Rise 360 Course

Creating Comprehensible Content for a Global Audience

Learn how to create comprehensible and effective content for a global audience.

Problem: Creating content for a global audience involves designing content that is comprehensible to the audience. Many times elearning solutions written by native speakers of a language are written at a much higher proficiency level than that of the audience, leading to a decrease in trust, engagement and performance. World Paper Global (a concept company) has noticed productivity rates in their global clients has been down 20% over the last quarter. Learners have expressed frustration with recent training initiatives and feel undervalued.


Solution: This elearning course is designed to introduce instructional designers of World Paper Global to strategies they can use to increase the readability and accessibility of text created for global clients. Learners will leave the course with a better understanding of language proficiency levels, readability of text and actionable steps they can take to create comprehensible content for global clients. This course is designed in Articulate Rise 360, an adaptive elearning platform that is interactive, user friendly and accessible. This is a concept project demonstrating how elearning can be utilized to foster interactive, meaningful learning to drive business goals.


Big Picture: This elearning course is not a stand-alone solution, but rather one piece of a larger intervention. After completing the elearning course, learners will engage in a live webinar where they may ask questions and receive feedback on coursework. They will also join a learning community on Microsoft TEAMS moderated by World Paper Global's Learning & Development manager and Language Consultant. Small, bit-sized microcourses will be sent out via email and Microsoft TEAMS once a month to reinforce learning and provide opportunities for discussion. The overarching goal of the learning solution is to increase productivity rates in companies with global clients by 5% by the end of Quarter 2.

Details

  • Type: E-Learning

  • Client: Demo project

  • Audience: Instructional Designers of World Paper Global (concept project)

  • Responsibilities: course designer, subject matter expert, course developer

  • Date: January 2023

Tools

  • Articulate 360

  • Canva

  • Google Docs

  • Google Forms

  • Google Drawings

  • Padlet

Skills

  • Instructional Design

  • Storyboarding

  • eLearning Development

  • Curation

  • Graphic design

The Design Process

Initial Design

This concept project is based on real-world problems companies with global clients may face. I utilized a backwards design model and action mapping to begin planning my course and defining goals and objectives. I relied heavily on needs assessment and analysis to guide my work.

For this concept project I began with a design document outlining details from my needs analysis and assessment, course design details, and learning solution recommendations. This is where I would also have any notes from meetings with stakeholders and SMEs (subject matter experts).


While working through the course design document, I created an action map in Mindmeister. I used action mapping to outline the business goals, desired actions and possible solutions to the problem. Through this process I was able to identify seven actions to support the overall goal, and narrowed my focus to three actions for this course. From those actions I outlined possible actions and deliverables for the course to support the larger business goal. The other actions may be included in other learning initiatives at a later time.

After narrowing the focus, I created a course outline mapping out the course modules, lessons, blocks and navigation. The course outline is where I began to get a sense for the look and feel of the course in Rise 360.

Action Map

Snippet of action map. Click the image to view the full document.

Course Design Document

Snippet of course design document. Click the image to view the full document.

Course Outline

Snippet of course outline document. Click the image to view the full document.

Storyboarding

After creating a high-level outline, I transitioned to drafting a text-based storyboard outlining the learning objectives, content, assessment and layout for the course. As I worked through this process I made many changes to the design and layout of the course. I decided to narrow the focus to two “essential questions” and provide scaffolds throughout the course to guide learners toward answering those questions. I continued to iterate and change based elearning best practices and learner needs.

Snippet of text-based storyboard. Click the image to view the full document.

Snippet of Mood board.

Snippet of a course in Rise 360.

Click the image to view the job aid documents

Interactive Prototype

I created an interactive prototype in Articulate Rise 360 using an interactive approach. I chose to use Rise 360 for this learning solution as it is adaptable and well-suited for text heavy courses. This platform seemed like the perfect way to introduce research-based content in an interactive, approachable way.

I also created a job aid for this course using Canva. I really wanted this to be something that was accessible and practical for the user. The color version is embedded in the course and the black and white PDF is availalbe as a download for users. The language on the job aid aligns with the language used in the course.


I created graphics using Canva and Google Drawings for this project and developed a custom pallet, keeping the colors, formatting and style consistent with the company brand. One challenge I faced during this phase of the process was the design and formatting limitations of Rise 360. I was not able to include open-ended questions in the course. I decided to embed interactive elements such as Padlet and Google Forms that provided a way for learners to collaborate and answer more open-ended questions.

Development

After receiving feedback and testing all course components I made some changes to the layout and navigation of the course. I considered dividing the content up into smaller “lesson” chunks within each section to limit the amount of scrolling required by the learner on each screen. I also considered changing the labels to more clearly reflect the course goals outlined at the beginning of the course.


The end result is an accessible, effective tool instructional designers can use to create more comprehensible content for global clients. This course sets the learner up for success in the next phase of the training campaign.

Snippet of a second iteration of the course navigation in Rise 360 after feedback and revisions.

The Finished Product

Results and Take-aways

The learner data from this course will provide valuable information for the company about program effectiveness, learner understanding, and learner needs to guide future learning initiatives. One challenge I faced in the creation of this course was the limited assessment options in Rise 360. For example, I would love to include more discussion based activities or open-ended questions directly into the course. I found a work-around for this, but would like to be able to see all user data on one “dashboard” in order to analyze results and determine course effectiveness. This was my first experience creating a course in Articulate 360. I learned a lot about using this platform and the potential this tool has to create interactive elearning solutions. I look forward to developing more courses in the future and exploring more features the tool has to offer.