Lynsey Donahoo
Project Objective
I have worked in the BYU-Idaho Career and Academic Advising for almost two years as a Peer Advisor and as the Student Employment Specialist. In my current role as the Employment Specialist, I have the opportunity to assist in hiring, onboarding, and training new employees. After completing the new hire training program myself and teaching others to use it, I recognized that there are some ways this program can be optimized.
The objective of this training standardization project is to restructure the new hire training program, not only for the trainees, but also for the trainers. I want to ensure that every new hire receives the same quality of training and is given all the resources needed to succeed in their new role. I will create a program that was not only easy for the new hires to understand, but also simple for the trainers to train on. Once this training course is published, it help to ensure accurate, timely, and quality training for all new student employees.
The Project
The final product of this project is a new canvas course with accurate and updated information. The content contained in the training course was created by myself and the team leads from the different colleges. The final course will be published will be once the design elements are structured with the Faculty Technology Center.
Below you can see the canvas course modules:
As can be seen at the top of the course, each module has a drop down arrow, which contains further information on that topic. Below are some examples of the content within the modules:
Challenges Encountered
One of the main challenges I encountered was just how large of a project this was. In the initial phases of data gathering, I was surprised to hear the amount of variety there was within the different centers training programs. I had big plans for how I would structure the course and realized that I needed to narrow down my goals and focus on a more specific aspect of the training program first. I decided to focus on creating the canvas course and inputting updated, accurate information.
Another challenge I encountered was creating the content itself. I was previously an advisor, but I am not as familiar with the information as I once was. I needed to rely on the team leads to help me make content. As we neared class registration, the team leads became busier and the content wasn’t being made as quickly. I decided to break down the modules into as small of pieces as I could. This way, the team leads knew exactly what to include in each module and could create the content quickly.
Project Processes
The first thing I needed to do was gather data. I wanted to more fully understand what was happening in order to know how to change it. I met with our most recent hires, every center coordinator, and held a meeting with all the team leads. I gathered from them their current training process, as well as any feedback or suggestions.
After the data was gathered, I analyzed it to see what things were consistent between the centers, what the outliers were, and how we wanted to structure the new program. Based on this information, and the information from the previous training Canvas course, I began to create modules and input information.
The team leads were essential in this process. I created the content that I knew how to, and the team leads filled in the gaps. As I gathered the team lead’s content, I wanted to ensure that it all looked cohesive. I chose colors, and a loose style guide and applied that to each of the modules.
Now that all the information is in place in the course, the next step will be to talk to the Faculty Technology Center at BYU-I and make the course a more interactive experience. We plan to add quizzes, checklists, and activities to the course as it continues to develop.
Experience Overview
As I review the experiences I had while completing this project, I really enjoyed the opportunity that I had to collaborate with others. I had the opportunity to talk with other employees to gather data, seek and receive help from my mentor, and work with the team leads to create content.
Designing the technology aspect of the Canvas course seemed overwhelming at first because I am not familiar with the system and coding. As I put forth my best effort to upload content and make it fit within the style guide, I found the portion of technology that I knew best. I enjoyed the face level design aspects and I am looking forward to working with the Faculty Technology Center to do the embedded design to really take it to the next level.
Insights and Takeaways
I have learned the importance of remaining in close contact with the project team. Initially, I would send messages to team leads and I had pretty good engagement from them. As time when on, I realized that their engagement had significantly dropped. As I talked with the team leads individually, I found that they were all pretty busy with the registration season. I adjusted my plans and did what I could in order to make the work easier for those helping.
Another one of my main take aways was the importance of preparation. If I ever found myself becoming overwhelmed with the work I needed to do, I would take about 20 minutes to evaluate what my goals were, what I needed to do to accomplish them, and how I would do those things. If I hadn’t taken the time to evaluate and plan accordingly, my project would have taken much longer and the path would seem unclear.