Running head: JOB AIDS 1

Job Aids

Mini-Design Document

Team 4

Paula Carter, Shay Herr, Michael Johnson, Cong Li

California State University, Monterey Bay

Date: October 23, 2018

IST 522 Instructional Design

Dr. Jeanne Farrington

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Job Aids

Many professionals have used a job aid, but most might not be able to provide a clear

definition of a job aid or recognize when a job aid should be used. In Job Aids Basics, a job aid is

defined as “an external resource designed to support a performer in a specific task by providing

information or compensating for lapses in worker memory or skill” (Willmore, 2018, p. 12).

There are many types of job aids, including infographics, checklists, and flowcharts, and they

can be used in a variety of situations like enhancing confidence while performing a task, guiding

performance with tasks that are easy to get wrong, or helping with important tasks that are

performed infrequently (Willmore, 2018). Creating the right job aid for your audience is crucial

and instructional designers must be able to determine when a job aid is the right solution and

which type of job aid will be the most effective option for addressing the performance gap.

Our team’s learning module will be an introduction to job aids that provides information

about how to create a job aid, appropriate formatting for a job aid, and design tips for creating an

effective job aid. After completing the learning module, our learners will be able to determine

when a job aid is an appropriate solution for a performance problem and they will be more

confident in their ability to create a job aid.

Analysis

Striving to provide an enriching learning experience, we designed a brief questionnaire

and distributed it to our learners. With the results, we identified the performance needs of our

learners, discovered their attitudes about job aids, assessed their prior knowledge, and then

developed the main topics to be covered in our lesson.

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Needs Assessment

The learners for this activity are MIST Cohort XIV students who currently work in the

corporate and education fields. All the respondents to the questionnaire indicated that knowing

how to create a job aid is very important for instructional designers. Although all our learners

have experience creating a job aid, some responded that they have done it only once. When

asked about confidence in their ability to create a job aid, half of our learners replied that they

were somewhat confident, and the other half indicated that they were not confident. This

information helped us recognize the gap between our learners’ attitudes about the importance of

job aids and their lack of ability and experience with creating a job aid.

Our questionnaire was not a thorough needs assessment, but the feedback did confirm

that a training is well-suited to address the lack of knowledge and skills with job aids. Currently

our learners lack the ability to confidently and competently create effective job aids. We want

them to be able to utilize a systematic process for creating a job aid, identify frequently used job

aid formats, and recognize important elements of job aid designs.

Learner Analysis

Our team created a questionnaire to assess learner knowledge about job aids, identify key

information that they want to learn, and determine their attitudes about the importance of

utilizing job aids. The results showed that they all have some prior experience creating job aids

and all believe that creating job aids is a very important skill for instructional designers. They

also expressed limited confidence in their own ability to create a job aid. We see a gap between

their current knowledge and skills and the desired level of competence for instructional

designers. Therefore, our training aims to close this gap.

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The learner goal for our project is to improve the learners’ knowledge and conceptual

understanding of job aids. The learners should be able to identify the sequential steps of the job

aid development process and recognize situations where job aids can be useful resources for

instructional designers.

Context Analysis

A final learning product that includes brief lessons and activities will be delivered via

iLearn. Our learners have been using iLearn in the MIST program for a couple of months and

should be familiar with this learning management system (LMS). Since the learners are in

geographically different places in California, our lesson will be a self-paced online learning

module. Students will have one week to complete the 20-minute lesson. Multiple digital learning

objects will be used, including a narrated screencast video created with PowerPoint and

Camtasia, an interactive course presentation made with H5P software, and an animated explainer

video created with Powtoon, along with three short activities to assess knowledge retention.

Content Analysis

We will focus on three aspects of creating effective jobs aids. First, the term job aid will

be clearly defined and a systematic development process for creating job aids will be explained.

This process is emphasized because learners must know that “taking shortcuts leads to creation

of job aids that don’t work, aren’t used, or are inappropriate for the performance issue they’re

expected to address” (Willmore, 2018, p. 77). The systematic approach will enhance the learners’

confidence in their ability to create an effective job aid by explaining a step-by-step process that

requires rigorous analysis, appropriate design, iterative development, focused implementation,

and continuous evaluation.

