Peer Graded Assignment: Reflection

14.04.2020

The Challenge

Background: I am the co-founder of an edtech company whose mission is to upskill professionals by  giving them skills that make them industry-ready. We typically create courses for professionals  working in industries where a skill can be taught /learnt eg: hospitality, customer relations; rather  than industries where one needs an educational qualification, say IT or Banking.

The Problem: We are looking at expanding our business and user base by creating courses for  fashion retail industry professionals. These professionals are expected to have knowledge of  products, good communication skills and good sales skills. While we can simply create courses for  them the traditional way, we want people to benefit from the courses instantly with a clear  improvement in sales performance. For this we need to determine 1) what should be the ideal  course content 2) what should be the ideal course structure and methodology.

Selection

We chose the Mind Mapping tool deep dive into the problem. Various members of my team used  various techniques of the Mind Mapping tool during the course of one week long discussions with all  key stakeholders involved in the process of creating the course.

Application

As mentioned earlier, we decided to involve all key stakeholders in order to determine the course  content, structure and methodology; this included subject matter experts, instructional designers,  retail industry HR & business personnel and individuals working in those jobs currently. Each one of  them had a very important role to play in determining the solutions we were looking for.

Subject matter experts would be able to determine the exact skills to be taught in the course.  Instructional designers would visualize how the skills need to be presented to the learners – the  language, graphics, quizzes and more. HR and business professionals from the industry would need  to validate that the content of the course would be practical enough to be applied to the daily work  of the learner immediately to get desired results. And finally, the people currently in the same jobs  would be able to critique the drafts of the content and help us test the proto types and give us  feedbacks and reviews for improvement.

Insight

Here are some of the key insights we got from some of the key stakeholder groups that helped us  determine our solution:

1. Instructional Designers: This set of professionals are not academics oriented, most find

learning extremely boring. Therefore the content format needs to be highly engaging and

interactive, that way it will become much more easy for them to grasp and retain concepts  being taught.

2. HR & Business Personnel: While the concepts will be taught would be fairly standardized

basis the industry, it will be important for each individual to actually apply the learnings with  customers. This can be done only if they really practice learnings on ground. So how do we  inculcate a practice phase into the learning.

3. People currently in similar jobs: Most of them are time-crunched working 7 days a week in

10 hour shifts so it was imperative to be mindful that the course is short and snappy; also  that it can be taken online so that they do not have to waste time in travelling unnecessarily.

Approach

With all the inputs we have received from the design thinking workshop, here’s what we plan to do  now.

•  Create the program in 3D animation to make it highly engaging and interactive.

•  Add gamification components to make it easy to grasp and non-academic.

•  Create an online course of 2 weeks (3-4 hours per week), provide work-life balance.

•  At the end of online course completion, assign store manager as coach to calibrate  improvement in performance.

The next step would be to create the courses and get feedback from some end users on the  practicality and utilization.


Peer Graded Assignment : Reflection 14.04.2020 The Challenge Background : I am the co - founder of an edtech company whose mission is to upskill professionals by giving them skills that make them industry - ready . We typically create courses for professionals working in industries where a skill can be taught /learnt eg : hospitality , customer relations ; rather than industries where one needs an educational qualification , say IT or Banking . The Problem : We are looking at expanding our business and user base by creating courses for fashion retail industry professionals . These professionals are expected to have knowledge of products , good communication skills and good sales skills . While we can simply create courses for them the traditional way , we want people to benefit from the courses instantly with a clear improvement in sales performance . For this we need to determine 1 ) what should be the ideal course content 2 ) what should be the ideal course structure and methodology . Selection We chose the Mind Mapping tool deep dive into the problem . Various members of my team used various techniques of the Mind Mapping tool during the course of one week long discussions with all key stakeholders involved in the process of creating the course . Application As mentioned earlier , we decided to involve all key stakeholders in order to determine the course content , structure and methodology ; this included subject matter experts , instructional designers , retail industry HR & business personnel and individuals working in those jobs currently . Each one of them had a very important role to play in determining the solutions we were looking for . Subject matter experts would be able to determine the exact skills to be taught in the course . Instructional designers would visualize how the skills need to be presented to the learners – the language , graphics , quizzes and more . HR and business professionals from the industry would need to validate that the content of the course would be practical enough to be applied to the daily work of the learner immediately to get desired results . And finally , the people currently in the same jobs would be able to critique the drafts of the content and help us test the proto types and give us feedbacks and reviews for improvement . Insight Here are some of the key insights we got from some of the key stakeholder groups that helped us determine our solution : 1 . Instructional Designers : This set of professionals are not academics oriented , most find learning extremely boring . Therefore the content format needs to be highly engaging and interactive , that way it will become much more easy for them to grasp and retain concepts being taught . 2 . HR & Business Personnel : While the concepts will be taught would be fairly standardized basis the industry , it will be important for each individual to actually apply the learnings with customers . This can be done only if they really practice learnings on ground . So how do we inculcate a practice phase into the learning . 3 . People currently in similar jobs : Most of them are time - crunched working 7 days a week in 10 hour shifts so it was imperative to be mindful that the course is short and snappy ; also that it can be taken online so that they do not have to waste time in travelling unnecessarily . Approach With all the inputs we have received from the design thinking workshop , here ’s what we plan to do now . • Create the program in 3D animation to make it highly engaging and interactive . • Add gamification components to make it easy to grasp and non - academic . • Create an online course of 2 weeks ( 3 - 4 hours per week ) , provide work - life balance . • At the end of online course completion , assign store manager as coach to calibrate improvement in performance . The next step would be to create the courses and get feedback from some end users on the practicality and utilization .