PROJECT OVERVIEW 

This project represents the most ambitious and complex learning design  work of my career to date - a fully structured, two-phase digital  onboarding program designed for a large multi-campus school serving  2,000+ students and staff across Melbourne.

What began as a digitisation brief evolved into a comprehensive  enterprise learning solution, built from the ground up using  instructional design principles, AI-enhanced content production,  and structured stakeholder engagement across the entire organisation.

                                                                                     THE CHALLENGE 

Sirius College is a growing, dynamic multi-campus school serving a diverse community of 2300+ students and staff. As the college continued to expand, leadership identified an exciting opportunity to build a structured, modern digital onboarding experience, one that would reflect the college's values, support incoming staff from day one, and set a strong foundation for professional belonging and engagement across all campuses.

The brief: design and build a scalable, engaging, and inclusive onboarding program that could serve all staff roles across the college.

                                                                                     MY ROLE 

Lead Learning Designer, end-to-end ownership of:

• Instructional design and learning architecture

• Content development and module production

• AI-enhanced video content creation

• Stakeholder consultation and review management

• Pedagogical framework design across all modules

                                                                                    THE SOLUTION 

Phase 1:  Welcome & Orientation

Designed to give all incoming staff a warm, structured introduction  to Sirius College — its values, culture, campuses, and people. Built with AI-generated video content, interactive knowledge checks,  and accessible multimedia across all devices.

Phase 2:  Role-Specific & Operational Onboarding

Deeper modules covering systems, policies, curriculum expectations, pastoral care, student support, and operational procedures, designed  with branching scenarios so staff navigate content relevant to their specific role and campus.

                                                                                   DESIGN APPROACH 

• Pedagogical Framework: Universal Design for Learning (UDL) applied throughout , multiple means of representation, engagement, and expression across every module Tools Used: Articulate Rise 360, Storyline 360, AI video generation, interactive knowledge checks, branching scenarios

•  Stakeholder Process: Structured cross-directorate review cycles with directors across HR, Curriculum, Operations, Pastoral Care, and Student Support  translating diverse requirements into a coherent, unified learning experience

•  Accessibility: Designed for all devices and staff backgrounds, including staff with varying levels of digital literacy 

Applied consistently across every module in the program

Every module in the Sirius College Staff Onboarding Program — regardless of topic, phase, or directorate — follows the same five-stage design process. This consistency was a deliberate instructional design decision, not a formatting convenience. When learners know what to expect, they spend less cognitive energy navigating the course and more energy engaging with the content. A predictable structure creates psychological safety — particularly important for new staff who are already managing the demands of starting in a new workplace. 

Stage 1: Introduction Sets the scene. Every module opens by activating context — telling staff what they are about to learn and why it matters to them specifically in their role at Sirius College. 

Stage 2 : Video AI-enhanced video content delivers key concepts in a dynamic, human format. Rather than walls of text, staff encounter information through engaging visual storytelling — accessible to all learning preferences and digital literacy levels. 

Stage 3: Flashcards Active recall replaces passive reading. Flashcards require staff to retrieve and engage with what they have just encountered — a research-backed strategy for strengthening memory and improving knowledge retention. 

Stage 4 : Scenario The most critical stage. Staff are placed into realistic, values-based workplace situations and asked to make decisions — applying their learning in context rather than simply remembering it. Each scenario is grounded in the real culture and expectations of Sirius College.

 Stage 5 : Takeaways Every module closes with a clear consolidation of key insights and actions — giving staff something concrete and immediately applicable to carry into their daily practice. 

This five-stage framework transforms each module from a content delivery exercise into a complete, evidence-based learning experience — designed to build confidence, competence, and connection from day one. 

The Pedagogical Foundation of Every Design Decision

The Sirius College Staff Onboarding Program was not designed around what was easy to build — it was designed around what the evidence says works. Universal Design for Learning provided the pedagogical framework that guided every content, assessment, and engagement decision across the entire program.

