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Two major Government Departments recently approached Nelson Training with a request to produce a week long series of videos as part of bullying & harassment events they were planning. The twist was that what happened the next day was to be guided by the viewers of which there were going to be hundreds! The scenes also needed to be suitable for a satisfactory resolution to the initial scenario by the end of the week.
In both cases, the opening video scene was put together by discussions between Nelson Training and the Inclusion Team of the Department concerned. This was to ensure authenticity and relevance. The scenario was designed so that each video would be of 5 to 7 minutes’ length. A short set of questions was devised for viewers to answer at the end of each video that would guide what would happen in the next day’s scene. The questionnaire was set up using JISC Online Surveys so that all responses would be anonymous. As there would be many responses each day a means of quick analysis needed to be found.
Nelson Training had been carrying out qualitative training needs analysis using text analysis software as described in a recent blog. We therefore used the same software to draw out the major themes from the viewers’ responses for each video. Each new video was designed to incorporate the responses whilst moving the story forward. A nightly meeting was held with the Inclusion Group to finalise the next scene and it was then recorded and delivered by 12 noon the next day. This was repeated for each weekday with a final but realistic resolution on the Friday. The idea of each day was to point viewers to the help available within the organisations for victims of bullying, harassment and discrimination and to guide them in what they should do if they should do if this occurred. Other issues were explored throughout the week, such as what to do if you were a bystander.
What was fascinating was the level of engagement and how little the number of viewers to each day declined over the week. Most people viewed the videos during the lunchtime but surprisingly, many viewed them in the evening when at home. This demonstrated that this approach is an interesting way of engaging people in this topic when compared to traditional e-learning. In addition a large amount of anonymous data was collected that gave a picture of the level of awareness and knowledge of these issues within those that participated.