Imagine that you just came across a delicious recipe that you’re itching to try. You’ve got time to make it right now, you’re hungry, and you’re pretty sure you have all of the ingredients on hand. You’re chopping, sautéing, and mixing when suddenly the progress comes to a screeching halt because you’re missing a key ingredient. Do you compromise with substitutions to make a mediocre meal? Or do you ensure quality by delaying the end product with a trip to the store?
In the world of learning, the content map is our recipe and the ingredients are the content sources. Ideally, course design begins with all of the ingredients on hand. This ensures we don’t hit design roadblocks that derail progress and timelines.
But what if the pressure is on to deliver bite-sized courses and you don’t have templates or prototypes to work from? PT has the right resources and team to create recipes from scratch even as prep chefs are doing the mise for other courses.
Whether we’re creating a single course or a series of microlearning courses, PT adjusts the prep work to the job at hand. This allows us to complete effective training in a shorter timeframe and, when required, to scale our work with greater efficiency. At Principled Technologies, we work hard to prevent content-related delays by carefully preparing content for a great learning experience.
First, we gather content. Often, it comes from the client; we’ve seen everything from 3-ring binders and textbooks to multi-media files and past courses. Sometimes, subject matter experts – PT’s or the client’s – provide detailed information, either written or orally, and at other times we work to extract information from hand-written meeting notes. We carefully review every piece to guarantee that the course at hand is as current, accurate, and relevant as possible.
Next, we organize the content for easy accessibility and searchability. This important step allows us to link each piece of information to one of the course objectives and ensure that it serves a purpose within the course. Items that can’t be linked to an objective are flagged for discussion with the client. Objectives that don’t have content to back them up are also in need of attention.
Finally, we spend time with the client filling in content gaps and prioritizing all of the information. The quantity of information and the size of the learning deliverable must align to ensure that courses are not cluttered or overwhelming. Very often, the need for training begins when end users have too much information available. They get overwhelmed – they don’t know where to start or how to find what they’re looking for; so, they don’t use any of it. One of our most important jobs is identifying the essentials and scaling those content pieces to fit within digestible, usable, actionable experiences.
By the end of our content preparation process, our desktops are the polished granite countertops in a high-end kitchen on a cooking show – filled with little bowls brimming with precisely measured ingredients. With our recipes established and ingredients prepped, we are ready to create exciting courses, without compromise or delay, that anyone would be happy to feast upon.
