Overview

“Elevate, Inc.” is a fictional finance company which, in this scenario, approached me to address an issue of workplace belonging among their employees. After having merged with an organization in Singapore, senior management at Elevate Inc. noticed that previous methods for fostering a strong organizational identity were less effective with the Singapore team. Though the language barrier was minimal, management struggled to find ways to make the Singapore team feel welcomed, and noticed their lack of participation in workplace events.

The Situation: How can I build a short learning experience using a commonly used LMS to teach a concept that is typically best practiced face-to-face?

Duration of project: 1 month

Audience: Corporate managers

Format: Articulate Storyline 360 module

My Role: I designed the wireframe, prototype, and storyboard, and designed the learning experience.

Skills Demonstrated: Instructional Design, eLearning Development

Technologies Used: Articulate Storyline 360, MindMeister, Adobe XD, Microsoft Word, Adobe Stock

The Process

I used the ADDIE model to map out my process, but as a result of my prior experience using design thinking techniques to create design sprints at Harvard, I knew that the last step (evaluation) was baked into every step of the process. So, I made sure to have frequent and early discussions with stakeholders to determine the goals of the process.

Needs Analysis

I began by conducting a needs analysis, which included interviews with stakeholders at various levels of Elevate Inc. I spoke with the management team, employees on the American team, and employees on the Singapore team.

I determined a few key cultural pain points in both the Singaporean team and the American team:

• Cultural misunderstandings in team meetings
• Short-term goal misalignment
• Differences in workplace expectations

After consulting with Elevate Inc., I found that many were enthusiastic about disseminating intercultural communication knowledge to alleviate this issue. They expressed that they were interested in implementing training for team leaders. That way, the benefits of this training could have a broader impact on Elevate Inc.’s company culture.

Action Map

I worked with the SME, in this case Elevate Inc.’s change management team and an intercultural communication specialist, to determine their OKR and what possible actions could be taken to accomplish it. (In this instance, I use online research as a stand-in for the change management team, and I served as the SME on intercultural communication based on my prior research in the field.)

We came up with the following goal: Increase Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) by 5 points by the end of 2022 by increasing intercultural competence among team leaders.

My next step was to use Mindmeister and Cathy Moore’s Action Mapping process to ensure that the central goal of the training was aligned with specific desirable behaviors that would meaningfully transform team leaders’ interactions with their teams (click to expand).

I referred to Michael Byram’s (1997) Model of Intercultural Competence to identify five critical areas of intercultural competence (multicolored bubbles). I did this because Byram’s model points to measurable and observable behaviors which, according to Byram, leads to developing a mindset of intercultural competence. From there, I branched into observable actions that team managers could practice in the low-risk environment that the training provides.

Due to time constraints, I chose three of these five areas to measure: cultural attitudes, cultural knowledge, and cultural discovery.

Storyboard

My next step was to write a storyboard in Microsoft Word, complete with script, programming instructions, and images of the prototype I created in Adobe XD (mentioned in the next section). Click to expand each page.

In addition to intercultural competence principles, I used several adult learning and motivation principles throughout the script, including:

• The Protégé Effect (Chase, 2009), which states that those who are not motivated to learn for themselves may be more motivated to teach a protégé.
• Kirkpatrick’s (1994) Four Levels, which helped me to connect learning to behavior and results consistently

Using these principles helped me to connect all of the content of the script to clear and measurable learning goals.

We settled on the title and tagline: “Build Your Dream Team! Making slam-dunks with intercultural communication”.

Elevate Inc. also expressed interest in a basketball team metaphor to raise morale, so I obliged!

Prototypes / Visual Mockups

I used Adobe XD to create a visual mockup of the learning experience, sticking to the basketball theme (click to expand).

I also provided stakeholders with several designs for the buttons, text boxes, and font using color palettes that matched the company colors to get feedback and to make it easier to visualize the possibilities for the module’s look and feel.

After doing that, I came up with a reference sheet with the styles we decided on so that I could keep the design consistent.

I then developed a functioning prototype in Articulate Storyline 360, checking in with stakeholders at each step to ensure that the design was just right before doing any programming or adding in assets.

I used Adobe Stock and stock sounds to build out the details of the project, using characters consistent with the storyboard.

Final Result

Finally, I built the rest of the project, putting any finishing touches and last-minute feedback before publishing. Experience the final product below!

References

Chase, C., Chin, D. B., Oppezzo, M. & Schwartz, D. S. (2009). Teachable agents and the protege effect. Journal of Science Education and Technology 18(4), 334-352.

Kirkpatrick, Donald L. (1994). Evaluating training programs : the four levels. San Francisco : Emeryville, CA :Berrett-Koehler ; Publishers Group West, 1994.