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Commentary on the needs analysis (why we need this training)

I employed a Training Needs Analysis by speaking to senior leaders within my organisation, our stake holders, about what current strengths and areas for development they felt middle leaders had. They identified that budgeting was a clear development need amongst middle (department) leaders.

Following the identification of this training need I sent out a survey to current budget holders and School Business Leads and Finance Managers. It became clear that budget management was an area that needed training. I was also able to pick up tips and identify potential SME’s. The questions I asked current budget holders were taken from the advice and expected change in behaviour suggested by School Business Leads and Finance Managers (SME’s).

Not only did it become clear that training was necessary, but it has enabled me to devise a base-line set of data to monitor impact of training outcomes.

This then helped me develop a better understanding of my learners in creating their Persona’s. Previously, the progress of staff in my organisation have never been tracked, so I haven’t been able to use this historical data to help identify the best ways to build their learning experience. I will have to devise a way to monitor learner progress through manual monitoring solutions due to having no LMS to host and track this training.

The development of learning personas can also help create a sort-of content check list. By analysis how learners learn best we, as Instructional Designers, can develop learning experiences to match. For example, some learners like to learn as they do activities such as walking their dog, or other periods of downtime. They like to listen to podcasts or audio books – these would need specific and specialist engagement activities included to help learners reinforce verbal instructions. For instance, there could be an activity added to the LMS for learners to engage with following listening to audio learning activities. However, it is only by analysing learning personas that we start to understand what and how to create learning content and activities for our learners.

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Government paper on Managing Public Money, May 2023
Retrieved Aug '23

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This publication offers guidance on how to handle public funds.

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Accountability for Taxpayers' money
Retrieved Aug '23

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Retrieved Aug '23

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Mark Spermon - Articulate Storyline Tutorials

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Working With Slide Layers in Articulate Storyline | 3 Best Tips

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Retrieved Aug '23

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Mark Spermon - Articulate Storyline Tutorials

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Storyline 360: Triggers and States explained

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Retrieved Aug '23

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Juliana Scheiderer, What’s the Difference between Asynchronous and Synchronous Learning?

https://online.osu.edu/resources/learn/whats-difference-between-asynchronous-and-synchronous-learning#:~:text=Asynchronous%20learning%20allows%20you%20to,%2C%20of%20course%2C%20the%20flexibility

Retrieved June 2023

5 Tips for Creating Learner Personas

https://www.sententiagamification.com/blog/how-to-create-learner-personas

Retrieved June 2023

The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Creating Learner Personas

https://www.shiftelearning.com/blog/bid/302513/The-Ultimate-Cheat-Sheet-for-Creating-Learner-Personas

How to Create a Learner Persona, by Growth Engineering

https://youtu.be/2H_vigZwDKw?si=UvLMO0cg-HZNkTuX

Retrieved July 2023

How to Create a Learner Persona for Learning Design, by Learning Cluster Design

https://youtu.be/WBxJrBxpolA?si=HZuSfHWo_NuOmHhC

Retrieved July 2023

8 Tips for Creating Learner Personas That Supercharge Your L&D Efforts, by Jake Wengroff 2021

8 Tips for Creating Learner Personas That Supercharge Your L&D Efforts – Cognota

Retrieved July 2023

How do you use learner personas and profiles to design effect and engaging learning experiences? By AI and the LinkedIn community

How do you use learner personas and profiles to design effective and engaging learning experiences? (linkedin.com)

Retrieved July 2023

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Commentary

I have designed a program of 4 learning modules. The modules break down into groups of 3.

1.Learning (Module 1, Thinking Skills Level 1)

•WHY budgeting and money management matters;

•HOW to set spending priorities;

•Learning theory test.

2.Creating documentation for budget management (Module 2, Thinking Skills Level 2)

•Creating a spending plan;

•Identifying potential risks and mitigating against them;

•Communicating decisions with Stake Holders;

•Preparation for assessment which includes documentation, communication of decisions, and QA sign-off.

3.Discussion Forum, Communication & Document Sign-off (Module 3 & 4, Thinking Skills Level 3)

•Following communication of decisions Line Manager to sign-off documentation;

•Discuss of process and decisions in live Face-to-Face workshop with peers, and Future behaviour & Evaluation.

By breaking up the modules in this way learners will be supported through learning theories, and then how to implement them into practice. The communication of decisions element is a vital part of the assessment process to ensure they have included a deep rationale and decision-making process into their budget management documentation.

I have included several social learning moments where learners will be encouraged to share their thoughts and challenge each other towards higher levels of understanding and quality of learning outcomes.

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Learning Personas Commentary

Looking at my learning personas I have learnt that I need to create an e-learning resource that includes the elements of asynchronous, social, and face-to-face learning styles.

To this end I have designed a learning experience where learners will be guided through the expected behaviours around Budget Management through an e-learning resource, supported by Line Manager guidance, social learning forums, and a face-to-face workshop that helps summarise the learning, and future behaviour.

I have tried to design my course to be as easy to access and navigate as possible with clear verbal instructions, easy navigation tools (like the installation of a "next" button to be more obvious), and segmenting of the learning content.

