Multimedia Learning - John Deere

Simply put John Deere had a cousin problem. Most of it's affiliate dealerships are owned by families, some for many generations. If a family member needed work, they usually got the job of sales associate.

John Deere's customers run the gamut of sizes and types. Many of the people John Deere sales associates interface with are people with multiple higher-education degrees in agriculture, business, and engineering. Their feedback to John Deere was sales associates are ignorant and cannot communicate at a professional level.

Multimedia Learning created the John Deere Certified CSA Program, which took users through every aspect of every wear part on John Deere machinery. Wear parts are those parts John Deere expect to fail due to heat, friction, etc. The training included complex concepts and required end-users to perform mathematical calculations.

End-users were required to complete the course and pass a mastery examination at the end with a required minimum score. John Deere directed us to write screen text and audio for voice-over, animation, and video at a twelfth grade level. We hired editors to ensure compliance with their request.

We tested the Certified CSA Program on John Deere employees at our offices. John Deere subject-matter experts hand picked three subjects. One sailed through the exam without a problem. One squeeked by above the minimum score. One failed after taking the test twice.

John Deere also had aging engineers who wanted to get into sales and build a nicer retirement nest. The cousins got axed. The engineers replaced them.

We built this product in Macromedia Authorware. We delivered in as a 3 CD set. It included 4 hours of video, lots of 3D animation, 2D animation, and professional audio. My role as Instructional Designer focused on the manufacturing and application of different types of bucket teeth.

I story-boarded all of the bucket teeth lessons, wrote all the screen text and voice-over audio, worked with graphics designers to create images and animations, and wrote video scripts. Additionally, I have a background in photography, so I got to out on location and shoot thousands of images of machinery in the field and in dealership parts departments.