ADMISSIONS COMMITTEE TRAINING VIDEOS

While researching the audience for the Admissions Committee Training eLearning course for The Ripple Center, I discovered a preference against eLearning expressed by some committee members. To overcome this, I designed a cartoon avatar of the organization's founder/CEO himself, speaking in his distinctive voice, to deliver the training through both comic-style narration and animated videos. The videos, spaced throughout the course, can all be viewed below. The eLearning course itself can be viewed here.

Overview: This video welcomes Admissions Committee members to the eLearning course, demonstrates how the course works and what makes it special, and inspires the committee members to do their best for the noble cause of The Ripple Center.

Challenge: Admissions Committee members are accustomed to a brief, informal presentation about their duties. Now, they are about to begin a lengthy eLearning course without their friend Mike (The Ripple Center founder and CEO) leading the training. There is certain to be some grumbling.

Solution: The eLearning course begins with this video, which introduces a cartoon avatar of Mike himself, speaking in his distinctive voice. He presents the course as having much more learning by doing than in previous years and thanks participants for being willing to try it. Mike also previews the fun of the whimsical virtual world of the training, as well as the nuts and bolts of how the course works.

Overview: This video serves as the activation for the learning about to begin in the course.

Challenge: Admissions Committee members are present for the training, but they aren’t certain to be invested in it so they can maximize their learning from it.

Solution: In this video, Mike activates the learners’ prior experience with putting together a team. He asks them to transfer the same dedication to building those teams to the work of selecting the new cohort of Ripple Center Fellows.

Overview: This video provides the overarching principles for the chapter of the course on evaluating individual essay responses.

Challenge: Learners will have just completed a mini-module to learn the Fellow selection process. In the next chapter of the course, they will need to take in much more content before applying that knowledge in a learning activity.

Solution: This video breaks up the straightforward presentation of content. It utilizes clever and engaging visual sequences to support the narration by Mike’s cartoon avatar introducing the new chapter of the course.

Overview: This video depicts a conversation in which one committee member mentors another on determining fitness for the Fellowship for a challenging application.

Challenge: There is no standard process for rating an applicant’s fit for the Fellowship, but this subjective skill must still be demonstrated before learners can engage in the application exercise for this essential task.

Solution: Rather than hearing Mike tell viewers what to do, this time they listen in on a conversation between two fictional committee members solving the problem of a challenging application. And to avoid narrowly focusing on a single application, the mentor (Susie) asks the mentee to consider a series of questions that could be applied to any application. Creative visuals represent Susie’s points as her narration proceeds.

Overview: This video follows Susie, the mentor from the previous video, as she navigates key challenges any committee member is likely to face any given week during application season.

Challenge: I had planned that the final problem scenario for this course would in fact be the whole problem confronting The Ripple Center, which is that application reviews were not being completed independently, promptly, and consistently. It would be difficult, though, to design a final demonstration of a solution to a problem so complex.

Solution: In this video, the viewer follows a day in the life of Susie, the mentor from the previous video. Mike narrates as she performs each of the tasks and subtasks required to solve the whole problem. Blending clever animations with touches of humor, the final demonstration covers all the required steps for success in a highly engaging manner.

Overview: This video recaps the skills practiced during the course and inspires committee members to use them to help select the best possible cohort of Fellows.

Challenge: The Ripple Center is founded on love and idealism, so the conclusion to this course would have to go beyond simple review and next steps. It would need to be inspirational and memorable.

Solution: Mike’s narration in this video is deeply personal and motivational as he expresses his appreciation to the committee members and inspires them to do their best work. All the while, the viewer’s interest is piqued as Mike’s cartoon avatar morphs into a new form and seems to be running to catch a flight. Clues that all is not as it seems are borne out with a fanciful ending (keeping with the whimsical nature of the course) that is sure to delight the viewer.