Christie Klezmer
Classroom Management 101
This eLearning course guides users through a scenario-based experience where they learn how to manage and prevent misbehavior in the classroom.
Responsibilities: Instructional Design, eLearning Development, Visual Design, Storyboard, Scripting, Visual Mockups, Action Mapping
Target Audience: First Year Teachers
Tools Used:
• Articulate Storyline 360
• Vyond
• Adobe Illustrator
• Adobe Photoshop
• MindMeister
Overview
I designed this elearning experience for first year teachers. First year teachers spend most of their college career learning about classroom management but never get to independently experience the real life situations that teachers face every day. It is common for veteran teachers to say it is normal for a first year teacher to be incredibly overwhelmed and unprepared to manage a classroom independently because there is no way to actually prepare for what is to come.
This causes new teachers to feel unprepared and uncertain of their teaching and management methodologies. Many new teachers are unaware of the steps they should take to address and manage challenging behaviors in real-time. I designed and developed this eLearning course which allows users to navigate through steps in a scenario-based, interactive learning experience.
The Process
Action Map
After narrowing down the performance problem, I spoke with colleges and did some inflection of my own. We determined the key actions that new teachers need to take to appropriately manage a classroom and redirect misbehavior. Once the actions were mapped, I began to imagine the story and scenarios for the eLearning simulation.
The Learning Experience
I used storytelling techniques to design a realistic scenario-based learning simulation. The simulation invites the learner to make the same decisions and perform the same actions that they would have to perform on-the-job.
The user experiences the simulation from a new teacher's perspective on their first day of school.
As the user navigates through the learning experience, they have optional assistance along the way from a veteran teacher named Mrs. Klezmer. Whenever the learner is unsure of how to approach a scenario or unsure between routes to take, they can click on the helper button. This will take the user to individual slides curated to each prompt to access more information on the topic.
The text-based storyboard captured all components of the story, including scenarios, consequences for user choices, video scripts, and other additional details.
Visual Mockups
Once the text-based storyboard was complete, I used Vyond to create visual mockups of key slides. I laid out the characters, backgrounds, and props in Vyond. Then I imported these proposed designs into Storyline. I collected and incorporated feedback throughout this process to ensure the designs were user-friendly. This process resulted in designs that were visually appealing with good contrast, balance, alignment, and spacing.
Visual Storyboard
After finalizing the designs of key slides, I created a visual storyboard which showed how the course would look and function. It includes on-screen text, programming/animation notes, and on-screen graphics.
Full Development
After applying feedback from the prototype, I moved on to creating the final product. Most of the slides in this project required timing Storyline elements with the videos created in Vyond. I used triggers, layers, and states to create seamless interactions between the two.
During this phase, I included sound effects, voice overs, and music to make the experience more immersive.
Final Product
This project has been shared with teachers and is receiving a lot of positive responses. Teachers like how interactive the learning experience is and how they get to practice a skill that is useful in their workplace.
Throughout the project I learned a lot about integrating Vyond videos into Storyline and utilizing the two platforms simultaneously. I loved using the two to create an interactive learning experience that was relevant and engaging for learners. I believe this training will be helpful for many new teachers for years to come.