From Hazardous Waste To Spotless Space
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This scenario-based eLearning concept was developed for college lab technicians and college lab professors, regarding proper disposal of hazardous waste.
Audience: Lab technicians and Chemistry professors
Responsibilities: Instructional Design, eLearning Development, Visual Design, and Mock-Up
Tools Used: Photoshop, Articulate Storyline, Adobe XD
The Problem
Chemistry professors and lab technicians are not disposing of chemicals and hazardous materials in a proper manner. Sometimes chemicals are tossed in the garbage or poured down the drain when they shouldn't be, and broken glass is either placed in the garbage or recycle bins. Many of these universities are incurring annual fines due to improper disposal. There is also the cost of repairing plumbing within the lab, and the damage to the population of the college and the surrounding environment.
The Solution
After realizing that many newer technicians and professors are unfamiliar with proper disposal practices, the client reached out to me to request that I design and develop a learning experience to help with new hires and current employees.
Because improper disposal of chemicals and waste materials can have dangerous long-lasting environmental effects, I proposed a scenario-based eLearning experience that would allow for employees to make real-world decisions during the course of cleaning up from an experiment and see the full consequences of their decision in a low-risk environment.
My Process
For this project I served as the SME, drawing on almost 20 years of experience running secondary education laboratories. I created an action map. The action map assisted in my development of the text-based storyboard. Once my storyboard was complete I created visual mock-ups of the project in Adobe XD. Both the storyboard and visual mock-ups were submitted for approval while I worked on a prototype in Storyline. After several iterations and refinement, I finished the project in Storyline.
Action Map
I began by researching the differences between higher education laboratory procedures and secondary education ones to determine what was being done incorrectly by the technicians and professors. With their direction, I created an action map. Since many of the complaints were about having to replace the plumbing more frequently, I focused on ways to make solutions safe for sink disposal. I also learned that chemical powders and broken glass were being thrown out improperly. I addressed where these objects should be disposed of for safe handling.
Text-Based Storyboard
I worked with the SME to identify four points in the daily cleaning procedure that were resulting in the largest issues.
Broken glass disposal
Leftover powder disposal
Pouring solutions in the sink
Lack of MSDS (safety sheet) and lab manual awareness
Broken glass disposal: Thinking that broken lab glass is no different than broken drinking glasses at home is causing disposal in the garbage can or the recycle bin, causing injuries to the custodial staff or fines from OSHA.
Leftover powder disposal: After the experiment is concluded, the extra powder is either dumped in the garbage or poured back into its bottle causing contamination or OSHA fines from environmental contamination.
Pouring solutions in the sink: Many solutions are being dumped down the drain without deactivating the reactive chemicals leading to many leaks, plumbing issues, and sometimes closure of the labs due to noxious fumes.
Lack of MSDS and lab manual awareness: When dealing with chemicals that the technician or professor is not familiar with disposing of, chemicals are poured down the sink or thrown away in the trash. This has caused OSHA fines for safety issues as well as increasing the cost of lab upkeep from having the repair or replace the plumbing.
Visual Mock-Ups
For the ease of being able to swap and replace items, I created visual mock-ups in Adobe XD. The mock-ups started off as wireframes. I produced and edited the background visuals in Photoshop. Then, I combined visuals with a set color palette to make newer iterations of the mock-ups. My first attempt had far too much text. I did not want the learner to be turned off by a wall of text, especially during the consequence scenes. I also added the blue bar on the bottom to give my mentor button and the continue button a permanent home on each slide. The consequence scenes went through a few iterations to clearly show progression through the story.
Interactive Prototype
Next, I created an interactive prototype to test the functionality of the project and to give the client a chance to give feedback before the final result. I developed all the slides till the end of the second question and sent them to experienced lab technicians. I also had my husband (who has no chemical knowledge) go through the prototype and he found the chunked text easy to follow.
I received the most feedback on my consequences. Originally, I included a sort of road map to show the progression, but after speaking with my mentor, I settled on something cleaner that could be used for all the consequence scenarios.
Full Development
With the feedback received about the consequence slides, as well as how to more efficiently program my slide selection, I went on to develop the full project. I cleaned up the small things like missing animations or mismatched picture sizes and replaced a few of the pictures to better fit the mood of the consequence.
Results and Takeaways
I was particularly proud of this project. In my years of teaching, I have created many Powerpoints ranging from simple to elaborate, but they have all been information dumps. With this project, I was able to flex a more creative muscle and tell a story to correct a behavior. This project also gave me a chance to work more in Photoshop editing the main lab background to suit my needs for each scenario. This knowledge will allow me to work more quickly and efficiently on future projects.
If you'd like to see some of my other projects
you can check out my full portfolio.
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