The Accountant's Academy
Responsibilities: Instructional Design, eLearning Development, Graphic Design
Target Audience: accountants
Tools Used: Eduflow, Canva, Adobe Illustrator, Camtasia, Google Suite
Budget: Medium
Overview
The overall objective of the academy was to help aspiring accountants become business advisors.
I proposed a cohort-based course that allows learners to develop advisory skills by taking action, practicing new skills, and receiving expert and peer feedback.
Process
My process consisted of 5 elements that the SME and I followed in a non-linear manner:
Analysis
Design
Development
Implementation
Evaluation
Analysis
Learner Personas
I started the analysis process by reviewing the existing interviews and testimonials from previous learners. I joined accountants' social forums to get a better understanding of their challenges and preferences.
Next, I worked with the SME to get feedback on my findings and take his perspective on our learners. We identified 4 learner personas. Below, you can see a sample of the personas I created.
Action Mapping
As part of the needs analysis for this project, I worked with the SME to identify the main objectives of the program and the key actions the learners will need to take to achieve the desired outcomes.
Design
Having created the learner personas, defined the overall objectives, and identified the key action, we agreed the best approach is a cohort-based course.
I then created the Design Blueprint.
Development
LMS
The learning experiences I designed for this project were based on social learning, collaboration, and peer reviews. Given that the course was planned to be run virtually, we wanted to include many social touch points.
This presented the first major challenge: finding an LMS that would support our collaborative and action-based learning experiences.
Here are some of the features I looked for when searching for an LMS:
peer reviews
discussion activities
learners able to share content with peers (including
videos)self-reflection
Below you can see a comparison table of a few LMSs I tested for this project.
Deliverables
The development of the project included:
content creation and curation
videos
fillable PDF
polls
discussion activities
graphics
Implementation
The implementation phase consisted of enroling the first cohort, scheduling the release of the content, planning live sessions, and seeking feedback from learners.
Evaluation
We used the Kirkpatrick model of evaluation for this project:
Level 1- Reaction:
I designed weekly surveys to measure whether learners find the course engaging, favorable, and relevant. The survey results have been overwhelmingly positive.
Level 2- Learning:
The following tools and strategies were used to measure whether learners acquired the intended knowledge, skills, attitude, and confidence:
Task submission followed by peer and expert feedback
Self-reflection
Progress reports (accessible to individual learners and facilitators)
Level 3- Behaviour:
Behavioral change was measured by self-reporting in group discussions (synchronous and asynchronous). There was a significant shift in mindset and attitude among the learners.
Level 4- Result:
75% of the learners achieved the learning objectives of the course within the first 8 weeks.