Final Project Proposal

Part 1 | The Need

Learning Experience: Description, Importance, and Aims

The learning experience that I’m planning for my final project is a training course on virtual presentation skills. Specifically, I want to develop an instructional unit that trains employees to deliver more engaging presentations over the video conferencing platform Zoom. This topic is important because delivering virtual presentations has become an essential part of working in client services industries. Even for people who work at organizations that don’t have clients or customers, presenting to colleagues in virtual meetings is common.

Delivering a presentation virtually can create challenges for the presenter, including a lack of non-verbal cues and the possibility of increased distractions or technical difficulties. I hope that this course will help employees structure and deliver virtual presentations in a way that facilitates engagement, reduces distractions, and encourages retention of the material being presented.

While this course is not related to my current work environment, it does relate to some of the jobs I have held in the past, and I believe it will serve as a good example of the work that I hope to do in learning and development in the future. The course that I develop will demonstrate my proficiency in designing and delivering a useful training program and will provide me with the opportunity to develop skills in several learning technologies that I want to be able to list on my resume in the future (e.g., Articulate Rise).

Learning or Instructional Context

Since this course is focused on providing training to employees who work in virtual environments, it will be delivered entirely online. The course will be asynchronous and self-paced, allowing learners the flexibility to work through the material at their convenience. Such a format is well-suited for a course that professionals may have to complete while balancing other work-related priorities. In order to provide learners with an opportunity to practice their virtual presentation skills, they will be encouraged to submit a practice recording at the end of the course, which I will then evaluate and provide written feedback on.

The course will be hosted on Articulate Reach 360, a learning management system that is particularly appropriate for delivering courses built in Articulate Rise or Storyline. Reach 360 also has robust tracking and reporting functions, which will help me track learner progress as they work to complete the course.

Learner Audience

The learning audience for my final project will be professionals who deliver presentations in virtual environments. The audience may include client-facing employees (e.g., an Account Manager or Sales Manager) or internal employees that are responsible for providing updates to the organization’s staff (e.g., a Human Resources Associate or an IT Manager). These learners may have varying levels of experience with public speaking and using virtual meeting technologies, but all are expected to have virtual presentation skills as part of their job. Participants may join the training to enhance their virtual communication skills, focusing on engaging audiences effectively and minimizing distractions to keep meetings on track. The training will provide practical strategies applicable to a range of virtual meetings and presentations.

Subject-Matter Focus/Content

My learning experience will be centered around strategies for delivering content and maintaining audience engagement and focus in virtual settings. The content will include:

  • Key differences between virtual and in-person presenting

  • Tips on how to prepare for virtual presentations

  • Practical strategies for engaging virtual audiences on Zoom

  • Strategies for minimizing distractions and maintaining audience engagement

The training will include examples and scenarios throughout to help prepare learners for the challenges that they might face when delivering a presentation virtually. Learner retention of the content will be reinforced with knowledge-check quizzes and reflection activities.

Part 2 | Desired Learning Outcomes & Assessment

Desired Learning Outcome #1: Identify key differences between presenting online and in-person

Assessment Strategy:

  • Reflection questions at the beginning of the training course

  • Quizzes/knowledge checks with interactive feedback.

Desired Learning Outcome #2: Apply presentation strategies that engage remote audiences

Assessment Strategy:

  • Multiple choice quiz where learners are given examples and asked to select appropriate strategies from a list of options

  • Optional practice presentation for feedback at the end of the course

Desired Learning Outcome #3: Develop techniques for minimizing distractions and maintaining focus during virtual presentations

Assessment Strategy:

  • Quizzes/knowledge checks

  • Scenario where a challenge arises and learners are asked to navigate a path for responding to the challenge

Part 3 | Activities, Sequencing & Strategies

Learning Experience Activity #1

Learners will provide some initial free responses on what they think makes a virtual presentation different from an in person presentation. This activity will be at the beginning of the learning experience. When the learner submits their free response answer, they will be presented with some information about virtual presentations and the things that make them unique. 

Evidence-Based Strategies & Guidelines

By starting with an open-ended question and then providing some information that introduces the learner to the unique challenges and requirements of facilitating online presentations and meetings, the training will grab the learner's attention and get them to actively connect the new information with what they already know. The question and answer will be supported by the “attention” component of Keller’s ARCS model and UDL consideration 3.1 (“Connect prior knowledge to new learning”).

Learning Experience Activity #2

Learners will check their understanding after reviewing some initial content through a knowledge check. The check will be a multiple choice style quiz that will come after learners are introduced to some of the most important principles of presenting content online. When the learner submits their multiple choice answer, they will receive feedback about why their answer is correct or incorrect.

Evidence-Based Strategies & Guidelines

This activity reinforces the learner’s comprehension of key strategies and tips on how to deliver engaging presentations in virtual environments. It also helps learners assess how well they understand the foundational content of the training before they move on material that is more focused on examples and scenarios. This supports the generative learning strategy of self-testing because it allows the learner to go through all of the possible answers and assess their knowledge. It also supports UDL consideration 8.5 (“Offer action-oriented feedback”) because each possible answer choice will have an action-oriented feedback that explains the specific reasons why the selected answer was correct or incorrect.

Learning Experience Activity #3

After all of the content is presented, learners will be asked to go respond to a scenario where challenges arise during a virtual presentation. They will then be asked to navigate the scenario by clicking through a series of questions, where they will receive unique responses based on how they choose to navigate the scenario.

