Integrated Courses for Planet 4
Why building self-directed courses for P4 users and how to make an ever growing community embrace, enrol and feedback
A key part of each Planet 4 implementation has been to train people in Greenpeace NROs (National and Regional offices) to actually use the product. These colleagues would fill in all kinds of roles, from editors to systems’ administrators, from developers to designers and analytics specialists.
While implementing Planet 4, the training was integrated into the project itself, as people had to participate in the creation of the site and its content, therefore by the go live, everyone in need already had the right knowledge to run the system.
However, since the implementation phase is done, we had to address the continuous staff training. This is especially needed with a product that is permanently evolving and a staff pool that is new, changing positions or needs to be up to date with the development of the platform.
Why another training?
One of the options we looked at was to organize training sessions every couple of months, but this would be difficult to address, given the different time zones P4 users live in, the different level of urgency needed or the different skill sets.
So we listened carefully to the community and, in the annual survey, assessed the training needs and preferences of the practitioners, which turned into the following list of needs:
- provide continuous trainings for new and current staff
- provide training guidance for staff at their own pace and available in their time zone
- ensure users worldwide feel comfortable using the documentation the P4 team is producing (different formats, such as written, video, audio)
Why “integrated” trainings?
The concept of integrated, self-directed trainings seems to be the ideal solution, as users have to go through a thematic module and set of exercises at their own pace, but still following a clear and consistent path, which aims to deliver a specific set of competencies (e.g. “become a P4 editor”). This approach fulfils some exact prerequisites which are key to achieve success:
- Respond to a need from the community. The above-mentioned feedback in the Annual Survey.
- Simplify content. We wanted new staff not to feel overwhelmed by the extensive documentation we gathered in the project, but also help them feel confident at the end of the training to find their way around in the Handbook whenever they need it.
- Use different types of content. We all learn differently. That’s why each section contains the same or similar information in different formats: written, video and visual. On top of that we provided plenty of opportunities to critically assess their sites or take an assessment.
The training content
So, the only viable solution was to create training that would be available for new and existing staff, for all skill sets and responsibilities on the platform and suitable to everyone’s learning pace. Once we agreed to this, we followed a couple of steps to define the content and format of the training.
Modularization. We created learning tracks to match the level of knowledge a user will need to work with the platform. We started from mapping the most common roles of P4 and matching those with the features of the platform. This exercise is called modularization and it helped us see the common lessons/ info we need for several roles
- Content analysis. We mapped all available documentation from the different sources and decided what needs to be updated, changed, transformed.
- Learning tracks setup. We developed learning tracks to match the roles from point 1. For each track, we made a list of the topics we would focus on.
- Training content setup. We all learn differently, and thanks to the annual survey feedback we now know what type of content the community prefers when learning about P4. For example, we could organize the content using different formats:
- Embed content or link to Handbook content or other documentation
- Embed videos
- Insert questions to make people assess whether the content on their site reflects their communication and engagement objectives or not
- Add assessments
- Add verification questions
- Creation of the training in the Greenpeace e-learning platform. Once the content is curated, we produce it inside the learning platform. With the help of a learning manager, engaging training, with clear and concise content will come to life.
Community adoption
Building good material is just the beginning. It is also essential for the community to adopt these and promote them to others. For that to happen, we have to:
- Widely communicate. The training is part of the P4 updates sent via all the community channels: Slack, bi-weekly emails, personal outreach to offices hiring new people.
- Build together. Either through piloting the training or by giving feedback, the community can input on how each component of the training should change to better fulfil its learning objectives.
- Assess and take decisions. Besides direct inputs, we will also measure the actual completion rate and adoption of the training. Successful modules will remain, and non-popular ones will get adjusted, split or removed.
Next steps
The basic training, P4 Fundamentals*, is already available, and will shortly be followed by the next one, Planet 4 Power User* (aiming to launch it by the end of Q1 2021), followed by the Create Your Own Campaign one in Q2 and Track and analyze data in Q3.
Getting feedback from the community and reiterating on the training is an on-going activity, which can be done just by shouting to the team!
What about you or the organization you work for? How are internal training designed and implemented? Would love to hear from your experience.
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