Instructional design workshop for tech writers
Overview
CLIENTS: MuleSoft (fall 2014), Splunk (spring 2015)
ROLE: Learning experience designer, workshop facilitator
AUDIENCE: Technical writers on documentation teams for enterprise software
TOOLS: PowerPoint, Paper53
Opportunity
Managers of documentation teams wanted to steer their writers away from creating information dumps and towards more action-oriented, outcomes-based documentation.
Process and solution
I began by interviewing managers and a technical writer on the team to discuss their goals, uncover pain points, and collect examples of their work, using this research to design all workshop materials (slides and activity handouts).
I also facilitated the workshop on their premises, leading discussions interspersed with activities that provided the participants with a chance to immediately apply new concepts to their work.
Impact
All of the participants who took my feedback survey enjoyed the workshop overall and reported confidence in their ability to use their new skills on the job.
Participants described what part of the workshop would be most useful when applied to their daily work:
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"The concept of using graphics to help learners access or build mental models."
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"Learning objectives and cognitive load, those are really useful to think about."
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"Most useful = writing to help learners form strategies, rather than just writing down steps."
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"The reminder that we should focus on identifying the gap and focusing our efforts on bridging it. It's a useful reminder that unifies the other principles and strategies we learned about."