Elliot Jones | ISDeaX

Drug-free Workforce: Random Drug Test Scenario

Background

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission had an instructor-led course on their drug-free workforce plan and their employee assistance program that had proven to be ineffective; students weren’t remembering the information and found it very boring. Additionally, it was difficult to schedule classes around the hundreds of managers’ schedule who were required to take the class. They wanted an eLearning course developed to solve these problems.

Challenges

1) Design a solution for a customer who didn’t know what they wanted until they saw it.

2) Finish a large part of the project before one of the key SMEs went on maternity leave.

3) Complete the project on a compressed schedule.

Common Mistakes

1) Try to transfer the instructor-led course into an online course.

2) Try to teach every aspect of the drug-free workforce plan and employee assistance program in an online course.

Approach

I reviewed existing course materials and interviewed SMEs to determine the information that students had the most trouble remembering and the information that was most important for them to know.

I used the Constructivist Theory to develop 4 complex branching scenarios that allow students to explore the consequences of their choices. Learners are presented with background information on different situations then given a series of choices involving implementing the drug-free workforce plan and the employee assistance program. Feedback is only given at the end of each scenario, if the learner makes a huge mistake, or if they ask the course guide for help.

To ensure the course was completed by the deadline, we used an agile development approach. Each scenario/lesson was storyboarded independently; once one storyboard was completed, it was delivered to the client to review. Once their review was done and all feedback incorporated, the storyboards were given to the course developer to begin development.

Because of the complexity of the scenario branches, I created a simple functional prototype in Articulate Storyline to map out the branches. I also created a numbering system so you could follow the branches from start to conclusion while reviewing the storyboards.

We explored making the course into a game by adding a point system for the various answer choices but decided against it because of time constraints.

My Role

Senior Instructional Design Consultant.