Training Program: A Shared Universe for Compliance Courses for Ontario Workers at HRdownloads
HRdownloads Inc. is a low-price competitor in the HRIS SaaS industry that needed to transform its training library. I create a shared universe model for compliance training for all Ontario workers.
HRdownloads Inc.
Problem Statement
At HRdownloads, one of the main ways the evaluation of training is assessed is pretty simple and obvious - does someone take the course? While usage absolutely does not point to the development of high-quality learning, it is the prerequisite first step. I was mandated to improve the training library as fast as possible, so one of the first reports I ran was a usage report. It turned out that seven courses out of a library of 200 made up more than 30% of total annual assignments.
Solution Implemented
While I was very eager to improve these courses since they represent such a large percentage of the total improvement effort completed - I wanted to wait for a few development cycles to iron out any potential vendor issues. Also, I saw this as an ideal opportunity to train some of the research staff in another division to produce high-quality training content. This team were the folks who produced training content before I arrived to create a new division.
Starting in the summer of 2020, I launched an effort to transform the most important seven courses. I enlisted the support of a high-potential member of the research team, and we worked together on creating a story that would make this training much easier to consume. We decided that a shared universe was the best approach and better yet, a shared company. Enter Cheezilla - a cheese company.
Cheezilla is a highly successful cheese company that has turned cheese from simple dairy product into lifestyle item. Cheese is the mark of the wealthy and the successful; everyone wants a piece.
Each course would follow a traditional format of multi-stage scenarios after every course subsection. The following is a list of the seven courses that comprised this project. Below are select clips from each course. Full course descriptions with learning outcomes are available on my LinkedIn page under the projects section.
Understanding Human Rights Training (AODA Edition)
AODA Customer Service Training for Ontario Workers (Comprehensive Content)
Occupational Health and Safety Awareness Training for Ontario Workers
Violence and Sexual Harassment Awareness Training for Ontario Workers
AODA Customer Service Standards Training for Ontario Workers (Condensed Content)
AODA Customer Service Standards Training for Ontario Workers (Refresher Content)
Violence and Sexual Harassment Awareness Training for Ontario Workers (Refresher Content)
Each course would contain a comprehensive exam and would be deployed on our natively built LMS. While our natively built LMS did not allow for personalized or adaptive learning, that was one of the next steps before I left the organization. I wanted to build or buy a platform to develop a true "choose your own adventure" narrative universe using all existing characters, fictional companies, and events from the animated training programs. This would have acted as a capstone activity for the HRdownloads Academy offering that was attached to the proposal of building or buying a new LMS.
Results Achieved
It was tough to assess the success of these courses since they were mandatory for certain groups of workers in Ontario - meaning that usage didn't indicate quality. There were colloquial conversations had over the six months after publishing the courses with clients who said they absolutely loved them, but I tend to take those comments with a grain of salt if not supported by data.
I want to note that one obvious training is not listed in this project - WHIMIS Training for All Employees. This course would be my 50th course completed in the project since it represented such a large percentage of total assignments - close to 10%. My idea was to create a Walking Dead-inspired Zombie game where learners would need to learn the different WHIMIS classifications and then use those different classifications to defeat zombies. Unforuntately, I left the organization before I was able to enact these plans.
Please use the arrows to navigate through various screenshots of projects associated with the case study presented. Please reach out to me if you have any questions about the above.