Parade Leader
Orientation
Storyline Course Sample
Overview
Client: NWA Equality / NWA Pride
Problem: Chaos isn't fun. Inadequate communication with and preparation by group organizers results in a disorganized parade check-in process. This causes event delays and frustrates volunteer event staff, with negative impacts on volunteer recruitment and quality/continuity of service.
Goal: This training aims to help groups be more systematic in their planning so that they show up in the right place at the right time with everything they need. We'll also give our volunteers the tools they need to answer last-minute questions more effectively so everyone can enjoy a the event.
Audience: Approximately 95-135 Group organizers who sign up on behalf of an organization or company group to march in the parade. They will be the point-person for their group, and the one who signs off on policies and procedures. They will be responsible to customize their participation plans and communicate those plans to their participants. Learners are LGBTQIA+ or allies.
Featured Interactions:
Tabbed Information Panels
Flip Cards
Collapsible Accordion
Click-to-Reveal Animations
Map Points of Interest
Branching Video Scenario
Custom Drag & Drop Assessment
Subtitled for the Hearing Impaired
Extensive use of variables and variable triggers to synchronize complex interactions across multiple layers and slides.
Tools: Storyline 360, Vyond, Google Maps Studio, Amazon Transcribe, Midjourney, Canva, Figma, Audacity, KDEnlive
Highlights:
Learners' guide a parade group through the process in a branching sequence of Vyond videos, receiving feedback about the consequences of their choices.
Animations timed to narration give learners a step-by-step tour to navigate the site layout and check-in schedule.
Fly-through video of parade route developed in Google Earth Studio gives learners a virtual view of the parade route before they arrive on site.
Illustrations are drawn from event photography from prior years, encouraging a celebratory spirit as learners are welcomed by familiar faces from the community.
Process
At the kick-off meeting with NWA Equality's executive director, we discussed their normal process, the challenges they've experienced, and goals we were trying to achieve. I was supplied with a trove of documents from prior years including web application forms, email communications, legal contracts, and spreadsheets that go into the behind-the-scenes event organizing.
After consultations with SMEs, past volunteer event staff, and past participants about their experience, business goals were developed into discrete action items, and the actions refined into measurable learning objectives.
Next, I went to work arranging the content points, exploring several different logical structures. The course organization was kept flexible using post-it notes during the conceptual phase. This allowed for easy grouping and rearranging of overlapping content and development of themes through different organizational strategies. Finally, I settled on a roughly chronological sequence to simulate the experience of an organizer moving from registration to parade day.
The process was supervised by my two technical advisors, pictured here.
Client Documents
Design Outline
This design document summarizes the understandings and consensus goals that were reached in discussions with key stakeholders.
The SME meetings and analysis above lead to a set of proposed learning objectives and an initial content outline. Those are memorialized here along with the proposed assessment plan.
This design document was presented to the project sponsor for feedback, revision, approval, and sign-off and served as the core reference throughout the remainder of the project activities.
Storyboard
Once the course outline was approved, I created a detailed written storyboard to to guide the development process. With a large volume of small content points, maintaining engagement was key. The storyboard process focused on including a wide variety of learner interaction strategies, punctuated at appropriate intervals with video breaks, to keep the presentation fresh to the end of the course.
It became clear that decisions early on in the chronological sequence would have impacts that wouldn't be realized until later in the content. To create connections from beginning to end, I incorporated a character-driven scenario that allowed the learner to engage with critical decision points throughout their learning and experience the consequences at key moments later on.
I employed a variety of tools to develop resources for this course:
A virtual fly-through of the parade route was developed in Google Earth Studio.
The ongoing scenario was created as a series of Vyond video clips.
Intermediate script edits utilized ChatGPT to support a consistent voice throughout the course while reducing repetitive and redundant content.
Specific graphics were generated with MidJourney AI and Canva.
The voice-over was recorded in Audacity, augmented with Adobe's Podcast AI, and edited with KDEnlive.
Not all of the challenges expressed during the kick-off were determined to be trainable. I will also be consulting with NWA Equality to streamline part of their back-office process, and will prepare a separate proposal for additional changes to the check-in schedule to address friction points identified during conversations with participants. Preliminary conversations resulted in agreement to several small changes that can be made immediately, and these are reflected in the course content to alert returning participants to the changes.
The digital training module for this project is only required of the designated group organizers, but thousands of participants and tens of thousands of spectators will be in attendance. It was clear that additional support would be useful on the day of the event.
The digital asset index to the right was provided to clients to direct their actionable feedback during review and provide other relevant printing and usage details.
Quick reference cards were created to equip leaders to communicate event rules and timelines with their members, including a reminder card for their vehicle operators who may not have received the entire training.
Additional way-finding signage was created to give event staff visual references to facilitate their interactions with the general public and to help everyone find the resource stations around the staging area.
