Liz Gusmati and Dan Keckan have achieved the impossible: Theycreated required ethics and compliance training that got rave reviews fromlearners. Not only that—the same team pulled together a DemoFest Best of Show–winningmicrolearning project as well. On government contract regulations, no less!
Who are these miracle workers, and what is theirsecret?
Liz Gusmati is a lead associate at Booz Allen Hamilton,where she designs finance and business development eLearning and training. DanKeckan, a vice president of eLearning and instructional design at Cinécraft Productions, leads a team ofinstructional and graphic designers and eLearning developers.
Their teams worked with members of Booz Allen Hamilton’s ethicsand compliance team on the two creative and popular eLearning projectsdescribed in “Booz Allen Hamilton Scores Rave Reviews with Compliance Training and DemoFest-Winning Microlearning.” Here, they offer guidance to designers anddevelopers tasked with creating engaging training based on material that mightbe dense or complex.
The secret keys
Gusmati’s advice to designers who struggle with a small teamor minuscule budget starts with brainstorming. “You don’t need a whole lot of peopleto come up with some really cool stuff,” she said. She strongly recommendsbrainstorming with colleagues—atleast one other person, even if that person is not an ID or developer. “Twopeople brainstorming is a lot more powerful than one; it’s an example of ‘thewhole is greater than the sum of its parts,’” she said. “If I brainstorm on myown, I’m going to get maybe 50 percent of the possibilities, but if Ibrainstorm with another person, we’re going to get 150 percent; you build offof one another.”
Gusmati emphasizes that creating great eLearning doesn’thave to cost a lot of money, and the courses do not need to be complex. “Imaginationis your biggest asset when you are creating a course. Use your imagination, andfind places to get inspiration,” such as books, movies, and everydayexperiences. She keeps a “running list” of ideas and waits for the perfectmoment to use them—one theme that she’s using now has been on her list for twoyears! “When the perfect moment came, I was glad that I didn’t waste it onwhatever I was working on at the time,” she said.
Some other strategies that have worked out well on herprojects include:
- Storytelling—Anytime an ID is faced with content that is potentially dull, Gusmati suggestswrapping it in a story. “Give your course an overarching theme or story whenpossible,” Gusmati said. “A story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. If youhave content that you’re trying to push to somebody, if you just give it abeginning, middle, and end … it doesn’t need to add time to your course, but itpulls everything together,” she said. “Once you get to a certain level ofcomplexity, or it’s 10 minutes or longer, if you just give it a beginning,middle, and end, you’ll find that the relevance for learners is going to skyrocket.”
- Learningplans—The microlearning modules for the DemoFest entry, a spy-themed game, arepackaged in a learning plan in the learner’s LMS. When a learner enrolls in alearning plan, that learner is registered for all the modules of the course.The LMS provides a suggested order for completing the modules, she said, and itallows easy access and an easy way for learners to keep track of which modulesthey’ve completed.
- Gamificationand thematic elements—Each program includes a well-developed theme that isreinforced with visual and audio elements. In the microlearning spy game, learnersuse “smart glasses” to discover and decode information. They use thatinformation to complete challenges. Progress meters fit the theme as well:Collecting badges for completing challenges allows learners to increase theirstatus, and a “power gauge” built into the smart glasses lets learners know howthey were progressing through each module.
Gusmati advises caution when addingsound effects and visual gimmicks, like a departing airplane used in thepassport-themed compliance training. The visuals and sound effects “wereawesome” and made the training much more fun and engaging, she said—but theteam was careful not to overdo it. They didn’t want to put in so many effectsthat they risked annoying learners or affecting course performance. - Opportunitiesto fail safely and learn from errors—In the spy game, a character named Andreasks learners to repeat a challenge if they miss too many of the questions, butthe modules are so short that learners never have to repeat very much content,Gusmati said. The repetition also provides an opportunity to reinforce learningin their weaker areas. This is a way to allow learners to try applying theirknowledge but to “fail safely” and review; the consequences are negligible,unlike making the same error on a real-life contract or other work situation.
- Agileproject management—“Any time you attempt to push the envelope and try newthings, you always need more time to perfect it,” Keckan said about thedevelopment and implementation of the joint projects. “With these projects wedid not have the affordability of more time. We had very strict deadlines.”They used an agile project management process that helped them control thelength of each revision and testing cycle.
Above all, Gusmati emphasizes the value of scenario-basedlearning. “Use scenario-based learning when possible so you can give them datato use and apply. The actual learning occurs when they’re applying what you’vegiven them,” Gusmati said.
This is especially important for ethics and compliance training. “We tryto make our compliance training scenario-based whenever possible, where itmakes sense. It doesn’t always make sense; sometimes it’s just facts,” Gusmatisaid. “When you get into those gray areas, scenario-based training is reallythe best way to go.”
