Overview
Upon joining GWU as the inaugural Director of Strategic Digital Learning Initiatives I had two tasks: 1) create digital fluency and later AI programs and 2) take over an existing multimedia production team using their skills to teach and enable digital skills among faculty. I joined at a time of severe fear, worry, and separation with the COVID pandemic. So I observed, coached, and managed the first year, then working with a colleague, began to transform learning and multimedia production operations impacting a team of Instructional Designers and Multimedia Producers when we returned in-person during 2021.
I determined that if staff were to contribute to digital initiatives beyond online course development, then they needed time to do that work and opportunities to upskill. The current system had my team members taking orders from everyone, Instructional Designers going through unconstrained rounds of changes, and each project taking 9-10 months to complete. Getting to a place where my team could have the impact desired from leadership meant rewriting workflows, re-defining how teams engaged, outlining team member responsiblities, allowing team members to apply their expertise with clients, setting constraints on deliverables, and formalizing the daily use of digital project boards and trackers.
Artifacts
The following are some of the key materials I developed as part of learning and multimedia production operational transformation. These guided the work of Instructional Designers and Multimedia Producers, and approached workflow design with the thought of how best to leverage their specific knowledge and skills in a coordinated and complimentary way to guide clients/faculty in developing online courses within a 4-5 month timeframe.
Integrated Workflow
The following demonstrates the final state system and workflow for how Instructional Designers, Multimedia Producers, faculty, and external SME's were organized to partner in online course development. It includes 4 phases with 7 steps total.
Online Course Development
In addition to the outlined system above, a standard project schedule was produced with a dependency chart. The project schedule was shared with all project members and the dependency chart was for Instructional Designers and Multimedia Producers to maintain awareness of what each was responsible for, as well as the potential cost of being late.
Multimedia Production, Online Tracker
Rather than using spreadsheets, project trackers were built with Monday.com. My team maintained one board for tracking general status for all term projects, multiple boards for individual projects, and one board for multimedia production. This spreadsheet demonstrates content of the individual project tracker and all the steps involved.
Impact
The result of this work was tremendous. By the time I left GWU, a regular batch of 9-13 online course developments were being consistently delivered within 4-5 months. Within one term a course could be developed and launched the next term. Additionally, multimedia production costs were down 50%. Team members were client-facing, able to contribute to strategic digital initiatives, able to attend trainings and conferences, and importantly could take time for themselves and remain healthy. The last one was a big concern for me as I never seen people so burned out when I arrived.
But it didn't go without push-back. Change is hard for many and someone with my mixed background is sometimes seen as too business by some in higher-ed and too academic by some in the private sector. I made changes and policies where I could. I routinely coached team members on what they could do and how to do it. And I made a habit of documenting and communicating all changes along the way. As I left, I was touched by a team member calling me and telling me, I've really hoped for and looked for a manager like you.