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Next, students will be presented with an interactive course presentation that focuses on

choosing appropriate job aids formats. The content will highlight different formats to select

based on the type of aid that is required to successfully complete a job.

The last subtopic will provide useful ideas for job aid design. These tips will focus on

appropriate content, language, and visual elements to use when creating effective job aids.

Content brevity and simplicity will be emphasized, common, everyday language will be

encouraged, and consistency with visual style will be recommended (“Tips for developing Job

aids,” 2015). An example of an effective job aid that successfully incorporates each of the design

tips will accompany the lesson.

Design

Objectives

After completing the module, the learners will be able to sequentially list the steps in the

job aid development process and identify typical job aid outlines and designs. We will use the

following objectives in a systematic order to assess our learners’ comprehension of these topics.

1. Given the “How to Create a Job Aid” narrated slideshow, MIST students will be

able to list the nine steps of the job aid development process in order with 90%

accuracy.

2. Given the “Job Aid Formatting” course lesson, MIST students will be able to link

each job aid format with its description with 90% accuracy.

3. Given the “Job Aid Design Tips” animated video, MIST students will be able to

identify two appropriate content elements, two appropriate language elements,

and two appropriate visual elements of a specific job aid with 90% accuracy.
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Agenda/ Presentation/Activity Description

The Job Aid learning module will lead off with a brief overview of the topic and course

content. Course objectives will be included in the introduction to prepare learners for the

information they are expected to acquire. The following lessons will be presented in order:

1. “How to Create a Job Aid,”

2. “Job Aid Formatting,” and

3. “Job Aid Design Tips.”

Testing will occur throughout the learning module to decrease the chance of learning gaps

growing as the training progresses (Stolovich & Keeps, 2011, p. 175). Upon concluding each

lesson, the learner will complete short activities to verify performance objective attainment.

The first lesson will present a comprehensive definition of the term job aid and then

introduce the sequential steps of the job aid development process. This material will be based on

information gleaned from Joe Wilmore’s book Job Aid Basics. The narrated screencast video will

include text and images and will automatically pause twice for interactive questions to reinforce

the information that is covered. The video will continue when the correct answer is provided.

After the video, a brief activity created with the Moodle Quizzes feature will prompt learners to

drag and drop each step of the job aid development process into the correct sequential order.

Then learners will be presented with the common job aid formats. This interactive course

lesson created with HP5 software will use text to clearly describe commonly used job aid

formats accompanied by links to web pages with graphic examples of each format. These format

examples will connect the learners with outlines to reference when developing an instructional

aid. Following the interactive course lesson learners will take a short completion test that

requires them to recall the job aid formats and fill in the missing word to complete a sentence.
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Next the learners will learn to identify content, language, and visual elements that are

conducive to creating effective job aids. An animated explainer video will provide multiple

useful tips for learners to utilize when creating an effective job aid. An infographic created by the

National Safety Council will accompany the video as an example of a job aid that successfully

includes the tips referenced in the video. After watching the video and examining the

infographic, the learners will evaluate the design of another infographic and identify two content

elements, two language elements, and two visual elements that were appropriately applied.

Finally, our learners will complete an interactive forum to assess their knowledge

retention and relate the new information to their own experiences. In their forum posts each

learner will be prompted to provide a concise definition of the term job aid in their own words

focusing on what a job aid is designed to help a performer with. The learners will also need to

describe in 2-3 sentences one performance problem in their own professional lives that they think

a specific type of job aid would improve.

Feedback/Engagement

Feedback will be provided to our learners within 48 hours and will include written

comments and a numerical grade that encompasses the results from all three lesson quizzes and a

forum post. The highest possible numerical grade will be 40 points, with 30 points available for

the lesson quizzes and 10 points for a substantive forum post. The written feedback will address

the learners’ assessment quiz results and the meaningful content of the forum posts.
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References

Keeps, Erica J., Stolovich, Harold D. (2011). Telling ain’t training (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA:

ASTD Press.

Willmore, Joe. (2018). Job aids basics (2nd ed.). Alexandria. VA: ATD Press.

Tips for developing job aids. (2015, March). Retrieved from https://thrsc.com/essential-skills/wp-

content/uploads/2015/03/Tips-for-developing-Job-aids.pdf.