UDL recognises that there is no single way people learn best. Sirius College serves a richly diverse staff community, spanning different cultural backgrounds, disciplines, campuses, career stages, and levels of digital literacy. A one-size-fits-all approach to onboarding would have left many staff behind from day one.

The three UDL principles were applied as follows:

Multiple Means of Representation: No single format carries the full learning load. Every module combines AI-enhanced video, written content, and visual flashcards, ensuring that staff encounter key information in multiple ways, regardless of their preferred learning style or language background.

Multiple Means of Engagement: Staff are never passive. The program moves deliberately between watching, recalling, deciding, and reflecting — using scenario 

decisions, reflective takeaways, and progressive assessment to promote genuine critical thinking rather than surface-level compliance.

Multiple Means of Expression:Understanding is demonstrated progressively throughout each module, not in a single high-stakes quiz at the end. Scenario responses, knowledge checks, and practical application tasks give staff multiple opportunities to show what they know ,reducing anxiety and producing more authentic evidence of learning.

Together these three principles ensured that the onboarding program was not just accessible, it was genuinely inclusive, evidence-based, and designed to work for every member of the Sirius College community.

                                                                                   KEY FEATURES 

• AI-generated video content across multiple modules 

• Branching scenarios tailored to role and campus

•  Interactive knowledge checks at every stage 

• Consistent visual identity and tone across 8+ modules 

• Cross-directorate stakeholder review and sign-off process 

• Designed for scalability, new staff cohorts and future modules 

Six Features. One Unified Program.

Every feature was a deliberate design decision, chosen because it serves the learner first.

The Sirius College Staff Onboarding Program was built to a professional standard that reflects the ambition and values of the college. These six features did not emerge by accident, each one was chosen, designed, and implemented as part of a coherent instructional strategy.

AI-Generated Video: Rather than relying on static text or generic stock footage, every module opens with AI-generated video content, delivering key information in a dynamic, human format that meets staff where they are in a video-first world. Production remains scalable and cost-effective for the college without sacrificing quality or engagement.

Branching Scenarios: Staff are not told what the right answer is, they are asked to find it. Each scenario places learners in a realistic workplace situation grounded in Sirius College values. Incorrect responses lead to targeted feedback and redirection, turning mistakes into learning moments rather than assessment failures.

Knowledge Checks: Assessment is embedded throughout each module, not saved for a single end-of-module quiz. Progressive knowledge checks build a richer, more authentic picture of understanding while significantly reducing the anxiety that traditional compliance testing creates for new staff.

Consistent Visual Identity: Every module, regardless of topic or directorate, follows the same visual design language. Consistent typography, colour palette, layout, and tone ensure staff experience the program as a unified professional journey rather than a disconnected collection of resources.

Stakeholder Co-Design: The program was developed through structured consultation with directors across five college directorates. Each contributed subject matter expertise that was translated into learning content ensuring the program reflects the real priorities and expectations of Sirius College rather than a generic onboarding template.

Scalable Architecture: The modular structure means new content can be added, existing modules updated, and the program evolved as the college grows making this a long-term institutional asset rather than a one-time project.

Together these six features represent a program that goes well beyond standard staff induction. This is enterprise learning design, built with intention, grounded in evidence, and delivered to a professional standard that Sirius College can be proud of.

                                                                                  WHAT I LEARNED 

Reflections from an Enterprise Learning Designer

Building the Sirius College Staff Onboarding Program was the most complex and rewarding learning design project of my career to date. It challenged me technically, professionally, and personally, and it confirmed something I have believed for a long time: that great learning design is as much about people as it is about tools and technology.

These are the five most important things this project  taught me.

1 — Stakeholder Management is a Design Skill

Before this project I understood stakeholder management as a project management skill, something you do around the edges of the real work. This project taught me it is central to the design itself. Getting directors across eight college directorates aligned on what onboarding should achieve required as much skill, patience, and strategic thinking as building any module. Every stakeholder brought a different priority, a different language, and a different definition of success. Learning to translate all of that into one coherent learning experience is a design skill, and one I will carry into every project  I work on from here.

