CASE STUDY - E-LEARNING

Training Seasonal Staff Before Opening Day

ROLE

Instructional Designer & Producer

AUDIENCE

150+ seasonal staff, age 18-24

TOOLS

Adobe Captivate, Premiere, Photoshop

DELIVERABLES

60-min certification, staff handbok, filmed modules

THE PROBLEM

Every summer, a new group of seasonal staff needed to learn a lot in a short amount of time—from safety and supervision to child protection, behavior management, and the day-to-day expectations of camp.

Much of that training happened live during an already full week of staff training. That created two challenges: the experience could vary depending on who was teaching, and staff who arrived late could miss important pieces altogether.

We needed a way to make the most important training consistent, engaging, and available to every staff member—without using more of our limited face-to-face time.

WHAT I FOUND

The issue wasn’t a lack of information. We had plenty of it. The challenge was how we were delivering it.

Some content needed to be consistent for every staff member, while other learning was better suited for conversation, practice, and questions. Moving everything through the same live format wasn’t the best use of either the content or our time together.

That led to a different question: What truly needs to happen live, and what can we design once and deliver consistently?

THE SOLUTION

I designed a 60-minute self-paced training experience that moved essential, repeatable content online while keeping face-to-face training available for discussion, practice, and application.

The course was divided into shorter sections and used video, interactions, and knowledge checks to keep learners actively involved rather than simply watching or reading for an hour.

I also filmed content on location with our staff in the environments where the work actually happened. Learners weren’t seeing generic examples—they were seeing the people, places, and situations they would encounter when they arrived at camp.

DESIGN DECISIONS

DECISION: Move consistent, information-heavy content to self-paced eLearning and use live training for practice and discussion.

WHY: Our face-to-face training time was limited and valuable. Information that every staff member needed to receive consistently could be delivered online, while live time could focus on questions, scenarios, practice, and the conversations that benefit from having a facilitator in the room.

TRADEOFF: Moving content online meant I couldn’t see immediately when someone was confused or needed more explanation. I built knowledge checks and interactions throughout the course to help learners check their understanding and give us a clearer picture of completion.

DECISION: Film on location with real staff instead of relying on stock images or generic examples.

WHY: I wanted the training to feel like camp. Seeing the actual spaces, people, and situations made the learning more relevant and helped staff connect what they were learning to where they would actually use it.

TRADEOFF: On-location video takes more time to produce and is harder to update when environments change. For this project, I felt the added context and familiarity were worth it—especially for content connected to safety and supervision.

DECISION: Require completion before staff begin working with campers and track it individually.

WHY: One of the problems with primarily live training was knowing who had received which pieces—especially when someone arrived late. Moving core content online gave us a consistent training expectation and a way to confirm completion.

TRADEOFF: Tracking completion added another task during an already busy training week. We kept it simple—checked who had finished, followed up with anyone who hadn’t, and made sure everyone completed the training before campers arrived.

My Process

STORYBOARD

I mapped the course screen by screen before development, separating what the learner would experience from the details needed to build it—narration, visuals, interactions, transitions, and video needs.

The storyboard also became the starting point for production. Because the video needs were identified before filming, we were able to plan the shoot around what the course actually required.

SCRIPT & SHOT LIST

From the storyboard, I developed the narration and planned the shots needed for each section—including locations, people, and what needed to be captured.

Organizing the shoot in advance helped us film efficiently and complete the on-location production in a few days without needing to return for missing footage.

PRODUCTION

I led the project from concept through launch—writing and storyboarding the learning, planning and directing the video shoot, developing the interactive course, testing the finished experience, and publishing it to our LMS.

I worked with a videographer and subject-matter experts throughout production to make sure the finished training was accurate, practical, and reflected the real camp environment.

SEE IT

A 72-second look at the interactive e-learning experience.

EVALUATION

We didn’t see a noticeable drop in staff understanding compared with the previous live training, and moving the content online gave us something the live format couldn’t: a consistent way to ensure every staff member received the same core training, even if they arrived late or missed part of the staff training.

Completion could also be tracked, so we knew who had finished the training and could follow up with anyone who hadn’t.

WHAT I'D DO DIFFERENTLY

One challenge we discovered was access. Camp’s remote location meant the internet could be unreliable, especially when many staff were trying to get online at the same time. If I were designing it today, I’d plan more intentionally for low-bandwidth access and encourage completion before staff arrived on site.

I’d also rethink the 60-minute structure. The course was divided into modules, and learners could leave and return where they stopped, but there was still a lot of information in one experience. Today, I’d explore breaking some of that content into shorter learning pieces that could be completed over time and revisited when needed.