Group Induction
One of the most challenging projects for the client Anglian Home Improvements was developing their group induction or onboarding course for new starters. It was a companywide training programme initiative for new starters to the company. This covered a complete overview of the company including the end to end process, management structure, production, locations, product identification, values, ethos and history.
Course Features
Here are some of the features I included in the course design, along with my reasons for including them and the benefits they provide.
1. Feature
There was many parts to this course but the largest was the inclusion of a factory tour which takes the new starters around the factory.
Benefit:
One of the main benefits of creating a factory tour is that it saves the company money so that they no longer need to bring staff from various locations together to the factory which is costly and time-consuming.
2. Feature
At the start of the group induction, I introduce a character who becomes a recognisable face throughout the course.
Benefit: The advantage of doing it this way is that it gives the learner a face to the brand and a voice alongside this. By carrying this character throughout the whole course it creates consistency for brand recognition.
On the scene featured in this image, I used the same voice from the person of the narrator so that it ties this simple animation back into the branding of the rest of the course.
Click Image to Launch Demo
3. Feature
Making use of graphics and animations throughout.
Benefit: This allows me to present some quite boring content in a more interesting way. It is important to cover the company structure and the best way for this to be done is to visualise it. Instead of just presenting the finished visual I animated on the connections between each person within the structure. This allows me to bring in a hierarchy which is achieved through the use of animations.
Published Sample
Here’s a published sample of the course so you can get an idea of the tone, pacing, narration, and overall presentation as the learner sees it.
Click Image to Launch Demo
Why Does This Course Work?
- Interesting Character and Point of View: It’s easy to get pulled into the content in an enjoyable way once you’re interested in a character and a situation. I chose a good person to introduce this course and I carried their voice through the course as the narrator. It worked well.
- Use Filmed Video Content: This course covers a lot of important information, some of which is not always that interesting but it is important for the new starters to get an understanding of it. By filming this instead of animating it I was able to make the learners feel as if they are actually there and visualising some of the more technical processes and environments would have been impossible as an animation. The film was the best way to approach this and it really worked well despite the hours of filming and editing required to capture it all.
- Graphics and motion graphics: I made use of aftereffects for this project to demonstrate brand and concepts. It worked well.
- Results: The project was used company wide and saved them loads of money in group inductions it also ticked a load of boxes for compliance and insurance. This project was a great success and featured as one of the biggest learning challenges in my career.
What Was My Role?
- Instructional Designer: To make the information “stick” I chunked this course into smaller and targeted lessons. Basically, I designed the whole course.
- Course Developer: I developed it using the authoring tool provided by Anglian Home Improvements called the Learning Hub.
- Writer: I created the storyline and script.
- Visual Designer: As the only e-learning Developer, I was in charge of all aspects of a project from the instructional design through to eLearning development. I would liaise with information experts and to conduct a training needs analysis. Storyboard, producing this video content which would include bringing people, props, lighting and merchandise together. I would then film and direct. I then would begin the post-production phase of media ingest, followed by editing, compositing, audio mixing, grading and export for publishing into a series of videos that would match up with the asset list and could then be published as a course onto the Learning management system.