Authoring a LinkedIn Learning course during a pandemic.
What’s it like to be a LinkedIn Author in a time of pandemic? It is interesting.
A few months ago I had the most interesting chat with my Content Manager at LinkedIn Learning.
I was in Carpenteria recording my UXPin course and, as is usual, we try to get together for lunch to get caught up and to bat around ideas for new courses. I always enjoy these get-togethers because they are rather focussed and to the point. This is because he is so busy he simply doesn’t have the time for long and relaxing lunches.
It was at this lunch that the project I am currently working on bubbled up. Essentially, he had this idea for a course that would explain the UX Design process to Non-Designers. What was bothering him, and I might add myself, is that a lot of very different people and skillsets were intimately involved in the development and delivery of projects and he suspected they were a bit hesitant to speak out about areas that were well out of their wheelhouse. An example of this would be a member of the research team feeling it wasn’t his or her place to question the size, color, or placement of a button. Doing that might get the Designer a bit defensive. Conversely, the Designer, after reading the personas, doesn’t understand where they came from and won’t say anything because the researchers obviously know what they are doing.
As is our standard practice, I told him I found the idea intriguing but to give me a couple of weeks to think it through. One of the reasons for this is to give me the time to think through how to approach the course and to feel I am qualified to do it. I have a pretty good grasp of how to create User Interfaces and the use of motion. I also have an understanding of the entire process but going that deep into it would move me out of my comfort zone. Like many of you, this can be rather scary. Then it hit me, this whole course is for people who, just like me, are finding themselves out of their comfort zones. That was when I decided to move forward on the course.
The authors at LinkedIn Learning don’t just flame up their computers and kick out a course. There is a definite process that forces us to approach what we do with a logical flow. The process for me is to research the topic, get an idea of what needs to be covered, and then hop on a call with my Content Manager to see if my ideas mesh with his vision. In this case, I essentially told him I would like to start with a broad overview of who does what when- I called it the “Who Are These Guys” chapter- and then cover off the major workflow steps from Concept to Release in the remaining chapters. The result of this call is to find out if I need to start over or to prepare the Table of Contents or, as we call it, The TOC. This call was in January of this year and I was given the Green Light to proceed with the TOC.
It took me a couple of weeks to research the topic and figure out the TOC. The main issue was UX Design is complicated. It is so new that it has become a term that has a definition along the lines of: “What do you want it to mean?” This is not to be considered as me being facetious but the various roles in the process are varied and the makeup of the team, based on the scope of the project, can range from as little as one person to a dozen or more. On top of that, a lot of the articles and so on around the topic are either confusing or contradictory. As a result, I spent most of January reaching out to contacts and poring through articles that made sense to me to get a handle on the various items of the TOC which was submitted in late January.
At LinkedIn Learning the TOC is critical. It outlines the chapters and subheadings of the videos to be recorded in each chapter. It also requires you to write a couple of sentences covering what will be presented in the video. The TOC is then handed over to your Content Manager for review. It is then presented to LinkedIn Learning for a yay or ney. If it is a go, the course is added to the production schedule and the author gets busy.
With the TOC approved, I still wanted to be sure I was on the right track. To do this I quietly send it over to a couple of associates familiar with the subject and I ask, “Is anything missing?” One of them mentioned, “ I am not seeing anything here about accessibility. Is there a reason for that?” Good catch and that is why I make it a standard practice to add this step to my workflow. I am too close to the project and if there are holes in the plan, now is the time to find them. Accessibility was added as a topic and I made sure to keep it rippling through the course.
And then the wheels fell off the cart …
The coronavirus first came to my attention when news of the outbreak in WuHan started popping up. Having spent a couple of weeks in WuHan a few years back, it came as no surprise to me because I had been to the infamous “Wet Market” and WuHan is not exactly a small city. It is huge with a massive population. When it started spreading I slowly came to the realization that maybe heading for California to do the recording in late February or mid-March, might not be a good idea. I went back to my Content Manager and Producer at LinkedIn Learning and told them my coming down there may not be in the cards. They concurred and I prepared to record at home.
Thankfully, I needed to prepare the scripts so I earmarked them for completion around the third week of March and got to work.
And then the wheels that fell off of the cart rolled into ditch …
As we all know companies laid off massive numbers of employees but retained key employees with “work from home” (WFH) marching orders. My beloved fell into the WFH category during the last week of February. Due to the nature of her job, this meant she would be regularly contacting senior management and key customers either on the phone or through video conferencing. Thus the need for an office that was somewhat quiet with few distractions and the home office I use for recording was the ideal candidate. This resulted in a rather tense “negotiation”. The result was I was relegated to the dining room table for three days and if my beloved had a “light day” I could use the office. The recording deadlines went out the window and were replaced with a “You will get the recordings when I do them.” Those of you that know me will understand how much this hurt. For 20 years I have been writing books, tutorials, and doing courses for LinkedIn Learning and I am rather proud of the fact I have rarely if ever missed, a deadline. So much for that one.
And then the wheels that fell off of the cart and rolled into the ditch, came to rest in the water at the bottom of the ditch ….
One of the key aspects of this course was a plan to incorporate video content instead of simple screenshots or screen captures. Needless to say, without the use of the studios in Carpenteria, this went flying out the window and required a Plan B … which I didn’t have. My first idea was to simply grab some B-Roll content from LinkedIn Courses, toss in a voice-over, and submit that. I took a week in March to work out how to do this, compiled the sample video, and shot it off to my producer. The response, a couple of days later, was “doesn’t work”. So much for Plan B. All of the scripts I had written were useless and I needed a Plan C.
Plan C came about around the third week of March and was a hybrid of the first two plans - Voiceover, B-Roll content and lots of images all wrapped in a series of Keynote/PowerPoint presentations.
So am I laying out my sad tale of woe just to gain your sympathy? No.
In this very strange time, we have all been forced to adapt to rather abrupt change. When it comes to change you can choose to avoid it or embrace it. Embracing change is hard because it moves us right out of our comfort zone into an unknown space which forces us to look for ways to adapt to the change. This is just as true for this LinkedIn author as it is for my Beloved. Am I happy with this new arrangement? Not really but as my Beloved says, “It is what it is.” How true!