State-funded training for Alabama Residents
Workforce Trainings
The state of Alabama offers free workforce college courses to their adult residents. They contract with my team at Instructure to build the courses. During my initial 3 months of leading the development, I implemented agile methodologies and practices in line with the client’s needs which allowed us to deliver as many courses in the first quarter of 2024 as was delivered in the entirety of 2023. We build courses from construction, carpentry, electrical, and healthcare industries continue to support the future of work for Alabama residents.
- Audience: High school graduates and adult learners.
- Responsibilities: Program Manager, Principal Instructional Designer
- Tools Used: Articulate Storyline & Rise. Adobe Creative Cloud. Canvas. Asana.
- Metrics: 3x delivery speed while increasing polish and brand cohesion.
Highlights
I was initially called to lead this project during a maternity leave coverage before permanently joining. During my initial needs analysis with the client during the initial calls, they expressed a desire to increase the delivery speed and to “cut the fluff“. Music to my ears!
Initial goals:
- Increase delivery to match the client’s needs.
- Maintain or increase the quality of courses delivered.
- Remove or automate “the fluff”.
Project Management
Stage 1: Identify teammate’s super powers and kryptonite.
Stage 2: Transition from 3-person single builds to talent-focused concurrent builds. Transition from Waterfall to iterative and non-linear Agile.
Stage 3: Simplify processes and eliminate the unnecessary friction and red tape. Identify “Time Vampires”
Stage 4: Organize tasks to maximize superpowers, joy, and creativity. Protect “Maker Time” from distractions.
Stage 5: Suprise and delight. The client had Train-the-Trainers on the backlog forever. My goal was to get those too.
Instructional Design
Boost 1 – Templating
Create Storyline templates and Rise blocks for common elements. Build a simple style guide and a library of ready-to-edit assets.
Boost 2 – Asset Collecting
Switch from “free pix” image searching to professional Stock Photography. Apply custom AI graphics. Upskill team on Illistrator techniques.
Boost 3 – Iterative QA
ADDIE is awesome, but it’s even better when you make small cycles. Transitioned from holding completed projects until the due date to delivering early and iterating design.
Boost 4 – Automation
If it’s repetitive, write a script for it.
Instructional Design
As always, we kicked off the 3 projects that will require rolling needs analysis, leveraging the provided learning objectives and information provided by the SME and stakeholders.
With the needs prescribed and the assessments identified and aligned to the outcomes, we began the staggered and iterative approach to e-learning development. For this project we used Articulate Rise for the rapid prototype, and Articulate Storyline for the more advanced simulations and interactives.
Design and Interactive Samples
Note: Due to an NDA, I’m unable to provide the actual content or screenshots. I have recreated similar experiences for portfolio purposes.
Results
In just a few short months, we had skyrocketed performance, improved workflows, decreased red tape, and transformed the content development process. The client was very pleased with the quick turnaround. If there is one thing I do well, it’s deliver!
- Doubled the 2023 output in 3 months with 4 new courses PLUS completed 5 train the trainers.
- Eliminated 800-1200 pages of unneeded documentation per project.
- Increased the profesional look and feel while reducing sourcing time, and increasing storyline time.
- Automated 2,700 cells of image documentation, and several QA steps.
- Grew a library of templates, scripts, and tools for future acceleration.
Conclusion
Overall, this project was a great opportunity to showcase how project management, instructional design, and leveraging your team’s superpowers can yield extraordinary results.
Whether it’s a single-person project or leading a large team at the curriculum level, I believe that a great ID or PM can transform an organization and inspire change in ways not yet imagined.
