Client: Professional development
Date: June 2021
Services: eLearning Design & Development | Learning Ecosystem Consulting
This solution was created in Canvas Free-for-Teachers LMS as a response to the question:
"How might we create fun, engaging, and effective learning experiences built around topics that are generally viewed as boring?"
It doesn't get much more boring than Quality System Documentation, right?
This project-based course was created for adult learners. The target user group has varying experience with the topic and varying levels of comfort with technology. The design of this course is constructivist in nature (as opposed to a transfer-acquisition approach). Activities are designed to help the learner create meaning and construct a personal knowledge of the topic.
The course is divided into three sections:
Course Intro and Project Setup
Project Assignments
Course Wrap-Up
Project Setup
The Project Setup section includes a Welcome Page that sets basic learning expectations, a Pre-Assessment survey, and Readings and Resources to prepare the learner for upcoming Project Assignments.
Project Assignments
Special attention was paid to answering these questions from learners:
"Why am I doing this?" "Why should I care?"
User feedback included comments such as:
"I'll participate more if I know that there's a scientific reason behind what you're asking me to do."
"Oh! I can see how my team and I use offloading to prevent making mistakes!"
Understanding and Using Document Numbers
To help learners understand the document number format and practice using document numbers, learners are asked to:
Identify document identifier codes relevant to their work.
Create custom document numbers based on set criteria.
Practice searching for and sharing documents in the Document Library.
After initial user testing, the search and share activities were redesigned to better support learners while simultaneously providing useful improvement information to subject matter experts and course admins. The result of the redesign is shown above.
Learners provide evidence of their search results to allow SMEs to provide better support when documents cannot be located.
Admins can use the screenshots provided to perform period quality checks of document settings that impact search results.
Project Report-Out
To complete the project, learners are asked to craft a final Project Report-Out and post it in a group discussion board. They are then asked to provide feedback to their peers.
Course facilitators provide additional guidance clarification as-needed, but the primary engagement is conducted peer-to-peer.
Course Wrap-Up
To conclude the course, learners are asked to complete a five question Post-Assessment survey. This Post-Assessment includes similar questions as the Pre-Assessment to facilitate reflection about what was learned during the course.
Questions #4 and #5 are specifically designed to provide improvement feedback to course admins.