2 — AI Accelerates — Pedagogy Still Leads

Working with generative AI tools to produce video content and accelerate development was genuinely transformative. It reduced production time significantly and opened creative possibilities that would have been out of reach with traditional tools. But the most important lesson was this: AI is only as good as the instructional thinking behind it. The tool does not know what a learner needs. That judgement belongs to the designer. AI raised the ceiling of what I could produce. Pedagogy determined whether any of it actually worked.

3 — Consistency Builds Learner Confidence

One of the most impactful decisions in this project was the simplest, applying the same five-stage design cycle to every module regardless of topic or directorate. What this created was a predictable learning rhythm. Staff arriving at their third module already knew what to expect, and that familiarity freed them to focus on the content rather than navigating the course. In an onboarding context where new staff are already managing significant cognitive and emotional load, reducing that friction matters enormously. Consistency is not a creative limitation. It is a learner-centred design decision.

4 — Scale Demands Systems Thinking

Designing a single module is a craft challenge. Designing eight or more modules that work together as a unified program is a systems challenge, and the two require fundamentally different thinking. Every decision I made at the module level had implications for the whole program, visual identity, tone of voice, assessment approach, timing, navigation. I had to hold the detail and the whole picture in mind simultaneously throughout the entire project. This project taught me to think like a learning systems designer ,not just a content creator.

5 — Instructional Design is Strategic Work

Perhaps the most significant shift this project produced in my professional thinking: instructional design is not a support function. It is a strategic one. A well-designed onboarding program shapes how new staff understand the organisation, how they relate to its values, how quickly they become confident contributors, and ultimately how long they stay. The Sirius College Onboarding Program is a long-term organisational asset. Building it confirmed for me that learning design, done well, creates measurable value at the highest level of an organisation and that is exactly the work I want to keep doing.

This project did not just develop my technical skills. It developed my professional identity as a learning designer. I arrived at this project as an educator who could build 

digital learning. I leave it as a learning designer who understands how to create organisational impact through evidence-based, human-centred instructional design.

That distinction matters. And this program is the proof.

TOOLS & TECHNOLOGIES 

The Technology Stack Behind the Program 

Building an enterprise-scale onboarding program requires more than one tool. Each platform below was chosen deliberately, selected because it was the right technology for a specific instructional purpose, not because it was the most familiar or the easiest option available. 

Articulate Rise 360

The primary authoring platform for the entire program. Rise 360 was chosen for its responsive design capability , ensuring the program works seamlessly across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. Every module was built here from course navigation and visual identity through to, knowledge checks and multimedia integration.

Articulate Storyline 360 

Used specifically for the branching scenario interactions. Storyline 360 was chosen because it offers a level of interactive complexity, consequence pathways, conditional logic, layered feedback, that Rise 360 alone cannot achieve. Scenarios were built in Storyline and embedded into Rise as interactive blocks.

AI Video Generation

Generative AI video tools were used to produce the video content that opens every module. This made high-quality video production scalable across the full program — accessible to staff with varying language backgrounds and learning preferences, at a fraction of traditional production time and cost.

H5P

Used to create the flashcard interactions embedded throughout each module. Clean, intuitive, and effective for active recall, H5P directly supports the retrieval  practice principle at the heart of the five-stage design cycle.

Miro

Used during the design and planning phase to map the full learning architecture before a single module was built. Working in Miro first ensured that instructional design decisions were made at the program level, not module by module in isolation.

UDL Framework

The most important framework in the entire design process. Every content, assessment, and engagement decision was evaluated against the three UDL principles before it was finalised, ensuring the program was built for every staff member from the outset, not retrofitted for accessibility after the fact.

The tools made the program possible.-The pedagogy made it work.-The people made it matter.