Research Poster Training Video

Problem & Solution

The client for this conversion of the research poster instructor-led training was the Introductory Composition program at Purdue University (ICAP). As with the instructor-led training, the client regularly held a pedagogy showcase for members of its graduate staff and required some of those employees to teach a research poster assignment. However many of the graduate employees did not have previous experience with research posters, and most did not have the time to do extensive research on relevant tech tools themselves.

Importantly, starting the following school year, the organization would no longer have a dedicated trainer for providing technical learning solutions to the program’s graduate instructors. While the organization’s training needs would remain the same, general program mentors would either double as trainers or training solutions would be delivered apart from a dedicated “workshop,” as trainings were traditionally implemented.

Given the organization’s need for greater flexibility in the way training solutions would be delivered, in addition to the target audience remaining overextended graduate students to whom self-paced learning was often more convenient, I determined that remediating the instructor-led training into a self-paced, video-based experience would be the perfect, sustainable training solution.

Process

Scoping & Storyboarding

The scope of the content for this web-based training was the same as determined through SME interviews for the initial instructor-led training.

Seeking to create a polished video, I decided to script the voiceover content word-for-word. I employed a tone that was both conversational and informative. After creating and revising my initial script draft, I sought feedback from my instructional design mentor and made appropriate edits.

Design

As the training video would conceivably be used as a standalone learning solution, I wanted it to be as comprehensive as possible. I planned to include a demo of creating research posters in Canva and PowerPoint within the training. While this would greatly increase the overall length of the resulting video, I decided it was better to include it than leave it out because viewers who were already familiar with the process could always skip the demo portion based on provided timestamps.

I decided to re-use many of the slides I originally created for the instructor-led training in the video, although I redesigned many of them and added in additional visual elements to maintain more consistent on-screen movement and thus make the training more attention span-friendly.

I redesigned several other slides for enhanced visual balance and appeal.

Most importantly, I kept Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction as a framework for the training but adapted several of the steps for the new, asynchronous context. I designed the video for use with a “training companion” in which participants could respond to engagement questions when prompted. The new structure for the video-based training is as follows (major changes from the instructor-led training are in bold):

1. Gain attention: present a little-known fact relevant to training content

2. Objectives: present “What’s in it for me?”; list objectives

3. Stimulate recall: ask what research poster creation tools participants already know; participants list in training companion

4. Present stimulus: present chunked content on main considerations and tech need-to-knows

5. Provide guidance: demo using Canva and PowerPoint to create research posters; provide an infographic of main steps

6. Elicit performance: transition to individual work time where participants practice the protocol just demonstrated

7. Provide feedback: present a work time review checklist so participants can double-check their work

8. Assess performance: ask participants to conclude on the results of their practice by identifying the tools they choose for themselves and their students; participants circle choice in training companion

9. Enhance retention transfer: summarize key content and direct participants’ attention to the infographic job aid that can be used even after the training has ended; identify “next steps”

Development

After revising the redesigned PowerPoint slides, I recorded voiceover for the slides directly in PowerPoint. Using the slide-by-slide recording feature allowed me to efficiently correct speaking mistakes.

Then, to help the software tutorial portion of the training come alive, I utilized Camtasia to screen record, record voiceover, and edit the tutorial using the program’s unique visual features. I made special use of the cursor highlight, arrow annotations, and pan-and-zoom animations to keep the tutorial engaging.

After exporting the respective .mp4 files from PowerPoint and Camtasia, I edited the two clips together in Adobe Premiere Pro. Additional edits at this point included removing unnecessary pauses, adding a visual fade-in and fade-out feature, fading in and fading out music in the intro and outro, and doing some preliminary audio balancing, among other edits. I later utilized Wondershare Filmora, an editing tool I had previously purchased, to export the final training video and create an abridged, highlights clip of the training.

Takeaways

This project was the first time I edited video with Adobe Premiere Pro, so I was glad to gain experience in the tool. The editing process overall was not difficult because I already had extensive video editing experience in tools like Wondershare Filmora, although the layout of Adobe Premiere Pro did require some adjustment. I was not used to the way individual video clips are split in the tool, for example.

Converting a synchronous, face-to-face learning solution into a self-paced, web-based one also gave me valuable practice applying Gagné’s Nine Events in an asynchronous format. I found it was trickier to apply the Nine Events to keep the video-based training engaging. However, as I learned from my years as an educator, applying formulas to a learning solution always requires fitting the prescription to the unique context and content of the training as best as one can.

If I were to complete this project again, I would record the PowerPoint voiceover in a separate program (like Audacity) rather than directly in PowerPoint in order to achieve a better audio quality. I did not find adjusting the volume between the PowerPoint and Camtasia-recorded audio clips in Adobe Premiere Pro to be sufficient to balance them. In addition, while I think the twenty five-minute length of the full training is appropriate given how comprehensive it is, I would work to make the content even more concise to best maintain viewer engagement.

Overall, I am very happy with the pacing and tone of my voiceover. I think the training is appropriately comprehensive and will serve as a valuable asset in the client’s training repository for future use.

Select the button below to view a video of highlights from the training or experience the full training.