A Blended Learning Program for a Global Nonprofit Association
About The Client
The client is a global nonprofit association that connects educators, students, and business to achieve a common goal: to create the next generation of great leaders. They provide quality assurance, business education intelligence, and learning and development services to multiple member organizations and accredited business schools worldwide.
Business Need
Accreditation standards and volunteers together play a very important role in terms of how the client goes about creating value for its member organizations and business schools. The accreditation standards from 2013 were updated in 2020 which generated a need to train a pool of nearly 200 volunteers. And that is what led to the birth of this program. The L&D and Accreditation teams at the client’s end decided to create a scalable learning program to train these volunteers. There were three key goals defined for this volunteer training program.
- Understand the 2020 Accreditation Standards Philosophy – rules-based to principle-based
- Understand the volunteer role and the importance of the role in the accreditation process
- Communicate decision to the school
Harbinger’s Solution
The client and Harbinger decided to use a blend of instructional strategies (eLearning, video, and simulation) and modalities (asynchronous and synchronous) to build this program, which would cater to four key areas.
A blend of learning strategies comprised the instructional journey, as outline below:
- Asynchronous eLearning course for a specific role
- Asynchronous eLearning course for the process(es) applicable to the specific role
- Asynchronous course on the 2020 Business Accreditation Standards consisting of a review of the standards as a written, interpretive guidance document, and individual videos for each of the nine standards
- Synchronous simulation of a specific role conducting a specific peer review process
Highlights of the eLearning Component
To achieve the set learning objectives, a strategy based on a continuous learning model was outlined. It included instructional and experiential learning journeys consisting of a blend of instructional strategies for knowledge transfer, practice, assessment, demonstrated behavior change, and reinforcement.
- The eLearning program constitutes of customized modules created in Storyline 360.
- Each module utilizes a variety of multimedia elements including embedded videos, interactive infographics, contextual photographs, icons and illustrations, visual workflows, and simple animations.
- Content is presented using a variety of interactive formats, including interactive icons, images and tabs, sequenced carousels, pop-up info windows, quizzes and exercises, and additional resources and links.
- All modules are 508 compliant.
Highlights of the Simulation
The goal of the simulation was to build upon the knowledge gained from the role, process and standards courses and apply them to a mock PRT visit with a school going through their initial accreditation or continuous improvement review visit.
- Volunteers were provided a comprehensive participant notebook containing pre-work and inclass activities with explicit instructions and guidance.
- Fictitious, yet realistic reports and school profiles were provided to the volunteers to set the stage for the live simulation session.
Business Outcomes
The client has been successful in achieving its set goals, as indicated by the statistics listed below.
GOAL:- Understand the 2020 Accreditation Standards Philosophy
% ACHIEVED:- About 94%
GOAL:- Understand the volunteer role and the importance of the role in the accreditation process
% ACHIEVED:- Over 90%
GOAL:- Communicate decision to the business school
% ACHIEVED:- Over 90%
