eLearning Teams & Interactivity

I recently came across an article I wrote this past February on building a team for game development, which headlined in the Training Conference daily newsletter called Game On or Game Over for Online Training. I defined the four critical components to effective management of immersive learning simulation (ILS) projects:

Defining a culture.
Setting goals.
Building a team.
Managing time, cost, and quality.

Upon further reflection, this article really can be applied to most highly interactive development projects.

Let’s analyze how these components can be incorporated into any high-end eLearning project.

Defining a Culture

“The team” has just as much of an impact on outcomes of eLearning projects as the technology. One of the most important tasks for a leader is to create a culture of continuous improvement through effective project management. Improved efficiency in the learning object development process means more dollars will appear on the screen. Each member of the team is a source of expertise in his or her field and should feel confident in sharing their expertise with fellow team members. Project quality will escalate as team members align their personal contributions with the group impact on the project. With each individual working as a team member, we can then look at the make-up of a typical high-end eLearning development group.

Schedules and Goal Setting

The project manager must be able to break down tasks, budgets, and schedules. After the initial brainstorming and project approval, the project manager schedules each project task after estimates and discussions from each team member. Tasks are assigned a cost based on the budget, and no job is too small to be included in the budget. Setting weekly goals is important for keeping large tasks on a schedule, and holding regular meetings is key to incorporating input and buy-in from project stakeholders.

Strong eLearning Teams Are Made Up of…

Successful development of interactive eLearning components requires a diverse team of highly skilled professionals.

A quality team should include:

Instructional designer

Artistic illustrator

Flash ActionScript programmer

Project manager

It also helps to provide the team with tools for brainstorming and documentations.

This interactivity calculator helps a team decide on the various components needed to increase the interactivity or "quality level" of a learning object.

Finally, we round up our discussion by going back to the culture of project management.

Managing Time, Cost, and Quality

The classic time/cost/quality triple constraint applies in all projects. It takes a collective team effort to apply innovative design principles within the confines of the project scope and budget. The team should utilize efficient programming techniques during development and evaluation methodology post-development for improvement in the future. Specific actions to increase the team’s timeliness, efficiency, and production quality include:

Use a process and project plan with a clearly defined scope.
Consider Agile development principles of prototypes and iteration cycles
Use a Web-based team site to communicate with stakeholders.
Require staff logging of project activity hours for budget accounting.
Commit to reusing code and graphics for efficient production.
Consistently use visual representation tools in meetings.
Communicate on the degree of interactivity and development requirements in terms of talent (time) and resources (cost). (Take a quick look at our interactivity calculator tool)
Regularly document and reflect on user testing sessions.

Incorporating these steps will help any organization build effective and engaging online learning experiences. Can you comment and add additional actions and tools that help your team "reach the next level?"

Submitted by Jon Aleckson on Mon, 11/16/2009

culture first

Submitted by Kay Plantes (not verified) on Tue, 11/17/2009.

I really like how you placed culture first. The effectiveness of a team depends so much on whether you have created cultural norms and these norms are aligned with your goals.

A well explained topic. We work in a similar way.

Submitted by Daren Pickering (not verified) on Tue, 11/17/2009.

Hi Jon,
Just a quick comment to say that many of our projects at LJ are produced using very similar ideas and with similar team structures.

Our company has "talent pools", we have a group of graphic designers, a group of authors, a group of flash developers and a number of team leaders (project managers). A number of people will be selected from each talent pool for each project.

Regards,

Daren.

Thanks for sharing these

Submitted by Mary McNevin (not verified) on Mon, 11/16/2009.

Thanks for sharing these steps. I am particularly intriqued with your use of visual representation tools and your interactivity calculator tool. These tools remind me of what we do in our manufacturing facilities as we work to become a "lean" organization. They use Visual Management ..which is the use of visual aids to promotes safer, more efficient, and less wasteful processes. The goal in using visual management is to create "status at a glance." I think this is great both internally for the team...but also for the client (either internal or external).

Wow Jon, well done! A very

Submitted by Bonnie Hemingway (not verified) on Mon, 11/16/2009.

Wow Jon, well done! A very interesting article with lots of great info. Just a couple of thoughts. For the Managing Quality section, consider expanding to recommend and provide links to specific examples of test plans. I'm thinking the standard User Acceptance, Unit or Functionality Testing, Use Case Scenarios, etc. Also, confirm the link to Agile Development Principles. For my PC with Internet Explorer 7.0, it opens to an entry screen, doesn't allow for scrolling and appears as though there's more content below. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for sharing!