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Budget Management for Subject Leaders

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What I have experienced in using Articulate Storyline

I have used a full licensed version of Articulate Storyline. I am comfortable with building intranet pages and resources in Microsoft SharePoint and am extremely proficient at using PowerPoint. I have a strong understanding of using video and music editing tools. These examples of prior experience have helped me better understand some of the potential functionalities of using Articulate Storyline. Additionally, I found the blog “e-learning heroes” to be extremely helpful in better understanding some of the other design points. For example, I enjoyed creating animated content where the “Next” button delayed its entry, and in building automatic changing slides at certain timed end points. I used government documentation and specific head teacher guidance on financial processes, and the varying responsibilities, to help me create the content for this course.

I created all the resources myself including creating triggers and other interactive content. Once I had learnt more about the functionality of using Articulate Storyline, I found myself having to adapt the screenplan and storyboard a little. There were only minor changes and edits needed.

I have shared my draft module with colleagues, my SME, and project leader and implemented feedback. Initially there were too many unnecessary questions in the activation slides, where asking one about current practice would still achieve the desired outcome. It was also recommended that I attempt to bring the learner into the classroom to help understand the specific context of Hannah as a new budget holder in education. This I attempted to do in the introduction phase of this module with placing my Hannah character at the front of a classroom, next to the white board. I also experimented with placing the onscreen-text on the whiteboard behind her. I ensured that I maintained a consistent use of characters throughout.

I created hotspots with triggers, scenario-based learning, drag-and-drop, and multiple-choice learning activities. I embedded a video from YouTube, while I would ideally like to create one of my own, depending on client project budget and time constraints.

I tried to keep the Voiceover conversational and informative and would likely use a professional voiceover actor and better microphone, although I would be keen to see if post-completion feedback from learners suggests that I may have used too many slides with VO, and that perhaps I could combine a few. I have attempted to use a range of activation techniques in the practice and content slides to keep interest and engagement high. I wanted to keep a simple colour scheme – dark background with light writing, for those learners with visual impairments. I also used a clear font. The colour contrast between green and salmon-pink should stand out clearly. There was no corporate colour guide for me to follow.

I didn’t find using Articulate Storyline too challenging owing to the experience I already have with Microsoft tools, SharePoint intranet creations, and music and video editing experience. I thoroughly enjoyed working on this module, and it has given me a greater insight into the time and detail that goes into the process of creating even short training courses. Initially I had designed to include all modules into this prototype. It was clear quite early on that this was going to take longer than expected, and that the learners would prefer that I chunked the content into more manageable bitesize pieces.

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COMMENTARY
For this I designed the learning experience following the Wireframe. I wanted to ensure that I had incorporated the 3C Model:
1) Guided Practice
2) Challenge
3) Choice
4) Consequence

In practice and assessment activities I aimed to give learners feedback to answers and scenarios.

Learners were able to skip through certain aspects of the resource, by accessing the menu, or they could follow the resource through as guided.

If I was to take this e-learning resource to the Alpha development stage I would explore providing learners with more choice over how they explore learning content and assessment. For example, within the Toolkit I would add infographics, or 7-Tap resources that summarise learning content for quick recap or revision. The infographic is a resource that learners could print and keep on their desk as a guide while they complete their own version of a Budget Spending Plan.

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COMENTARY
I have used the main 5 core principles of Gagne's 9 Events to build this wireframe for Module 1:
1) Anticipatory Set / Hook
2) Instructional Input / Stimulus
3) Guided Practice
4) Closure and Evaluation
5) Next Steps

Essentially I explored some basic thoughts around this:
1) What does the learner gain by taking this course, and what will the experience be for them?
2) Explain exactly what the learner will do, including assessment of their learning.
3) Allow the learners to practice, and ensure they have feedback on their answers.
4) Summarise their learning and provide next steps in continued learning.
5) Develop some social learning activity.

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The 5 learning outcomes are based on some of the different stages of Bloom’s taxonomy. Learners who can demonstrate their ability in each of the 5 outcomes will be able to create and monitor a well-planned budget spending plan, with a clear communicated rationale for how spending impacts learning. Those who do not demonstrate the desire and expected standards in budget management will be given further guidance, coaching and support from their line manager, course leader, and cohort peers. Intervention will be offered.

The ABCD method was used to write these learning outcomes. The learning outcomes holistically allow the learner to demonstrate that they can recall and understand the required decisions, principles, and behaviours of responsible budget management using taxpayers’ money, and ensuring money spent has an impact on learning.

The outcomes progress from LOTS to HOTS from recognising, to constructing and monitoring budgetary decisions.

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Overall, I think my prototype flows well and follows my documentation in the design process. I have considered the diverse learning needs and preferences of my learners based on their personas. I have ensured to keep colour schemes simple, and with contrast. I have tried to keep text to a minimum, and to summarise key pieces of information, so as not to overwhelm the learners’ cognitive load. Learners can skip through the learning activities by exploring the menu function, otherwise the resource will flow through automatically. It works on all mobile devices, so will be fairly easy to use on-the-go.

This resource follows the wireframe, screenplan, and storyboard closely.

I’m pretty happy with my final design. However, changes I would like to make would be to create my own animated video, instead of using one from YouTube, and using a professional voiceover artist. In addition to this module, I would include a resource that can quickly help learners revise key concepts in preparation for completing their own budget spending plan.

I appreciate now how vitally important it is to spend time in the macro and micro design phases of a project, especially if I were to be working on multiple projects with different timescales or passing this design on to an e-learning developer.

I have included a video where I provide commentary over my e-learning resource.