LEARNING DESIGN AND DELIVERY

I was thrown into the world of learning early on in my career as a lecturer in Social Anthropology. I was responsible for designing and delivering a number of Social Anthropology and Philosophy courses for delivery at two South African academic institutions. This presented an opportunity to gain valuable skills in the design of learning, but also entrenched a deep love of imparting knowledge to others. As time has progressed, I have gained more experience in this area and have learnt valuable skills which I have been able to implement in my own approach to the design and delivery of meaningful and lasting learning outcomes. The ability to design and deliver learning has been invaluable in being able to traverse learning in other domains, such as data, information and knowledge management.

Learning Roles

  • Manager, Technical Capability
    Insurance Australia Group (IAG), Australia and New Zealand | September 2021 - Present
  • Training Manager
    Enable Networks Limited, New Zealand | October 2016 - August 2017
  • Siebel CRM Online Learning Instructional Designer
    First National Bank, South Africa | March 2006 - July 2007
  • Learning Content Manager and Materials Publisher
    Insurance Institute of South Africa, South Africa | October 2003 - February 2006
  • Social Anthropology Lecturer
    Potchefstroom University for CHE, South Africa | January 1994 - June 2001

Examples of Projects Delivered

  • Organisation: Assurity Consulting Limited
    Project focus: Business analysis capability development
    Assurity Consulting Limited had an objective of offering ICAgile accredited courses as part of its service offering to support capability uplift. This translated into mapping the learning outcomes to techniques, researching content and developing the course material. An agile approach was assumed, with epics and stories driving the development and delivery of the content.
    Role: Lead business analyst and content developer
    Outcome: The course was designed, developed, delivered and accredited by ICAgile within a six week timespan, included 56 techniques, and was the first Assurity course to be accredited by the accreditation body.
     
  • Organisation: Enable Networks Limited
    Project focus: Capability model development
    The organisation needed to improve its method of onboarding new customer service representatives, and needed a way to identify the different capability levels across the contact centre. The development of a standardised capability model, with a method to assess different levels, was designed and which formed the basis to up-skill all customer service representatives so that team members were at the same knowledge and skill level to deal with customer queries. After the initial training programme was designed and delivered, the capability model was extended to include capabilities across more senior customer service domains (case management) and contact centre leadership.
    Role: Lead designer and developer for the capability model
    Outcome: The delivery of a capability model which underpinned the customer service representative onboarding programme, but which also provided a way to develop learning to assist customer service representatives to progress into more advanced service roles. 

  • Organisation: Enable Networks Limited
    Project focus: Onboarding programme
    The organisation had an ad hoc and limited onboarding programme for new customer service representatives. Contact centre processes were not documented and standardised, which meant that there were many different ways of dealing with customer queries. The onboarding programme was premised on the development of a capability model to identify key skills that needed to be standardised across the contact centre; and key processes and knowledge that all customer service representatives needed to order to deliver customer service outcomes. The base onboarding programme for beginner customer service representatives was developed, and subsequently extended to include learning for seniors and specialists.
    Role: Lead on the instructional design, the development and delivery of the onboarding programme
    Outcome: Standardised processes and a levelling of knowledge across the contact centre, which provided improved customer service experiences, and also empowered customer service representatives to move into more complex case management and problem-solving service roles.

  • Organisation: IAG New Zealand
    Programme focus: Data capability development
    An important component that underpins data governance and information management in organisations is ensuring that employees are information literate, and understand how to identify sensitive information to protect it. The focus of this programme was to develop and deliver courses to support an uplift in capability, as well as to provide practical tools and techniques that could be applied by learners in their daily work.
    Role: Lead instructional designer, content developer and course facilitator
    Outcome: Courses were delivered on a regular basis across major cities in New Zealand, with growing demand for attendance and positive feedback. There was regular communication that the tools and techniques taught in the courses were being applied to learners' individual contexts of work.

  • Organisation: First National Bank
    Project focus: E-learning to support a CRM implementation
    Design of the training framework, structure, methods and standards for the delivery of electronic learning, as well as the design and development of electronic learning modules on the Siebel CRM SimBuilder 7.7 platform to support the implementation of new customer relationship management processes for First National Bank, and the use of Siebel CRM as the tool for capturing data relating to customer interactions and outcomes.
    Role: Lead instructional designer and content developer
    Outcome: Successful implementation of Siebel CRM and uptake of the application within First National Bank.

My Favourite Tools, Techniques and Resources

I have a few go-to methods and models that I pull out of my toolkit to support the design and development of learning interventions. Borrowing from my business analysis toolkit, I will start off with the question: "what problem are we trying to solve?". Starting from the perspective of problem or opportunity translates into being able to design learning that is meaningful to learners, and which helps to drive the right capability, skill and behavioural outcomes for organisations. 


My favourite methods and tools are:

  • Kemp Instructional Design Model: a traditional model, but one that I like because it covers the important parts of course development and the emphasis of the interdependencies of these parts in the process of the design and delivery of learning. I am a firm believer in continuous improvement, and this model highlights the importance of revision as an ongoing and improvement-focussed outcome.
  • ADDIE Instructional Design Model: is a simple framework, not unlike those in business analysis and information management, which provides a phased approach to the design and development of content.
  • Merrill's Principles of Instruction: is a principle-based approach to learning and is premised on the fact that learning starts with real-world problems. Learning needs to be relatable to problems and tasks, needs to be associated to existing knowledge, and applied to integrate the new knowledge into learners' contexts of work. 
  • Gagne's Nine Events: is a behaviourist approach, which looks at events during the learning process and how each of the events impacts learners and can be used in the learning process.
  • Training from the Back of the Room: is an approach to learning which has been adopted in the Agile space. The publication by Sharon Bowman covers techniques which help to enhance the learning experience, and which are based on the science behind how humans learn. I have used this approach in Agile-based learning that I have designed and delivered; and have also found it useful in designing learning interventions for adults on complex topics such as information management and privacy.