurance person on the TSS team to review for
  • accuracy
  • functionality
  • quality

Fixes –

  • Submit results of Internal Review to the project Lead Developer
  • Lead Developer fixes all issues
  • Internal Review is conducted to assure all fixes are applied and new breaks did not occur

Delivery –

  • Turn over the final product to the client for their User Acceptance Testing
  • Lead Developer addresses any issues that may arise from UAT
  • QA cycle begins again
  • Post UAT Acceptance Document is signed

ADDIE

Analyze – Design – Develop – Implement - Evaluate

Analyze

Questions that Drive the Analysis

When you start your project with a training needs analysis, you collect critical information about business needs, learners' capabilities, and course content. Here are some of the questions that a training specialist may ask during the ADDIE analysis phase:

  • What are the business needs driving this training project?
  • What are the goals and objectives for this training project?
  • How will you define success for both the learner and the project?
  • How will you measure that success?
  • Who is the intended training audience?
  • What do the members of the learning audience already know?
  • What do they need to learn?
  • What resources are already available?

A Sample Discovery Process

During the discovery process, training specialists might ask the client for the following resources:

  • Technical specifications and user guides for the product
  • The existing classroom training materials
  • Survey results and learner feedback from the instructor-led course
  • Memos and paperwork about the training project
  • Images (the client's corporate logo, photos of the product, etc.)
  • Brand manual and/or e-learning style guide
  • Technical specifications for the client's e-learning platform

Define the Process

Guide the discussion and encourage the participants to address the tough questions:

  • Is the proposed goal realistic?—neither too high nor too low
  • Will the project have enough time for development and implementation?
  • What internal elements will need to support the project?
  • Have those elements been committed to the project?

Create an Instructional Analysis

  • Cover all information and steps that learners will need to know
  • Exclude information that learners already know
  • Exclude information that learners don't need to know
  • Think like a user

Write a Learning Objective

  • An observable task that a learner will be able to perform at the end of the course
  • The conditions utilized to perform the task
  • The criteria that will be used to measure a learner's success

Design

Steps in the Instructional Design Phase

There are basically three steps in the instructional design phase:

  • Plan the instructional strategy
  • How will course material be grouped and sequenced?
  • Step-by-step
  • Part-to-whole
  • Whole-to-part
  • Known-to-unknown
  • General-to-specific
  • What instructional methods and tactics will be used to present material?
  • Group discussions
  • Modeling
  • Scenarios
  • Mnemonics
  • Drills
  • Applied practice
  • How will assessments measure a learner's success?
  • The course's assessments should measure a learner's progress towards each of the learning objectives.
  • The types of assessment must fit the learning objective.
  • Select the course format
  • Instructor-led courses
  • Paper-based self-study materials
  • Synchronous e-learning
  • Asynchronous e-learning
  • Job aids
  • Write the instructional design document
  • Describe the overall learning approach
  • Identify instructional media choices
  • Cluster and sequence objectives
  • Describe course exercises, activities, and assessments

Develop

  • Create a prototype

Course Format / A Possible Prototype
Classroom Training Led by an Instructor / Sample pages (templates) from the learner and instructor guides
E-learning (CBT and WBT) / Storyboards that show text, images, layout, animations, and voiceover instructions
Blended Learning / Samples pages and storyboards
Web-based classroom / Sample pages from the learner and instructor guides
Job Aids / Mockup that shows the design and layout
  • Develop the course materials
  • Does this material meet the learning objectives?
  • Will the material work in the classroom?
  • Conduct a tabletop review
  • Lead Developer and SME participate
  • Is the content accurate?
  • Is the content complete?
  • Run a pilot session
  • Measure the amount of time learners need for each module and activity
  • Check learners' engagement with the material
  • Detect points where material may be too easy/too difficult
  • Confirm that learners understand the instructions for activities and exercises
  • Evaluate the flow and balance of the course
  • Test how well learners achieve the course's stated learning objectives by the end of the course
  • Validate the course assessment tools
  • Collect feedback from learners about the course
  • Locate points where the course should be revised

Implement

  • Course Delivery Issues
  • Establish the timetable for the course rollout
  • Schedule the courses, enroll learners, and reserve classrooms
  • Notify learners and their supervisors about the course
  • Select trainers and prepare them with a custom train-the-trainer
  • Arrange for the printer to deliver course workbooks to the class site
  • Ensure all sites will have internet-ready computers and arrange for laptops to be shipped when necessary
  • Manage travel and expenses for the trainers and/or learners

Evaluate

  • Do learners like the course?
  • Do learners achieve the learning objectives at the end of the course?
  • Do the learners change their behaviors in the workplace?
  • Does the course help the company achieve its business goals?