Joyce works in Workforce Learning and Development with a team of four Training Development Officers, who work part-time, and with one full-time content planner and developer to produce a whole swathe of digital learning solutions. She graduated in 2019 with a Tusla-funded MSC in eLearning and has put it to good use managing the work of a team who create everything from fully interactive eLearning programmes to animated informational videos and tutorials and audio podcasts.
“I have a background in commercial art and design but my career in the HSE began when I became a social care worker in 1998, rising to become Deputy Manager of a high support unit in the former East Coast Area Health Board until that service was closed down. I then moved into training, and for 16 years I worked as a TCI trainer delivering training in Therapeutic Crisis Intervention along the east coast area.
“While doing my regular job, I had been producing various HSE publications – Information about the Complaints Procedures for young people in care and their families; booklets for children attending speech and language therapy, and later on, training materials and presentations whilst in Tusla … things like that. And because of that work I was approached to work on the project team to develop the Children First eLearning programme, which was the first digital programme of its kind in Tusla that also went out to an external audience .
“The work of the digital team is quite specialised in that we are focusing on how we can make the best use of current digital technologies and the various Tusla platforms to reach our target audience. We are constantly striving to keep up to date with current trends in digital media to provide effective, interactive and engaging learning solutions for our Tusla colleagues, our service users and their families and other services we work with outside Tusla.
The requests we deal with are usually national, and the first step will be to see if a digital response is actually needed, or if a different method is appropriate.
“Across last year, we developed 27 pieces of training, reaching 35,000 staff. At the moment we have 14 projects on the go, with another five waiting in the wings; and we’ve already finished ten so far this year.
“A lot of the work is very hands-on. I’m finalising the first draft on a procurement cards eLearning module at the moment. I’m also working on videos on the Foster Care Strategy, Children’s Services Regulation, and podcasts for Tusla’s Learning Initiative for Social Workers.
“Putting together a 30- to 45-minute eLearning module could take three months’ work. There’s a rigorous scoping process to start with, involving intensive work with a project panel of subject matter experts and the project sponsor. In the initial phase of a project, a lot of research goes into deciding how best to reach a target audience. That’s where we define what we want to achieve with the training and who it should be disseminated to, and how best to do that.
“The project panel provides all the content, but it’s not just a matter of regurgitating some policy or some previous learning, we need to identify the learning element, understand the challenges involved in presenting that learning, and find good digital solutions. Then we must make it interactive for the learner.
“When it comes to the development of an eLearning module, we use the industry standard Articulate 360 suite of software to build the programme. We work extensively with the project team to develop a storyboard that charts the programme design and manages the content. Once we agree what content is to be included, we do a first build, which will be reviewed and tested by a sample group from the target audience. This gives us the chance to test the efficacy of the programme in reaching the learning requirements and make any necessary changes A project could go through several iterations before it is ready to be published.
“At the moment we’re working on a series of videos for Fostering. The videos focus on training social workers to be empathetic to the emotional impact that foster carers go through when taking a child into care. It requires us to develop a family of characters, each with their own profiles, so that we create as much emotion as we can in a 2-3-minute animated video. We’re trying to show the whole journey of a child in care and to pack a punch in telling that story.
“There are loads of projects the team is working on… data protection, dealing with violence harassment and aggression in residential care, legal training videos for the Office of Legal Services, information on the drive-to-work scheme… a podcast being developed on dealing with violent phone calls…
“A typical day would be first going through emails and requests for help; then checking-in with the rest of the guys on the team, who work in different parts of the country, to see how they’re projects are going. We do informal learning sessions together, our ‘huddle’ where we share tips and tricks and information about new technologies for learning . Then I’ll juggle various projects, collaborating with my colleague Shane and developing content on the various projects.
“A major part of my role is to ensure that the standard of the work we produce is to a very high standard. So, we have developed a rigorous QA process where I review the programmes or videos developed by the team before they are sent for a final technical test before being uploaded to the LMS, the Tusla Hub or the Tusla website. I might also review and write scripts for video scenes or review eLearning programmes that are already in existence, but which need to be updated due to changes in policy or legislation.
“It's so busy, and the work is very creative and interesting, which is just what I like.”
TUSLA
