No more talking heads The medium is only as good as the message..

The situation
A stand-up training company wanted to turn its five-day foundation course into a distance learning product featuring its star teacher--one of the country's leading experts in the field. The company management envisioned a CD-ROM that consisted primarily of video clips taken from the live course. How do you segue from talk to tech - and create a state-of-the-art product to satisfy today's cutting-edge learners?

The process
O’Donnell & Associates turned to the end-users, clients of the training company, to help shape the distance learning product. After recruiting and interviewing 50 individuals from large corporations, we learned that customers envisioned this product as an enhancement, rather than replacement, for the classroom course. When these customers reviewed the prototype, they provided further insight and refinement. Learners wanted to quickly find appropriate content, overview the concepts, and practice what they learned.

So, rather than creating a lengthy set of talking head videos, O’Donnell & Associates created an interactive learning tool. Content was chunked into easily digestible lessons. Users were given ample opportunity to review concepts and apply them to realistic decisions with a cadre of exercises, game-like activities and mini-cases.

The results
A little project re-engineering goes a very long way. The end result was a powerful, interactive learning tool that helped the company persuade more customers to attend its five-day seminar. O’Donnell & Associates also helped pre-sell the product. Because we involved customers in shaping the prototype, and listened carefully to their suggestions, there was a ready-made market of major corporations for the final product.

Listening to your customers yields sales success. In its first year on the market, the company made a profit on sales of the product.

And, today's technically and educationally savvy customers demand that you reengineer content, rather than just changing media. When transitioning from a stand-up classroom to e-learning, interactivity is a must. O’Donnell & Associates provided learners with the opportunity to practice, apply concepts to real-world decisions, and learn by making mistakes.