Rapid Elearning Development

In 2020, as COVID-19 lockdown restrictions began to lift and businesses started to reopen, there was an urgent need to train the returning workforce in new hygiene and safety procedures. At that time, the workforce was still under lockdown, necessitating remote training to prepare them for their return to work within 10 days.

The government’s COVID-19 restrictions were changing rapidly, almost daily. Therefore, the solution had to be developed quickly, within 4 to 5 days and needed to be regularly updated. Additionally, the company had locations in England and across the devolved nations: Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Jersey, and the Republic of Ireland. This required the training to differentiate between the various government restrictions.

The brief was constantly evolving. The country entered a second lockdown, and when it was lifted, the restrictions were different and lifted very gradually. Fortunately, this was anticipated, and a solution was chosen that could be updated as needed.

Given the circumstances, this course needed to be accessible to all employees returning to work after the initial COVID-19 lockdown. This included over 4,000 employees across various roles, from customer-facing positions and supervisory roles to junior and senior management. Employees were required to complete the training either from home within the 10 days before returning to the workplace or on their first day back if they lacked access to a device.

The training course also needed to be compatible with multiple devices, as most employees would be using their own phones, tablets, or personal computers to complete it.

Online learning, in the form of a traditional e-learning course, was the obvious choice due to its scalability, tracking, and quizzing features via the company’s existing LMS. Although many people had become familiar with virtual meetings during the lockdown, this method was discarded for several reasons, primarily the lack of flexibility in when learners could complete the training and the difficulty in testing their knowledge.

The usual development process had to be condensed into four days, with one additional day for testing. Compromises were necessary regarding the development process and the level of interactivity, but this allowed learners an extra five days to complete the training before returning to work. The focus was on effectively communicating the message rather than creating a highly interactive course, though the course still included some interactivity to keep it engaging.

Not all employees returned to the workplace simultaneously, and cinemas operated with reduced staff levels for a period. Some employees later found alternative employment, necessitating the recruitment of new staff while restrictions were still in place and changing weekly. Therefore, the project needed to be easily updatable as government restrictions evolved.

Using only online government guidance as a reference, it was quickly identified that the information regarding restrictions and new procedures could be organised into four sections: Social Distancing, Personal Protective Equipment, Sanitisation, and Customer Service. A rough draft of the content was created in PowerPoint, compiling information from various sources into each section.

From there, everything was built directly into Storyline without storyboarding or scripting. For speed, the narration was recorded using the Immersive Reader in Microsoft Word (web version) and edited in Audacity.

Within days, an e-learning course was developed from scratch and rolled out to all returning workers. The project took 10 days from start to finish—5 days for development and 5 days for employees to complete the training. In terms of the initial goal, it was a significant success, demonstrating that rapid development has its place and time.

Employees returned to work informed, albeit a bit nervous (which is understandable), but with a new sense of reassurance, aware of how the business was gradually reopening to the public. It was a real achievement, but that wasn’t the end of the story.

During the pandemic, government restrictions and guidance changed almost weekly. The guidance varied from one devolved nation to another, and the company continued to recruit new employees as business levels gradually increased. This meant the course was constantly in use and needed to be kept up to date.

Over the course’s life, it was updated 38 times, with new versions published. As the differences grew across all the devolved nations, the course had to adapt, eventually evolving into a branching course where employees selected their nation and completed a specific pathway tailored to the restrictions in their region.

Overall, it was proof that, despite tight deadlines, courses can be quickly developed to meet immediate learning needs. However, rapid development should not be relied upon as the only solution. It’s like a sticking plaster - it will stop the initial bleeding, but often you need to go back and dress the wound properly.

The following software and design tools were used to support the design and development of this project.

• Articulate Storyline

• Canva

• Audacity