mpf creative, llc

Client:	Multinational aviation training and flight simulator corporation
Roles:	Lead instructional designer, simulation developer, SME liaison (subcontractor)
Years:	2019-2024

Due to a non-disclosure agreement with the client and the prime contractor, I am unable to share project images. However, a case study describing the project is included. To present a complete picture of the project, work done by the entire team is discussed. In cases where I was part of a team of contributors, the term “we” is used, where I was the only contributor, the term “I” is used.

Background

For this large-scale multi-year project, aircraft updates and changing FAA and EASA regulations necessitated updates to pilot initial and recurrent training for several programs, including the Hawker 800, Gulfstream IV, Gulfstream V, Gulfstream 450, and King Air 200 aircraft.

In addition to updating content, the client wanted to leverage the review, update, and regulatory acceptance cycle to accomplish several additional goals:

• Redesign the programs using instructional systems design best practices
  • Existing programs had been developed by previous instructors—very knowledgeable subject matter experts and very skilled instructors but without formal training in instructional systems design
• Update legacy classroom system simulation components originally created in Adobe Flash
• Update the training to reflect current corporate branding standards
• Incorporate an updated method for establishing and tracking the correlation of content to regulatory requirements (FAA Airline Transport Pilot [ATP] and Type Rating for Airplane Airman Certification Standards [ACS]) and EASA Easy Access Rules for Flight Crew Licencing [Part-FCL])

The initial training programs range from 20-48 hours of classroom instruction, and recurrent training programs are 16 hours of classroom instruction.

Development Process

We applied a modified ADDIE process to this project. The Analysis phase was completed prior to the execution of the statement of work, and for this engagement, because the project concluded following the final revisions and quality assurance steps, our team was not involved in the Implementation or Evaluation phases.

The basic development process for each of the aircraft programs is illustrated in the following diagram.

In the Initial Planning and Configuration stage of the project, I worked closely with the SME and the Creative Director to develop a prototype lesson. Once that was developed and approved by both the SME and the client curriculum team, the Creative Director used the prototype to develop lesson templates, to which I added resources such as instructions, writing prompts, icons, and frequently used images.

With the prototype lesson and resources in place, we brought additional instructional design and graphic artists onto the team and continued with the Development Phase—iterating this phase for each lesson.

We developed a PowerPoint presentation for each lesson with speaker notes and instructional guidance in the PowerPoint Notes area. We developed the illustrations in Adobe Illustrator.

For the King Air 200 program, I developed simulations using Articulate Storyline 360 that the instructors use to demonstrate the cause and effect of cockpit selections on the fuel system.

For the final course developed as part of this project, I designed a prototype for the course facilitator guide and the participant guide using the conditional text feature in Adobe InDesign that was handed off to the client curriculum team to use to develop the guides.

Project Resources for Instructional Designers

In the capacity of lead instructional designer, I developed several resources and processes to streamline lesson development and promote consistency. While these are good practice for all projects, they were essential for this project due to its complex content, a project schedule that required multiple lessons to be developed concurrently, and instructional designers transitioning on and off the project throughout development and review cycles.

• Screen recording videos with voice over to explain frequently performed tasks
• Articulate Rise courses for team on-boarding and reference materials
• Templates for TeamWork (project management software) tasks
• Additional TeamWork resources such as wikis for FAQs and instructional design project process documentation
• Resource repository:
  • Image library of approved images with thumbnails to enable quick searching and full-size for use in presentations
  • Source material:
    • Original equipment manufacturer (OEM) manuals
    • Existing client lessons and other client provided source
    • Source Adobe Illustrator files for schematics and other illustrations
    • Videos
  • Visual, writing, and multimedia style guides

Lessons Learned and Innovative Approaches

Because this project spanned several years, several processes evolved along the way:

• Leveraging casual interactions with the SMEs to gather stories to be used as scenarios. Particularly when you have the opportunity to work with multiple SMEs, there is a high probability that they will swap stories. These stories are excellent sources for scenarios to use during the course. During this project, I found that several of the most impactful scenarios didn’t come from lesson reviews but from discussions over lunch or at break in which the SMEs were drawing on their experiences and sharing stories about situations they had faced and problems they had solved.
• Requests for images by the instructional designers from the graphics team. Prior to this project, the established image request process for this consulting group was to begin development of graphics after all text was approved. We learned fairly quickly that we needed to develop the graphics and the text in tandem to meet the deadlines. We identified patterns in the types of illustrations that would be needed and were able to move the specifications for 80 percent of the illustrations up to high level design step of the process, reducing the development timeline by two-three weeks.
  We made an additional improvement to the process by using the Task feature of the Teamwork software which allowed tracking of each image requested and a unique identifier that could be placed in the draft PowerPoint file.
• Using Adobe Illustrator components to build assembled images in PowerPoint. When we began the project, all cockpit panel images were built in Adobe Illustrator, which necessitated restricting the number of customized cockpit images to prevent overwhelming the graphic artists (and the budget). I collaborated with the production team lead to develop a method by which the graphic artists would put the cockpit panel components, rather than a finished cockpit image, on a source graphic PowerPoint slide. This could then be copied into the PowerPoint presentation and the components adjusted to illustrate how the instruments in the cockpit appeared in a particular aircraft state, such as taking off, landing, or an emergency situation. By providing assets such as groups of dial parts (faces, dial points, and digits), groups of switches (background, switch up or switch down), and groups of screen components (background screen, letters, and icons), the instructional designers could easily work with the SMEs to build realistic looking cockpit images that supported the concept being taught.