Written by Brad Hinson.
Client (who):
My first client working for The Learning Agency was the Human Resources (HR) department within the School of Education and Human Development (SEHD) at the University of Colorado-Denver (UCD). SEHD was looking to develop a streamlined onboarding process for newly hired student employees.
Overview (what/when):
Before this project, SEHD was using multiple emails and websites to onboard new employees; This process was inefficient, complicated, and confusing which meant that HR spent a lot of their time answering questions about onboarding and holding the hands of new hires through the onboarding process to ensure the requirements were met. In order to solve this problem, I was tasked with creating a “one-stop shop” for new employees to visit upon hire to complete the required trainings and setups that come with a new job. Additionally, SEHD wanted this course to be accessible after initial completion so that employees can utilize it as a resource during their employment. We decided to create an accessible course using Articulate Rise. Although the timeline for this project had a flexible timeline, we started gathering ideas and content at the end of February and launched the course mid-May.
Process:
When we embarked on this journey at the end of February 2024, we started by asking some key questions in order to identify the problem: Why were new hires having such a difficult time completing the onboarding process? What questions did HR have to address most frequently? What change does HR want to see as a result of this project? After we gathering the answers to these questions, we began brainstorming potential solutions and eventually landed on creating a course through Rise. Once the final product and the project goals were defined, we started gathering the necessary resources and materials to include in the course.
After I received everything that needed to be included, I began building the course in Rise keeping user-friendliness at the forefront of my efforts. The HR team members and I met weekly to touch base on the progress of the project and make edits as necessary. The first draft of the course was released and reviewed on April 3, 2024. The PDF version of this first draft can be downloaded and viewed by clicking below.
The HR team and I spent a couple of weeks combing through the draft synchronously, during our meetings, and asynchronously, as necessary. The draft was edited as we went and by the end of April, the draft reached the point of readiness to be presented to the larger HR department for feedback. The final draft was presented synchronously, via zoom, to the larger SEHD HR team on May 2, 2024. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with minimal edit requests. Our last meeting occurred on May 13, 2024 and the final SEHD Onboarding course was launched on May 23, 2024.
Outcome:
Ultimately, the best solution to the problem facing the onboarding process for new hires within SEHD was to create a comprehensive course in Articulate Rise. I worked closely with 2 members of the HR team to develop the course and ensure it’s usefulness. As the project closed, I received multiple messages from the SEHD HR team about how satisfied they were with the new course and how excited they were to use it moving forward. Additionally, a user survey was sent out to get user feedback from new hires that use the course. It seems as though the survey results were/are positive because SEHD HR is currently requesting that I replicate the student employee onboarding course for full time (non-student) hires. The finalized course that was developed for SHED student employees can be viewed by clicking on the button below.
Reflection: Your take on how this went/is going. Lessons learned? What would you do differently next-time? What are your key take-aways and lessons learned?
When I accepted the project, I was only a few weeks into the Learning Design and Technology (LDT) graduate program at UCD and was very unfamiliar with what instructional/learning design would look like for me. This project ended up opening my eyes to the possibilities within the ID/LD field. I remember calling my dad after my first few meetings and saying, “I think I can really do this full time if I ever decide to leave teaching! I never thought I would have so much fun creating an onboarding course.”
That being said, I learned a few lessons that I have carried with me since this project.
- Keep detailed notes on a running document.
- Send a follow-up email after each meeting to summarize what was discussed and what needs to be done before the next meeting.
- Save multiple versions of your course in Rise so that you can go back and see the changes.
- It’s okay to say “no” or suggest a different solution to a problem if the client looses sight of the project goals and/or timeline.
- Accessibility matters and cannot be an afterthought.
Needless to say, I had a BLAST with this project learning new design models, theories of project management, and navigating digital platforms like Rise! I felt like a caterpillar at the beginning of this project, but by the end, I was definitely forming my cocoon.
