Professional training for engineers in heavy industry
EEMUA (the Engineering Equipment and Materials Users Association) is non-profit members’ association providing safety guidance documents and training for companies working in heavy industry.
During Covid, EEMUA rapidly moved their courses online and discovered how well this worked for them.
I joined EEMUA to design and develop a suite three of new online courses at an introductory level, but my role subsequently expanded and I produced two advanced-level flagship courses.
Project outline
Company: EEMUA
Duration: 13 months
Role:
- Designing and developing three new courses
- Working with subject matter experts (SMEs)
- Building course pages on the learning management system (LMS)
- Onboarding learners
- Training SMEs in teaching
Tools: Instructure Canvas, Adobe Premier Pro, Canva, Microsoft suite, html and CSS
Note: EEMUA’s content is provided to paying member companies, so all of the content here is made up of examples, stock images, and mock-ups.
Project goals
New courses
When I started, EEMUA had recently launched their first online course (MIPC®, Mechanical Integrity Practitioner Certificate).
They now wanted to launch three new entry-level courses:
- EEMUA 231 Mechanical Integrity Basics
- EEMUA 159 Storage Tank Basics
- EEMUA 194 Subsea Engineering Basics
High-quality, rigorous courses
As digital provision was new for EEMUA, they wanted me to develop their courses to in a way that was rigorous, well designed and integrated with all necessary digital systems.
My role was to provide expertise in digital systems and pedagogy in order to launch EEMUA's new offering.
1. Varied content
The previous courses had used written content, recorded lectures videos and live-online courses.
For the new courses, I added microlearning elements. As traditional software (e.g. Articulate Storyline and Rise) were not available, I found a way to use Microsoft Sway (normally used to develop newsletters) as an alternative. This enabled me to create interactive components without impacting the budget of the project.
I also improved the lecture recording process so that it was no longer a set of slides with a tutor in one corner of the screen. Instead, I edited the videos to combine lecture elements with images and integrated videos.
Approaches
2. Clear course structure and information architecture
I introduced several elements to improve the usability of the courses:
- Landing pages with course summaries and navigation to important pages
- Guidance on the course structure and navigation on different platforms and operating systems
- Structured information architecture for course materials
3. Improved accessibility
I integrated accessible design as part of the development process of new courses.
To improve the accessibility of the canvas pages, I made several changes:
- Structured the written content and sections using heading levels rather than formatting (e.g. bold and font size)
- Ensured diagrams are usable for people with colour blindness
- Added alt text to images
- Used descriptive links instead of ‘click here’
- Captioned videos
- Used a concise and direct writing style
4. Consistency across courses and platforms
While I was working on this project, EEMUA was also developing a new website with a related style guide.
I was able to use it and expand the style guide to cover the LMS and learning materials.
High learner satisfaction
100% of user surveys reported the highest level of satisfaction with the course structure, ease of use of the platform, and quality of learning materials.
Feedback
Strongly subscribed courses
The first running of each course reached attendance targets and together they exceeded expected uptake by 60%.
The storage tank and mechanical integrity courses continued to be fully subscribed in their second and third runnings.
Subsequent projects: leadership courses
Asset Integrity Leadership Certificate (AILC®)
- A six-month course combining self-directed study with live-online classes and practical assessments
- Designed to train engineers with technical backgrounds on good leadership practice in industry
- The course and assessment prioritised practical application of learning and learners completed tasks by applying frameworks and analysis to their own companies.
EEMUA 159 TIM - Tank Integrity Manager®
- A one-week in-person training course
- EEMUA's most advanced course for engineers in the storage tank industry
- Trained engineers to manage tank farms, work in cross-functional risk-based inspection teams and provide recommendations to senior management
- Assessment combined traditional exams with a group assessment that simulated the working enviornment
After the success of the 'Basics' courses, my contract was extended so that I could design and deliver two new advanced-level courses.
The Asset Integrity Leadership Certificate and Tank Integrity Manager were launched as flagship courses focused on leadership in industry.