Evidence-Based Strategies & Guidelines

This learning experience activity will simulate a real-world presentation scenario in a low-stakes environment. I think this is a helpful part of the learning process because it helps learners connect the basic principles and considerations of presenting online with their jobs and the ways that meeting participants might behave in the real world. By offering feedback based on the learner’s choices, the training will help them reflect on how their behavior can impact the quality of their presentation. The guidelines that will inform my design decisions are UDL consideration 6.2 (“anticipate and plan for challenges”) and the relevance component of Keller’s ARCS model.

Part 5 | Evaluation Plan

Aims of the Evaluation Plan

The primary aim of my evaluation plan is to ensure that the instruction is engaging, accessible, and ultimately effective in helping learners gain practical skills for delivering online presentations. To support this aim, I will conduct a formative evaluation throughout the development of the training program. The goals of the formative evaluation are to:

  • Align instructional content with specific learning outcomes

  • Ensure that content is accurate and maintains a logical flow that builds on prior knowledge

  • Assess whether the technologies used to build and support my learning experience are enhancing the content of the training program

  • Confirm that the interactive components of the program are relevant and engaging

  • Refine the interface so that it is navigable, intuitive, an accessible across devices

The results from my formative evaluation will guide the revisions that I make to the training program before learners engage with the training program. After the program is implemented, I will assess student outcomes by determining how successful the instruction was. To measure the success of the instruction, I will aim to gather learners’ feedback on:

  • Overall course satisfaction

  • Applicability of the material

  • Skill retention

  • Efficiency of content delivery

  • To gather the data on student outcomes, I will implement a short survey that will be delivered through Google Forms.

Overview of the Evaluation Plan

Upon completion of the first draft of each major segment of my training program, I will conduct a self-evaluation. The purpose of this evaluation is to identify strengths and areas for improvement. I will conduct the self-assessment in a quiet, uninterrupted environment and will attempt to approach it as an expert evaluator would. I will use the following list of questions (adopted from Alessi and Trollip’s Multimedia for Learning)) as criteria for evaluating the instruction:

  • Are the learning objectives clearly stated?

  • Do the activities and materials logically support the learning objectives?

  • Are the technologies enhancing the learning experience?

  • Are the examples applicable? Do they support the stated learning outcomes?

  • Is the interface easy to use? Is the navigation clear?

I’ll take notes on each question and use those notes to refine the training before presenting it to others for review. These notes will ideally reveal areas where content can be clarified or restructured to improve the learning experience.

In the second stage of the evaluation plan, I’ll organize a small group evaluation. The small group will be composed of classmates, co-workers, or friends who act as stand-in learners. The purpose of the small group evaluation is to assess the usability, engagement, and clarity of each major segment of the training program. I’ll make assessments by recording comments and observing performance as my sample learners go through the instruction. I’ll also ask them some questions at the end of each segment to get any feedback I may have missed while observing. To create realistic learning conditions, I’ll have the small group go through the training on their own personal devices. The small group’s immediate feedback will inform adjustments to the navigation and the instructions provided within the training. My own observations will help me determine where learner comprehension can be improved through the addition of content, illustrative examples, or interactive components.

After I finish developing all sections of the training program and revise them based on self-evaluation and small group feedback, I will have one person go through the training program in full (i.e., a one-on-one evaluation). This will simulate a realistic learning environment and will be valuable in testing the overall flow, pacing, and effectiveness of the training. It will also allow me to evaluate the content sequencing and cognitive load of the training (Alesi and Trollip, 2001). I’ll encourage the person to complete the course in one or two sittings to simulate a realistic environment and to better evaluate engagement. The person will be able to use their preferred device in any quiet, realistic environment. I’ll ask the person to evaluate the training using criteria similar to my self-evaluation criteria, taking notes as they go. Once they complete the training, I’ll ask them about their overall impression of the training and will capture additional feedback on the learning’s impact and their skill development.

After implementing the training, I’ll have any learners who complete the program fill out a survey about their experience. The purpose of this survey is to determine how applicable the content of the training was to their job and how well the training did in meeting the stated learning outcomes. I’ll also use the survey to gather qualitative data about learner satisfaction and the overall effectiveness, layout, and flow of the training (Alessi & Trollip 2001). The survey will mostly consist of free response questions, but I will also use a few rating or Likert scale questions. The feedback gathered from the survey will help me to refine future iterations of the training and identify any gaps in content or support materials.

Part 6 | Project Deliverables Timeline

Part 4 | Technology Selection

  • Learning Experience Activities:

    • The presentation of instructional content

    • Embedding interactive quizzes and branching scenarios

    • Hosting video, photo, and other multimedia elements

    How the affordances will support/facilitate my planned learning activities:

    Rise’s content blocks will allow me to easily integrate all of the content that will make this training course a rich multimedia experience. I will be able to integrate photos, videos, and quizzes seamlessly into the interface of the course. I’ll also be able to use Rise’s unique ability to create branching scenarios to make the learning experience more immersive. Finally, using Rise will ensure that the course I create will be accessible across a variety of devices.

  • Learning Experience Activities:

    • Recording and editing a video demonstration

    • Capturing screenshots of various online materials that will be incorporated into the training course

    How the affordances will support/facilitate my planned learning activities:

    Snagit’s easy-to-use video recording will allow me to create short demo videos that can be included in the course. The tool’s screen capture functionality will allow me to capture relevant portions of online materials (e.g., a screenshot of a poorly designed slide in an online presentation) and incorporate it directly into the course in Articulate Rise.

  • Learning Experience Activities:

    Demonstrations of platform-specific engagement features, including screen sharing, chat, reactions, polling, and annotation.

    How the affordances will support/facilitate my planned learning activities:

    Zoom is a popular video conferencing technology that has some of the best tools for audience engagement. By building this training course around delivering virtual presentations in Zoom, I will be able to teach learners how to use zooms polling, annotation, and chat features to facilitate engagement and discussion.