I was fortunate that the client was very responsive in providing suitable content for the eLearning. Therefore the instructional design process was incredibly smooth. Whilst the subject matter expert provided the knowledge based content, I then added suitable interactivity and refined the flow of the eLearning. Once the storyboard was signed off, we could move on to the build.

I have worked with Community Integrated Care before, therefore was familiar with their branding and how they like their eLearning to look. We opted for Articulate Storyline as this was their preferred platform.

After discussions, the client notified me that they wished to have custom next and back buttons, but wished to have the menu kept on, but restricted. This was to allow the learner to revisit any slides if they wish.

One of the challenges with the topic of sepsis was maintaining a serious tone, whilst including enough interactivity that the eLearning didn’t feel text heavy.

There is a lot of clinical information to cover, therefore I felt a scenario activity was key to enable the learner to anchor the learning to a relatable situation. Originally this was written as two scenarios which the learner has to complete, one where adequate care isn’t provided to the fictional character ‘Grace’, and the other where Grace’s support worker provides good care. The learner was originally required to complete both scenarios, however during the build of the eLearning we found that the exercise felt too repetitive.

This was then adapted to become a branching scenario, which challenged the learner to make choices on the care of Grace. The learner is then presented with the consequences of their choices and the impact on Grace. However, again it was felt that with the timescale of 20-minutes, this scenario activity didn’t feel fast paced enough. Instead we opted to keep it as one scenario, where Grace dies at the end. It was decided that it was more impactful if the learner was presented with the worst case scenario and then provided with key information and support on how to avoid this happening.

In order to separate and allow the information to feel digestible, I used a range of interactivity. This included select to reveal slides, multiple choice questions, video based scenario, flashcards and sliders. It was important the interactivity didn’t feel gimmicky or take away from the seriousness of the subject matter, therefore it was chosen carefully based on the content.

It was important to also represent individuals that the learner would be working with in their day-to-day role. Therefore I sourced imagery which included those with learning disabilities and of a range of ages and races. For example, originally Grace was represented as an elderly woman, however during the first feedback cycle the SME pointed out that often CIC work with lots of younger individuals. Therefore, I changed this to show Grace as a younger woman in her 30’s.

CIC has very bold, colourful branding which is a joy to work with. However, it was important to maintain a balance of using this colour palette whilst maintaining accessibility and avoiding cognitive overload. I used their bright colours as backgrounds, where the slide was more simple, such as a plain text and icon slide. I then used other pops of colour as icons, or for flashcards. However, I kept the body text and headers in dark grey to ensure the text could always be read.

One of the biggest challenges I encountered was managing client expectations. We found that once the storyboard was brought to screen, there were significant changes required such as re-structuring the order of the slides, cutting content, amending voiceover and more. This naturally led to longer review cycles and instances where I had to give my professional opinion in terms of what I felt worked best.

An example of this was feedback from the client that the eLearning felt too much like a PowerPoint, I provided my opinion that whilst we don’t want too many text and image slides, having to much ‘clicking’ (I.e. click to reveal slides) can also hinder an eLearning too. To find a middle ground that suited both parties, I amended some of the text and image slides to follow a less obvious layout, for example text appearing in speech bubbles over the image of person.

This eLearning also contained voiceover throughout. The client’s budget didn't extend to having professionally recorded voiceover, therefore I used AI. Sourcing an AI voiceover that sounded realistic and natural was tricky, as I wanted Grace’s carer to sound authentic and have a range of emotion and worry in her voice. Thankfully able to call on a fellow professional and friend to cover the voiceover for Grace’s carer Nadiya and the 999 call handler.

Including voiceover for almost every slide also meant slide elements needed to be timed perfectly. Therefore, any changes in the voiceover also led to having to re-time the corresponding slide. This was time consuming and as stated ended up increasing the time taken to complete feedback.

One of the last challenges was around presenting statistics on sepsis. These are hard hitting statistics which explain the number of people who die from sepsis in the UK each year. At first I had this presented as an animated slide showing the silhouettes of people, which fade out to represent a percentage of individuals dying. However, the client wanted it to feel more impactful. Therefore I amended this to include two video clips, the first a pan shot of a crowd of people, followed by a zoomed in shot of a gravestone to emphasise the severity of sepsis.