Here at olano, we have a team of designers and industry experts specialising in a variety of areas of content creation and design. This wealth of knowledge us to create the best training and eLearning for our clients. To understand our expertise, it’s beneficial to know what our team does and what a regular day-to-day workday looks like for them.
In our last blog, Catherine explained what a day in the life of a Content Writer is like.
This time, Sheena, one of our Graphic Designers, specialises in eLearning development. She shares a typical day in the life of an eLearning Developer…
“Recently we have adopted more of a hybrid way of working. When I do come into the office it tends to be in the middle of the week, onwards.
“When I come into the office, I wake up and put on a podcast or something like that, just to start waking myself up for the drive.
“Once in, I like to slam three cups of coffee at about the same times every day. I’m a slight creature of habit. Then I carry on with what’s on the task list for the day.
“This gets me in the headspace ready to create.
“I really like the creative aspect of my role as an eLearning Developer, the problem solving and the variety of it all.
“If we’re starting a new eLearning project, I tend to start gathering all the assets from similar projects. We receive a PowerPoint that shows the storyboard from either Kris or Catherine that allows us to see what assets we need.
“I check if there are assets that we can use again to match with the style of a pervious version of that course, or previous module. Once I’ve gathered everything, I know what I need to develop from.
“I start looking into the script and at the PowerPoint slides to get an idea of which areas are going to be the most intense interactions and where I’m going to need to spend the most time.
“My first steps of putting it together, however, is seeing the order of the slides and how they need to be put in. I will start by adding in the standard slides or the interactions we need to build in.
“After this, I’ll put in the navigation on each of those slides as they must be hooked up in order for it to flow nicely and fluidly.
“From this, I start the rest of the build, using the assets previously acquired and creating new ones. It flows from there really. Sometimes I’ll develop the assets first that are going to be reused in the later stages. However, this can vary depending on the course.
“Once the build is complete it goes through a few rounds of testing of internal review. This helps iron things out. You can get blinkered when creating a project because you can spend a few weeks, if not more working on one eLearning course. You may not pick up on things whereas your colleague may do so this really helps.
“I’ll then work on any feedback and suggested amends; have it proofread and send off to one of the clients or the team managing it. They’ll advise on any changes, normally content based, and I will then make those edits following this.
“Reviewing is extremely beneficial for me. You may find you figure out a solution for an issue in one course that could be a solution for others both in and outside of that course.
“During my lunch, I’ll grab my food and read through the news. There’s a few I like to visit.
“I try to stay on top of tech news. I’ll read blogs on tech innovation and tech businesses to see what’s going on.
“Then I carry on with eLearning development, reviewing or making amends depending on what is on my task list that day. I try to set myself three tasks a day, so they’re manageable and not overwhelming.
“When it comes to the end of the day, I revisit the task list. It’s like the bookends for my day. I’ll pop down reference to some things from that day that were important. Then mark up the ones completed and any outstanding I’ll carry over. I can then pick up the same thread the next morning when I come in.
“Then off home I go! My checklist means I can switch off when I leave, knowing exactly what I’ve done and what I’ll be doing throughout the week. This is handy as eLearning heavily involves problem solving, so you have to be focused to do this.”
Sheena has worked alongside clients to create some great Bespoke eLearning . While she develops eLearning, our team specialise in a range of areas. Another of our Graphic Designers, Olivia, creates animation for businesses and explained a typical day in the life of an animator.
