This training is connected to an innovative and pragmatic project, a research study with a ‘real world’ approach for assessing the quality of optical services around the world.

In this project, ‘actors’ are trained to act covertly as ‘mystery shopper’ patients while observing what clinical techniques and services are provided by the optical clinic.

My colleague reached out to me for assistance with developing a short elearning course to train the actors. The reasons elearning was selected was to provide consistent, high-quality training for all actors, for scalability (the study is planned to run in multiple countries) as well as cost-effectiveness, reducing in-person training time.

After a thorough needs analysis, I designed and developed the course, including innovative branching scenarios where the actors practice avoiding detection, as well as video-based scenarios for them to practice the required skills. The course was highly interactive throughout - keeping learning as engaging as possible. Translation is also a key element of this project - the plan is to translate the course to Khmer for the study in Cambodia.

The project was completed on time and was very cost-effective, generating positive reactions from stakeholders as well as other instructional designers who tested the branching scenario.