Themes in eLearning

Overview

Hewitt Associates is a global outsourcing and consulting firm founded 60 years ago. It is the largest multi-service human resources (HR) delivery provider in the world, delivering a complete range of human capital management services to companies. Its client list includes more than half of Fortune 500 companies and more than a third of Fortune Global 500 companies. It handles more than 53 million HR-related customer interactions a year from more than 13 million participants. Since Hewitt Associates is in the business of benefits consulting, it is always looking for creative methods to communicate its benefits offerings to its own employees.

Business Challenge

During benefits orientation, Hewitt needed to cover a significant amount of content in a limited amount of time, help employees make benefits decisions in a timely manner, and address concerns of new employees who range from recent college graduates to seasoned workers.

Solution

Design Access created a flexible solution where new employees tour a virtual town called Beneville. It meets the needs of a wide range of experience levels since employees can take the full tour or the quick tour, depending on how much information they need. Employees visit different buildings in the town to learn about the variety of benefits offered at the company.

There is an expert at each building who explains the benefits when the user stops there to visit. When learners complete the tour, they are ready to fill out interactive forms to select their own benefits. Design Access developed interactive forms for employees to complete to help them select their benefits. Since Hewitt offers its employees many flexible benefits options, the forms needed to dynamically calculate the employee’s various options and costs based on their personal data. All of the information contained in the benefits program is also easily accessible for reference after the course is over.

Results

Employees reacted very positively to the new benefits orientation format – novices and experts alike. They also appreciated the fact that they can reference the information at any time by consulting the program online as a reference. This has eliminated the need for paper benefits manuals. The time required to review benefits has decreased, saving Hewitt money. Finally, help calls from new employees with benefits questions have decreased significantly.

The online forms and extensive reference information make the entire orientation process more enjoyable for new employees. This program earned the First Place National AXIEM Award for Excellence in Business Training.

Building Around a Theme

One approach that works very well in tying different topics together is a theme. In Hewitt’s case, new employees needed to learn about many different types of benefits. We created a virtual town called Beneville, complete with a tour guide. We offered two tours of the town, the quick tour and the full tour. The full tour included basic general benefits information such as “What is a 401K Plan?” that was not included in the quick tour. The quick tour discussed Hewitt’s specific benefits without the additional general information. Seasoned employees took the quick tour, while those unfamiliar with benefits programs took the full tour. The different buildings in the town featured different benefits offered by Hewitt. For instance, child care benefits were discussed in the Day Care Center, while the Hospital employees discussed health care benefits. Housing each topic in a logical location assisted the employees in learning about the various benefits offerings.

Navigating a web site or a course in this manner takes advantage of mental maps people already have in their heads. Themes leverage the user’s knowledge and experience, and make it easy for them to make sense of the information.

Perhaps a theme could work for your situation. While the possibilities for themes are endless, below are some themes we have used successfully in the past.

Game Board Theme

We developed a game board theme for a technology orientation blended learning situation. The program was used in a classroom-based orientation. It allowed the instructors to focus on participant questions rather than the basic content. While the route through the game was predetermined, it didn’t appear that way to the learners. The program also ensured each session was consistent and not technically overwhelming to the participants.

Detective Story Theme

We developed a detective story theme to teach learners about deregulation. The story helped make the topic more enjoyable and memorable for the participants. The graphics and audio served to create the atmosphere that drew the learners into the story.

Travel Theme

In a communications piece on e-commerce, we used a travel theme where passengers rode on a train, having a discussion about e-commerce. As they made stops at each station, the conversation would turn to a related aspect of e-commerce. At the Telephone City station, the passengers discussed online banking. At the Food Village station, they discussed shopping over the Internet. As the journey progressed, each topic was logically covered.

Graphic Theme

Sometimes the theme is just a graphic look that ties all of the elements together. Graphic themes are used in situations where an overt metaphor would either overpower the message, or simply not provide a good fit for all of its parts. In these cases, a consistent look and feel can hold the communication together.

Themes can be combined. For instance, you could use a detective story for just one section of your training, a game-show for the assessment, and a simple graphic theme for the rest.

In every case, we have found that the theme has helped make the content easier to learn and remember. Are you struggling with how to present a series of topics? Let us suggest some interesting themes you could use.

Design Access creates custom solutions that teach, inform, and inspire. Our theme is quality! We combine business expertise, design creativity, and technical mastery to develop innovative solutions to our customers’ business problems. We have partnered with over 60 Fortune 500 companies to help them achieve their learning and communication goals. Let us put our experience, talent, and energy to work for you. Give us a call!