Vistaprint wanted to find creative eLearning solutions thatwere measurable, trackable, and agile. An innovative eLearning manager had anidea: Take a page from computer programming and hold a Vistaprint eLearning “hackathon.”
SouleimenAchour, the EU manager for CARE learning, who is based in Tunisia, came up withthe idea when he and his managers were thinking about how to createbetter eLearning content. They sought ways to improve graphic designers’ performance,close knowledge gaps, and better serve external customers.
Vistaprint is a global marketing products company. It hasfive CARE Design Centers, in Manila, Philippines; Tunis, Tunisia; Montego Bay,Jamaica; Berlin, Germany; and Ahmedabad, India. More than 700 instructionaldesigners and other professionals in these centers perform four functions:training delivery, instructional design, knowledge management, and projectmanagement. They provide instructor-led training, eLearning, and blended learningsolutions to more than 2,500 learners worldwide.
Achour and his managers had identified a need to be “moreproactive in addressing operations training requests.” Since the hackathon,they have strived to implement more cross-functional collaboration, he added.
Once the idea took shape, it was not hard to convince hismanagers to give it a try: “Our director and VP are very supportive when itcomes to innovative ideas where we could better support our customers,” Achoursaid.
Achourand colleague Susan Shay, manager of the instructional design team, definedclear goals for the event, which they supervised:
- FindeLearning solutions that would create “clear, specific learning nuggets in theLMS” that could be measured and tracked
- Modelthe agile content development model and provide future avenues for its use
- Createan understanding of the performance impact on learners
- Offerinstructional designers an opportunity to learn about development and contentcreation
“Webelieved that by involving subject matter experts in the creation of learningcontent for their peers, transfer of learning and knowledge sharing among teammembers would increase, resulting in performance increases and greater teamcollaboration within the organization,” Achour said.
The idea took shape: Participants would form teams that would brainstorm ideas foreLearning solutions—and prototype those ideas. The hackathon motto was “Design,Build, Test!”
Five teams met at Vistaprint’s offices in Ahmedabad, India,in February for the three-day event. Each team included four graphic design experts,two eLearning experts, and a coach. The participants were from Vistaprint’sCARE Design Center in India; future hackathons will involve teams from thePhilippines, Tunisia, and Jamaica. Participants were tasked with “focusing on performance gapsand content creation to fill those gaps,” according to Achour, who shared hisidea at Learning Solutions 2017 Conference & Expo.
Did it work?
“The results were astounding,” Achour said. Each teamcreated a learning solution, and team members learned about core instructionaldesign and new software tools. Best of all, professionals shared expertise withtheir colleagues across departments and areas of specialization.
- On the first day, teams formed. Each teamcreated and analyzed a problem statement and brainstormed ideas. Team memberspitched ideas and began prototyping.
- On day two, teams created and tested theirprototypes with peers at the hackathon—graphic designers functioned as end-usertesters for one another’s prototypes. With feedback from the testing, the teamsrefined their prototypes.
- On the third and final day, teams finalizedtheir prototypes (with further end-user testing) and showed off their resultsto the other teams and managers.
The three-day learning hackathon resulted in five solutionsthat apply different learning methodologies, results that would have takenconsiderably longer using conventional approaches to design and testing.
Mufid Khan, a graphic designer who participated in the hackathon, said,“First of all, thanks to AMD Teams and all the facilitators of the hackathon. …It was a truly awesome experience for me, and I think [it was the] same for allparticipants. … Looking forward to seeing you soon for another greatexperience.”
