Context
At the time of this project, The Welsh Government – for whom Eliesha was providing a successful and long-term managed learning service – was focusing on their ongoing requirement to ensure that all staff clearly understood and practiced excellent governance in discharging their responsibilities as Civil Servants.
As part of this focus, David Richards, Welsh Government’s Director of Governance, developed a programme called “‘Monsters and Trolls’, the Slayers’ Guide and Things that go Bump in the Night” which consisted of a 90-minute presentation and supporting material. Delivered in a humorous but highly informative way, this programme was delivered by David and his team in a lecture-style session to a large number of staff at government offices across Wales.
This approach was a time consuming and resource intensive method of delivery. Welsh Government was therefore looking for a method to reach more staff without sacrificing any of the richness and value provided by the current delivery approach.
Solution
After discussion with the major stakeholders, a solution was developed that would utilise some new, bespoke examples of Eliesha’s highly engaging pearls of wisdom® microlearning videos to capture all the key aspects of the face-to-face lecture, incorporating existing scripts, visuals and supporting material and recreating, through the use of suitable animation, the humour and learning outcomes of the existing programme.
When designing the pearls of wisdom®, we echoed the Monsters and Trolls metaphor throughout – particularly the analogy of Trolls being the ‘things that can get in the way of good governance’. We also incorporated some of David’s voice clips/anecdotes to embed his unique and engaging style into the Monsters and Trolls product.
Different titles were used to structure the input of the overall governance message’s key concepts. For the Nolan Principles, for example, the pearls of wisdom® delivered the background behind the development and explanation of each principle, which was then brought to life with visual examples. The Slayer’s Seven Guides were designed to sit across 5 separate pearls of wisdom® – this allowed flexibility in delivery whilst using time effectively.
The final product, consisting of 10 pearls of wisdom® and supporting material, was integrated onto Eliesha’s Learning Management System (LMS) for access by all Welsh Government staff, allowing for immediate widespread access as well as ongoing monitoring, reporting and evaluation.
The programme was also discretely ‘repurposed’, incorporating individual pearls of wisdom® such as The Civil Service Code and Nolan Principles and Values in other online products including Introduction to Legislation and Reception Stage One. This demonstrates the versatility of our microlearning and the value for money it offers through effective reuse.
Outcome
The client and senior stakeholders were delighted with the end product, quality and effectiveness of design and delivery. In addition to being available to the 5,500 staff in Welsh Government it is now incorporated into programmes for the wider Welsh public sector including the Wales Audit Office.
In particular, stakeholders were pleased that none of the humour and style which made the original session so popular and impactful were lost in the ‘translation’ to animated video content.
The Monsters and Trolls Governance training was delivered throughout Wales resulting in significant reduction in costs at a time of continuing budget constraints. Work is now ongoing to integrate the programme and individual associated pearls of wisdom® onto the Welsh Government Internet site for wider distribution to the public servants and those working alongside the Welsh Government.
