Nice Products: An E-Learning Course ON Forced Labor IN SUPPLY CHAINS

Project Background

Goal:

Grant funding for this project was provided by a foundation, which collaborated with Verité to develop knowledge products that seem to advance enforcement and reduction of forced labor in global supply chains. While there are few legal mechanisms through which foreign entities can be held responsible for negligence or complicity in forced labor under US law, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act can be used to pursue such cases. Its application for the purposes of deterring forced labor is not well known, and this course aimed to increase awareness of these links for US government enforcement agencies. After recognition of the opportunities for broader dissemination of this module, the audience scope was broadened to encompass those from various other sectors with either significant knowledge of forced labor but limited knowledge of the FCPA, or vice versa.

Challenge:

This module is focused on deepening understanding of intersecting issues, and the broad audience for this course presented a significant challenge in its design. A learner analysis underscored that our audiences were likely experts on one particular topic covered in this module, but fairly new to the other topics presented. This made it important to ensure that learners had enough of a foundation to follow along on the course without presenting too much redundant information that would lead to learner drop-out or fatigue.

Approach:

Our team decided to approach this learning challenge using both Vyond and Rise 360 in order to engage users in interactive content to simplify the complex content, while also creating an opportunity for self-directed navigation of the material. Using an initial draft of a case study developed for a presentation on these topics, I wrote a script that centered on two distinct narratives: that of a company seeking to hire foreign workers (one potential learner audience), as well as the parallel narrative of workers seeking work abroad. The aim of building this course around a story was to quickly engage learners while also building empathy for stakeholders involved in the foreign worker recruitment process. This draft went through various iterations with the subject matter expert and the project director.

After developing and revising this script, I developed storyboard to map out content specific to the video narrative – to be developed as animation in Vyond – and that which would be presented in Rise 360. I worked to establish strong information architecture to ensure learners could easily follow the animated case study while navigating specific technical concepts in a self-directed way. This required creative use of Rise blocks and some design work to present a lot of information in a simplified, visual format. After extensive internal review and iteration, I tested the module with several users to ensure that navigation, UX, and learning concepts were easy to follow, engaged learners, and met course objectives. I also solicited user feedback to ensure that the case study characters I developed respected sound DEI principles that avoided harmful essentialization of ethnic groups but also remained faithful to contextual and cultural factors. The final outcome was an interactive and visually appealing course that is accessible to learners from wide-ranging backgrounds that distills new knowledge around the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in a simple way.