DR. ADAM MATTHEWS

Academics of working-class heritage talking

Co-chair Trailblazer group – Digital Learning Design

Conversations with colleagues from the University of Birmingham around recruiting and developing colleagues to work on digital education projects led to the proposal to create a Trailblazer Group to establish an apprenticeship standard for the role of Digital Learning Designer. I am co-chair of the group working with over 20 employers to develop the standard with Government to establish funding for employers and those pursuing a career in digital learning.

Postgraduate Certificate -Design for Learning Environments

Leading the design of a new online postgraduate programme at the University of Birmingham – Design for Learning Environments. The programme links to my own research and practice as a designer.

University of Birmingham Dubai

Leading the Educational Enterprise design team we had the opportunity to ‘start from scratch’ with a blank canvas to design and structure the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) for the new University of Birmingham campus in Dubai. The approach taken was a structured consistent student experience across all programmes. Using a ‘content architecture’ approach we set out campus wide, programme specific and module wifreframes and navigation.

This resulted in consistent navigation and access to content across campus, programmes and modules.

Skills4Uni

Supporting the Outreach Team at the University of Birmingham I consulted on design and content for the online course which supports A Level students transitioning to university.

Virgin Media academies

During 2016 and 2017 Virgin Media launched a series of academies. The academy sites offer learning content at the point of need. I was involved in writing learning content for the Management Academy and the Personal & Professional Development Academy. These were aimed at all managers across the organisation and each employee respectively. The management content included subjects such as: coaching, managing attendance and developing people. The Personal & Professional Academy included subjects such as communication, presentation skills and time management.

Virgin TV V6 box

In 2016, Virgin Media relaunched their TV offer. A new box which could rival the Sky Q box was rolled out across the business. The learning audience was diverse – engineers, sales and service colleagues. Each group had different needs – engineers needed to be able to describe the features and benefits, install the box and explain connection options to customers. Sales staff needed to be able to sell the benefits to new customers. Rather than take the traditional face to face 1 day course option, I designed three interactive PDFs which met each learning need. This made the solution flexible and scalable and learners could use them out on the job. Knowledge assessments were conducted on the Learning Management System (LMS) and observational skill assessments were conducted in the field.

HSBC – Together, We Advance

In 2015 HSBC relaunched their Advance current account product. I designed a blended programme of learning which included a 20 minute piece of e-learning which covered the basics of the product and customer scenarios. I also designed Instructor Led Training (ILT) sessions which completed the ‘blend’ and were conducted after learners had completed the e-learning. These sessions were practical problem solving tasks which matched customers with features and benefits of the Advance product. The learning solution was delivered globally. The training coincided with a high profile advertising campaign. The campaign branding and marketing material was used in the training to ensure a consistent feel to the launch both internally and to customers.

Public Protection – College of Policing

Public Protection covers 13 core areas of policing: Adults at Risk, Child Abuse, Child Sexual Exploitation, Domestic Abuse, Female Genital Mutilation, Forced Marriage, Honour Based Violence, Human Trafficking, Managing Offenders, Missing Persons, Prostitution and Vice, Serious Sexual Offences and Stalking and Harassment.

The key learning outcomes for police officers was to identify threats and issues for the public in often complex and family orientated situations. Identifying that these 13 areas overlap and co-occur, modules were written and developed around a key character’s story along with scenarios and learning content threaded throughout. These were written and developed alongside subject matter experts, experienced police officers and victims.

Abusive Relationship covers domestic abuse, stalking and harassment and child abuse. This is a scenario based module, threading a story alongside learning content. Questions are posed to the learner about the scenario and decisions that are made. Other generic content related to core areas is included throughout.

Family Disturbance covers honour based violence, forced marriage and female genital mutilation. A first person victim experience is used to tell the story of how a young Iranian girl living in the UK is being beaten and forced into a marriage against her will. The story is told in a ‘video diary’ style articulating her feelings towards her family and experience of the police. Learning content is threaded through Sadi’s story as well as posing questions to the learner throughout. The question here asks what the officer should do and the feedback gives some advice on the results of their actions.

The Public protection suite of courses went on to win a silver e-learning age award.

