An xAPI-Enabled Scenario-based eLearning Experience

This scenario-based eLearning experience helps newly hired entry-level education consultants make appropriate decisions to deal with difficult problems during the process of helping international clients get master’s program admission to US universities. It provides newly hired entry-level education consultants with a foundation for handling real-life consulting situations. This project has two parts: basic knowledge training and advanced performance training. The project also includes a downloadable PDF certificate of completion with the learner's name as well as a downloadable job aid. The xAPI and JavaScript implementation enables the project to track learners’ behavior and collect learners’ feedback.

Audience: Newly hired entry-level education consultants at Ivy Consulting

Business Goal: Improve problem-solving skills for newly hired entry-level education consultants

Learning Objective: By the end of this training, newly hired entry-level education consultants will be able to solve the issues when consulting with clients

Responsibilities: Instructional Design, eLearning Development, Visual Design, Action Map, Storyboard, Mockups, xAPI & JavaScript Implementation, Data Analysis

Tools Used: Articulate Storyline 360, Adobe XD, Adobe Illustrator, Canva, Visual Studio Code, Veracity LRS (Learning Record Store), MindMeister, Google Docs, Uppbeat, Freepik, Adobe Stock, Coolors

Problem

Ivy Consulting just hired some entry-level education consultants, however, the new education consultants’ problem-solving skills did not meet clients’ expectations. They do not know how to effectively and professionally answer clients’ questions. Sometimes, they even fail to inform clients of important information, which led to a decrease in revenue.

Learning Science & Educational Theory Application as Solution

After analyzing the performance problem, I confirmed that the new education consultants lacked the skill and knowledge required to navigate these difficult situations successfully. I proposed an xAPI-enabled scenario-based eLearning experience where the new education consultants could practice speaking to clients and answering real-world questions in a risk-free environment.

Given that our learners are adult learners, it is important to apply andragogy in the learning experience. Education consultants were involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction, and their prior experience as education consultants provides the basis for the learning experience. The scenario-based problem-centered learning provides immediate relevance and impact to their job, which shows consequences and best practices to help them avoid making those mistakes in the real world. Since adults are self-directed, this asynchronous elearning experience is also ideal for learners to discover skills by themselves without the constraints of time and geographical locations.

In constructivism, learners are active participants in constructing knowledge rather than just passively receiving information. The purpose of learning is for learners to construct meaning so that they can participate in further construction, sense-making and to solve even more complex problems. This scenario-based eLearning will help new education consultants construct schemas of organized knowledge through assimilation and accommodation.

Social constructivism pointed out that learning could not be separated from its social context. The feedback function and “Ask Sophie” button on every question serve as more knowledge others to scaffold learners and deepen their understanding. The need analysis and action map helped me define the appropriate upper limit and lower limit of zone of proximal development for new education consultants.

I also designed gamification elements of sound effects: an increasing number of ivy leaves, and drag and drop of key. They serve as positive reinforcements to increase learners’ motivation and engagement.

The survey "What do you think of your learning experience?“ improves learners’ metacognition skills. The prompts guide learners to think about their thinking through planning, monitoring, and evaluation.

Action Map

After noticing the pain points, I served as one of the Subject Matter Expert (SME) based on my experience in the education consulting field. When I tried to find the best practices, I also consulted another SME who is a senior education consultant. I defined the performance problem and identified the high-priority actions by following Cathy Moore’s Action Mapping method.

Text-based Storyboard

Then I created a text-based storyboard in Google Docs. As the learners go through the scenario, they need to make decisions among a correct choice and distractors. If learners choose the correct action, they will experience positive reinforcement and feedback and progress in the scenario. Selecting an incorrect choice would require the learner to see the real-life consequences as feedback and try again.

Visual Mockups

I also used Coolors to pick the theme color, Adobe Illustrator to edit visual assets from Freepik, and Canva to create the certificate and job aid. Then I created visual mockups for the eLearning experience in Adobe XD.

Prototype and Full Development

Guided by Michael Allen's Successive Approximation Model, I developed and iterated my design and development based on feedback, self-reflection, and learning. Finally, I fully developed the project in Articulate Storyline 360. I used various states, triggers, layers, and 14 variables.

xAPI, JavaScript, & the LRS

To monitor the learner experience and collect data, I implemented a custom xAPI, JavaScript and triggers to track learners’ behavior during the learning experience and collect learners’ feedback data. After that, I analyzed the data to further improve the design.

Final Testing

In the final testing phase, I tested every possible branching scenario by myself to see if the project runs smoothly without error. Then, the SME and a small pool of learners completed this scenario-based eLearning experience. They also provided feedback about the learning experience.

Reflection

User Experience: Good user experience is beneficial to learners’ learning motivation. If learners find that the learning experience is not human-centered, they might get annoyed and quit. Learners’ emotions and experience influence their behavior.

User Interface: Humans are visual creatures. Good visual design will delight learners aesthetically. My background in painting helped me with visual elements.

Cognitive Load: At first, I thought about adding a voiceover to the learning experience. Then I realized that according to the redundancy principle, it is better not to overload with graphics, narration, and text. Therefore, I kept the text and graphics without adding the narration. Due to the working memory depletion effect, I designed two parts of learning activities to let the working memory rest by spacing out learning activities.

Self-Efficacy and Growth Mindset: While designing this learning experience, I also honed my skills in xAPI and JavaScript. It was inevitable to meet some difficulties when coding and debugging, but I believed that I can accomplish the task with trial and error.