Annualcompliance training presents a familiar dilemma to all instructional designers:how do you take all the required information and make it interesting andpalatable for the learners? When designing eLearning courses for compliance,providing the learner with the illusion of choice will make a tremendousdifference in the results of the annual compliance training.
Theillusion of choice design element was a revolutionary change to compliancetraining at CarMax. The illusion of choice is a method of making the learnersfeel that they are in control. The learners must complete a set of requiredmodules in the annual culture of integrity (COI) training in order to receivecredit for the course. However, the change we implemented gives them theability to go through these requirements in any order they choose, and as theirschedule permits. Implementing this concept provided the learners with a senseof control they never experienced before. By using the illusion of choice wewere able to greatly increase the value of the course in unexpected ways. Whatbegan as a way to make the course more visually appealing resulted in retentionof the lessons we were teaching.
The requirement
Weworked with the legal department, which sponsors the COI training. One of thebig changes we made for the 2010 and 2011 courses was to use less text on thescreen. We were able to incorporate the required information into a series ofstorylines based on the content. This allowed us to use still pictures to tell eachstory in a visual way. The storytelling and image use made for a betterproduct, but because the course was still in a linear format, it still essentiallytrapped the learners once they began the course.
CarMaxis a retail organization, with roughly 85 percent of our associates working inone of our stores. A course that requires associates to sit down for a complete,uninterrupted 20- to 25-minute training session can create significant issuesin terms of productivity at the store. The challenge every year with COI is howto design a course that meets all the requirements of the legal department, whilecreating a minimal impact to the store associates.
Our solution
Thesolution became apparent during the design and development phase for the 2012COI refresher. The first step was to make a more visually appealing course, andwe decided to develop the course to look like an iPad (Figure 1). The course raninside what appeared to be an iPad frame, and each of the storylines had a largeicon to indicate where the learner was to start.
Figure1: A simulated iPad with icons for the storylines provided more visual appeal
Thenext improvement came in the course functionality. Previously we developedcourses in a linear style, so once the learner started it they were stuck inthe course. In order to address the frustrations caused by the linear structureof the older courses, we decided to use the branching and bookmarkingcapabilities of Captivate 5.5.
Theeasy part was setting up the bookmarking capabilities. With bookmarking turnedon in Captivate, the learner could exit the course at any time and return rightto where he or she left off. This may seem like a simple thing, but it resultedin one of the biggest compliments we received. In the past if somebody exited acourse they had to start again from the beginning. This was the first time wehad implemented bookmarking, so we emphasized to the learners that they couldexit and return to a course without penalty.
Themore challenging improvement revolved around creating the branching scenarios. Afterthe legal department wrote the storylines we had to cover four main topics. Whenlearners took this course they had tocomplete each of the four topics. Now, we already had an idea that the courseshould be branched; the challenge was in developing a course that not onlybranched, but which also required the learner to complete all topics beforereceiving credit for the entire course.
Thesolution came in the form of variables, scoring, and advanced actions. Wecreated a variable for each of the four required topics. When a learner reachedthe end of a topic, the software scored the variable as complete and recordedthe completion. When this happened, the topic’s icon on the “iPad screen”became shaded, providing a visual indicator that the learner had completed thetopic.
Thecombination of the bookmarking and branching (requiring variables, scoring, andadvanced actions) gave the learner a level of control that was new for thiskind of course. For the first time, learners at CarMax had the ability tonavigate through a course in any order they desired. Once a learner completedall four topics, the software would present a prompt to exit the course and thencredit the learner’s completion in the CarMax learning management system (LMS).This satisfied the legal department’s requirement for every associate tocomplete all four topics.
Whatwould possess a learner to move through a course in an order other thanstarting at Topic 1 and moving along to Topic 2 and so on? Information was thekey. In the iPad image to start the course, the icon for each topic providedthe learner with the estimated time to complete that topic (Figure 2). Theadage about “information is power” was very true here. In a retail environment,the world moves quickly. If a sales consultant was next on the list to assist acustomer, they could now estimate whether they had the time to complete aportion of the training.
Figure 2: On mouseover, topic icons indicate the estimated completion time
The learner could look at the training and choose a topic that would take over sixminutes (6:44) to complete. Then, with bookmarking enabled on the course, thatsame learner could exit the course and go work with a customer. When theyfinished with the customer they could go back into the COI course and pick upright where they left off.
The illusion works!
Thefirst time the learners entered the 2012 COI refresher we told them about theirnew navigation abilities. After that, as planned, they were able to movethrough a course at the pace they wanted and in a way that fit the time theyhad available.
Thecustomer for this project, the legal department, was extremely satisfied. It wasable to deliver the required training in a style that garnered better feedbackthan the previous versions. The new design elements allowed learners tonavigate through the course in any way they wished, while legal could rest easy,since no associate would receive credit for the course until they completed allthe prescribed topics.
Thenthere is the learners’ perspective. We told them that, although they mustcomplete all four topics, and the topics weren’t linked in any way, they couldgo through them in whatever order they wanted. In addition, learners could nowstart and stop topics when they needed to. The feedback from the learners onthe 2012 COI refresher was overwhelmingly positive.
Initially,creating a shorter version of this course was a goal. The most impressivefeedback was a consistent feeling of how much shorter and easier to manage the2012 COI refresher was when compared to previous versions. Ironically, this wasinaccurate. The feeling reported by the learners was purely subjective.
The2010 and 2011 versions of the COI refresher were each approximately 20 minutesin length due to the narration that accompanied them. The 2012 COI refresherwas 24 minutes in length, a full four minutes longer than its predecessors. Howcan you explain the fact that learners could view a longer course than its predecessorsas being less time-consuming? The simple answer is that the illusion of choice providedthe learners with a sense of control that allowed the learners to parse thecourse as they needed.
Longtimeassociates provided feedback that the new compliance training changed theirbehaviors and helped them realize how important the CarMax COI is to them asassociates and to the company in general. Previously, we narrated these coursesin combination with text on the screen. The legal department has several keypoints they must make throughout the course, so by the time the narration iscomplete, the course is 20 to 22 minutes in length. As you can imagine, acourse of that length with text on the screen and a voice reading it does notmake a great impact on the learner.
The2012 COI refresher yielded an excellent completion percentage rate, greaterthan 99 percent. The feedback provided reinforcement that this was the rightdesign methodology. In addition to the course feeling shorter, the feedback wasoverwhelmingly positive in terms of retention. Tenured associates told us that althoughthey took this course every year, now, more than ever, they felt they had learnedskills that applied to their position.
CarMax delivered training in a way that allowed associates to fit it into theiravailability, rather than having to create time to complete required training. Thiswas a win for all those involved, and proved to be a great benefit to our business.