Stalking and Harassment

New legislation to tackle Stalking and Harassment was introduced in 2012. A short course highlighting stalker motivations and the new legislation including practical advice for all police forces. Video content includes victims experience and an interview with the mother of a victim, Claire Bernal who was shot dead by a stalker in the London department store, Harvey Nichols in 2007.

As of October 2013, over 40,000 police officers had completed the course and was subsequently nominated for an e-learning award in 2014 receiving a silver award.

Stop and Search

Working as the Instructional Designer in a team with a graphic designer and developer I designed the Stop and Search course which is aimed at all Police Officers in the UK.

Starting with a set of agreed learning outcomes I worked with subject matter experts to put together a design solution and then script.

I took a slightly different approach with the use of video. The course starts with a YouTube style film of an individual being search incorrectly and aggressively. Something that can be found on YouTube with lots of negativity towards police.

The second chapter follows a scenario where the learner makes decisions in the form of multiple choice questions.

The person being searched here is actually me and I also shot the YouTube style video myself wearing a headcam and being searched by real Officers.

Police Operational – 2012 Olympic Games

Ahead of the 2012 Games in London the police are being trained on many aspects of policing the Olympics.

Working as the Instructional Designer I designed several modules for different target audiences. Many Officers travelled to London and Dorset from all over the UK to help police the Olympic and Paralympic Games. This is known as mutual aid. I designed this module as a ‘tour’ around each location basing the navigation on a map.

There was also a course which every officer in the UK had to complete. The modules achieved 320,000 completions prior to the Games.

The project was awarded a Chief Constable’s Commendation after the Games in November 2012.

Anti-money laundering

Foreign exchange bureau in First Choice and Thomson shops are targets for money launderers with such large amounts of cash being dealt with.

Staff must be trained on how to identify money laundering and the processes in place to combat illegal activity.

It is a legal requirement to keep electronic records of staff trained on an annual basis. Previously the company had used an external supplier to provide the e-learning, but designing in house allowed for the content to be written in a way that suited the company’s culture with real life examples and scenarios.

I designed and developed the course alongside subject matter experts.

Travel Products

Thomas Cook is regulated by the Financial Services authority and must follow strict laws around the selling of insurance and how Sales Consultants advise customers.

Non compliance can result in serious fines and even taking away the ability to sell insurance. In January 2010 Thomas Cook changed Insurance policies offered to customers. A tight deadline meant the e-learning had to be delivered in 8 weeks.

I lead this project and delivered to schedule allowing for insurance training to be carried out with no downtime as the business changed insurance policies offered to customers.

Thomas Cook’s offering of products is changing all the time. Producing e-learning courses on all products is an efficient way to provide product knowledge to Sales Consultants across the country. The range of modules is used as part of new starter induction and for refresher training around the business.

I project managed this development supporting designers on the design and development of the material using Atlantic Link and Adobe Photoshop.

Systems training

My first e-learning project at Thomas Cook was to develop an e-learning course on the retail stores booking system. Aimed at new starters this replaced a 2 day induction course.

The course was created in Atlantic Link by external partner Kineo. This allows Thomas Cook to be able to update the content as and when changes to the system are made.

Learning portals

An element to introducing e-learning to Thomas Cook was to put in place a Learning Management System to host e-learning and other Learning & Development resources.

The system which is accessed by 19,000 staff in the UK is the open source software, Moodle. This has been modified to Thomas Cook’s requirements and allows learners to:

• Launch SCORM e-learning
• Book onto face to face training courses
• Download resources
• Access forums
• Get the latest news from each business area

I designed an interactive tour to guide users through the main features of the site.

To launch e-learning Thomson used a portal that learners could log into to track completion and assessment scores. I was responsible for keeping the site up to date with news stories and useful information.

UK Anti-Doping

Sports coach UK support national governing bodies of sport to educate and support coaches all over the UK. Partnering with UK anti doping and the university of Greenwich I have been involved in this project as instructional design lead, using content from both parties.

The approach taken focused on the coach as the target audience with scenarios based on what a coach should be doing in certain situations and processes that should be followed. With a large range of resources available online these have been signposted and guidelines given as to how these resources can be used.

TUI Product

Between 2006 and 2008 TUI partnered with several digital agencies to design and build a series of product focused modules which aimed to upskill and increase staff knowledge of travel destinations and products. These projects involved partnership working between the TUI e-learning team and agencies which involved writing and collaborating on the initial brief and writing scripts.