On-the-Job Learning Experience Design
Deliverables
Maintenance Workers for Clean Energy
As the older workforce retired and old equipment was being discontinued by manufacturers, this client struggled to transfer the knowledge to its younger workforce. Transitioning from an annual, onsite, classroom style, this organization wanted us to design an on-the-job, real-time, year-round learning experience.
I was responsible for crafting the research plan, choosing and preparing the workshops and analyzing the data collected by my colleagues during the one-on-one interviews. My team mates ran the interviews, summarized the discussions in diagrams for validation with the maintenance workers and put together the slide decks we presented to them.
Learning Factors
I assessed the learning factors as a first step towards designing the workshop contents. This design was made particularly challenging due to the company culture, which contained a Unionized Workforce, as well as a lack of infrastructure to access training information. Working in remote, rural areas, maintenance workers did not always have access to internet connection, and their portable devices could not carry all of the reference material due to data size. These constraints helped inform the approach I would lead.
Level of Required Competency
Another important consideration was the level of competency required. Unlike most workplace training, the quantity of information technicians were exposed to made it impossible to absorb it all. Most of the procedures were rarely used and the personnel had little to no hands-on opportunities to practice the acquired knowledge. It was, nevertheless, important to have them exposed to a large array of skills so they would have at least some basic knowledge surrounding them. They would rely on the material at hand to guide them through the details when the moment came.
Designing the Learning XP
The work being so specialized, it was impossible for our team to determine what the ideal learning experience should be like. Instead, we facilitated a series of workshops for maintenance workers, managers and administrators to determine the characteristics for successful outcomes. Many of the workshop activities I designed were aimed at fostering discussions and identifying areas of contradictions, which often emerged between different roles.
Empowering Maintenance Workers
The deck below shows the approach we took to foster these exchanges. I used some frameworks on learning experiences to identify scope of learning, as well as design principles. I also created a card game allowing maintenance workers to use storytelling for critical incidents which would have required better training.
Prototyping
The last phase consisted of a low-resolution prototype. After exposing participants to trends in similar industries, we introduced a timeline. By mapping long-term visions and quick wins, we were able to develop a staged approach to the problem. We prototyped screens on the go, during workshops, as participants agreed and communicated to us their common vision of the tool they would want.
GitHub Project (Public)
Repository (Private)
My Role:
LXP Designer
Facilitator
Project Manager