Project: Keys to Your First Home

Introduction

This project was undertaken as part of "The E-Learning Designer's Academy" September Challenge. The client, Vanderwell Realty, faces challenges in assisting first-time homebuyers in finding homes promptly due to unrealistic expectations influenced by HGTV shows and similar sources. Vanderwell Realty seeks to implement a customer onboarding training program to educate clients about the home-buying process, help them establish a budget, and distinguish between their "needs" and "wants" in a home. The goal is to assist clients in finding homes that will meet their needs within a more reasonable timeframe.

Understanding the Needs: Conducting a Needs Analysis

Vanderwell Realty - Needs Analysis.pdf

Download PDF • 94KB

Stated Problem

• According to realtors, first-time home buyers have unrealistic

expectations and are having a difficult time find homes that meet these

expectations, leading to extended time house searching and

disappointment.

Goals

• Reduce the time it takes agents to get first-time homebuyers

from onboarding to accepted offer

• Increase client success in finding homes that meet their needs

Current Performance 

• Clients spend extended periods of time searching for rare features in homes

Observations

• Clients have no previous training or knowledge in house hunting

• Clients are basing expectations on reality TV shows

• Realtors are frustrated trying to find houses that fit unrealistic

expectations

Conclusion

• Home-buying clients lack the knowledge needed to prioritize home

needs and wants

Train clients in these areas as part of onboarding:

• Home buying process and timeline

• Defining a Home-Buying Budget

• Identifying Needs and Prioritizing Wants

Action Mapping: Aligning Training with Business Goals

I started by setting a clear objective:

• Reduce the time it takes agents to get first-time homebuyers from onboarding to accepted offer by 20%.

Subsequently, I outlined three actions that clients would need to undertake to assist in achieving this goal:

• Learn the main steps of the home-buying process and approximate timeline

• Establish a firm budget range before beginning the home search

• Create a list of needs and prioritized wants prior to the home search

  
  

Setting Clear Learning Objectives

Since this training is tailored for Vanderwell Realty's clients, I developed Learning Objectives that emphasize their significance to customers during this process. Vanderwell Realty aims for customers to feel confident and empowered, rather than rushed, in finding a home that suits their needs and budget, so I designed the learning objectives to align with this goal.

After completing this onboarding, first-time home-buyers will be able to:

• Understand the home-buying process and timeline.

• Define their budget with an understanding of key financial factors.

• Create a prioritized list of needs and wants.

This knowledge will lead to a decrease of 20% in the time it takes to find a home.

View my full Design Document here:

Vanderwell Realty Design Document.pdf

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Developing the Training Experience

This training is an asynchronous e-learning module that clients can complete at their own pace before beginning the home search with Vanderwell Realty. Vanderwell provided the branding kit, which includes fonts, colors, logos, and preferred style options.

The training was created using Partio.io, allowing for interactivity and scenario-based learning for clients' onboarding, along with visually engaging ways to present information and integrate features such as a mortgage calculator widget.

To emphasize the three primary learning objectives of this course, I titled it "Key to Your First Home" as a play on words, highlighting the three "keys" necessary to gain the knowledge required for searching for a new home for the first time.

Other factors I considered when creating this training:

• Clients might not always have a desktop computer available, so the training should be accessible on tablets and mobile devices.

• Clients are selecting Vanderwell Realty from numerous choices, and a training that takes too long or feels pressuring could deter clients during onboarding.

• Vanderwell Realty wanted the training to convey professionalism, warmth, and high-quality service, requesting it to be "polished but personable."

• Clients have varying budgets, needs, and desires, so the training had to be designed to accommodate these differences without confining clients to scenarios that provide inaccurate information for their lifestyle and requirements.

I thoroughly tested each element on desktop, tablet, and mobile views to guarantee accessibility across all formats. I stayed focused on Vanderwell Realty's primary concerns to ensure the training was brief, clear, and concise. I utilized Canva to design some graphics, scenarios, and the course completion certificate. To achieve a warm, professional, and personable tone, I opted to use Camtasia to produce brief introductory videos for each learning objective.

Each learning objective is presented and accompanied by a brief knowledge check. At the conclusion of the training, a final scenario-based knowledge check integrates all the learning objectives to ensure clients are prepared to handle the realities of the home-buying process.

Delivering the Training

Vanderwell Realty offers a link to this training module to all new clients during onboarding. Upon completion, clients receive a certificate to bring to their initial meeting to discuss potential future homes. Clients will also have a defined budget and a prioritized list of needs and wants, giving the realtor a clear understanding of what homes to search for. The training is available on desktop, tablet, and mobile, allowing clients to complete it at their convenience. All videos are captioned for accessibility, also enabling clients to watch without sound if needed.

Evaluating Training Effectiveness

This training will be implemented with all new first-time home-buyers during their onboarding process with Vanderwell Realty, during which time effectiveness will initially be evaluated in 6 months.

• Completion of self-paced learning with earned certificate

• Customers bring a defined budget and a prioritized list to the first meeting after onboarding

• Decrease time from onboarding to accepted offer by 20%

My Thoughts and Experience

This is my first challenge completed in The E-Learning Designer's Academy, and my first experience with Parta.io. Designing a training for a hypothetical company while learning to navigate a brand-new-to-me tool was definitely a learning experience. Luckily, I really enjoy tackling new challenges and solving all sorts of puzzles. The challenge was sponsored by Parta.io, and it was recommended that we use this platform for this month’s challenge. Once the challenge was posted, I signed up for the free trial and took advantage of the opportunity to learn some new tools and skills.

Initial Challenges and Discoveries

The most interesting part of the experience for me was figuring out how to create interactive experiences without fully understanding Parta's capabilities and available customizations at the outset. I was particularly impressed with Parta's functionality regarding branding and collaboration, but I initially felt frustrated when I encountered what I thought was a platform limitation regarding mobile functionality. I was eager to create a scenario-based learning experience, but I learned that this feature was unavailable on mobile, which I saw as a potential barrier for many users who may be completing the first-time home-buyer training.

Support and Solutions

After reaching out to Parta, I had the pleasure of connecting with Artem, who was more than willing to set up a video meeting. He walked me through how to make some of these features accessible on the mobile view. I was thrilled to learn even more about this platform and it's capabilities. As I progressed with creating the training, I had several more questions and concerns, and Artem thanked me for calling attention some items, and noted some feature requests to enhance user experience in the future. I am very impressed with the receptiveness to questions as feedback to improve their product, and am eagerly anticipating the new features and customizations that are on the horizon.

Final Thoughts

Overall, this project required a lot of experimentation and problem-solving as I crafted an e-learning training with a platform with which I had no prior experience. I found myself pulling some late nights to get everything “just right” for the user experience, and I was continually inspired with new ideas as I discovered different templates and features. I’m already looking forward to next month’s challenge and can’t wait to see the interactive experiences that other members of The E-Learning Designer's Academy will submit!