Full Case Study: Being Purposeful About Increasing Engagement
From Dry Framework to Immersive Learning Experience
Can you relate?
You’ve been asked to create training on a new policy or procedure. The content is straightforward, but the real challenge is getting learners to care enough to change their behavior.
The Real-Life Situation
I was asked to create an eLearning module for co-op staff to teach them about a new, research-backed framework that the University of Waterloo wanted them to adopt. The only materials provided were academic whitepapers and dense slide decks—informative, but uninspiring.
The Role(s) I Played
I led the project end-to-end, from defining what success looked like to building the full experience in Storyline. That meant translating research into something staff would actually want to engage with, without losing the substance underneath.
Approaching the Challenge
Show the "Why" Before the "What"
I knew staff wouldn’t absorb the need for a new framework unless they first grasped the scale of change happening in the world of work. But stats alone don’t have an emotional impact. So, I created interactive infographic-style graphics that invited reflection and visualization
Connect the Need to the Solution
Once learners had internalized the external pressures, I wanted to show how these changes in the world were affecting students and why a new guiding framework was essential. I used a whiteboard-style explainer video to do this.
Empower Self-Discovery
With intrinsic motivation activated, I then allowed learners to explore the framework at their own pace, using interactive slides that showed the relationship between concepts and knowledge check questions to verify comprehension.
Reinforce Leadership Buy-In
To show that this wasn’t just a random “training initiative,” I included a short video from our department director. I positioned this on a slide featuring cutouts of the other members of the leadership team to create a sense of unified support.
Make the Abstract Tangible
Up to this point, the framework was still conceptual. I created mini-case scenarios representing real moments where staff might use the framework in their role. Learners drafted responses, then compared them to model examples. Doing so turned the abstract ideas they’d learned into tangible actions they could take.
Address All Levels of Impact
The larger goal was to have acting in accordance to the new framework become an integrated part of the co-op department’s culture. As such, learners needed to see how to apply what they’d learned as teams, not just as individuals. To do this, I mocked up report cards for each team, encouraging learners to reflect on the collective strengths and opportunities within their own groups.
Reinforce Personal Ownership
It felt like adding a quiz at the end of the module would take away from the efforts I’d made to get learners to feel a sense of personal investment in the topic. Instead, I presented them with a self-assessment checklist with which they attested to what they learned and how they intended to apply it, turning completion into commitment.
Respecting How People Learn
Being taught something is not the same as learning. Learning requires the learner to do something with the information in their own brains, integrating it into their existing knowledge structures. Every element of the module was designed to facilitate that process from activating intrinsic motivation to acknowledging the limitations of existing frameworks to identifying behavioural implications.
Facilitating Application
Two significant barriers to application are internal resistance and an inability to see how the new knowledge or skill impacts behaviours in real-world contexts. I chose to address these barriers head on by focusing on building intrinsic motivation at the very start and by providing concrete examples and opportunities to practice application in those scenarios.
Outcomes That Matter
Just getting staff to take the training was not the goal. Seeing an authentic shift in mindsets and team culture were the outcomes that truly mattered. This required me to take a different approach than I might have with more traditional knowledge transfer. I had to persuade learners that the new framework was just as important to them as it was to the university.
So What Happened?
The module was met with enthusiastic feedback, a rarity for internal training. Multiple staff members reached out voluntarily to share how much they enjoyed the experience and appreciated how thoughtfully it had been designed.
Transferable Learnings
- Motivating learners starts by helping them see the "why" behind what you are teaching. Identifying that "why" requires empathy for your audience and how their motivations link with the goals of the training.
- Every design decision shapes how training is received. Even a small change in tone or format can make a big difference in impact.