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Seadrill had a risk assessment presentation designed for classroom learning – it was time to transform it into an e-learning offering with Reuzer’s help.
We spoke to long term collaborator and world class instructional designer Pete Harwood, who produced the course, to find out about the process.
Understanding the brief
Seadrill provides offshore drilling services to the oil and gas industry. From shallow to ultra-deep water, they can unlock oil and gas resources to help deliver energy around the world. They manage high-risk activities every day and being “Safety Conscious” is one of the organisation’s core values.
A key element of this is its task-based risk assessment (TBRA) – a formal written risk assessment with a sequence of steps that helps identify hazards and assess and manage risks. It tends to be used for higher-risk tasks where a work permit is required.
When Seadrill got in touch, it already had a classroom-based TBRA course. But it wanted to step up its digital offering by creating an interactive e-learning course based on the same material, as well as a video version. Seadrill also wanted us to include an assessment at the end of the course.
“Our task was to streamline the scripting to make it a bit punchier and add more visuals and animation to really bring the course to life,” explained Pete.
“The classroom slides tended to be lists of bullet points which an instructor could elaborate on, however we didn’t have this luxury in e-learning. It was our job to make it more conversational and accessible.”
Planning for success
Reuzer’s existing template for Seadrill, which included the business’s branding, meant the course’s overall design was set. And the budget determined that 2D animation, as opposed to 3D, would intercut written learning throughout. Seadrill provided the skeleton script, and then approved our rewritten version before production got underway.
“To make the whole process as smooth as possible, we sent Seadrill the first section of the course once it was complete,” said Pete. “This gave them the chance to review a short sample and provide feedback before the rest of the course was created.”
Taking production step by step
With about 40 minutes of information to pack in, pacing was important. Seadrill had asked for us to rework the script for e-learning, and include animation, but not a complete revamp, so we had to be strategic to make sure the course would be engaging throughout.
The first step was to come up with a structure that best illustrated each stage of the risk assessment process and then create the course. “With a course like this, I try and pace the animation sections so they’re evenly distributed,” said Pete. “I decided which parts made more sense animated and what worked better as more traditional e-learning for a nice mixture. This approach also helps to keep the learner engaged.”
Important client considerations
Thanks to all the prep work we did, production went smoothly.
One challenge came at the review stage when there were some issues with the imagery we had used. “We tend to rely on client provided imagery combined with some stock content,” explained Pete, “and when those stock photos show workers on a rig, they’re not always wearing the correct style of PPE for a particular company. Luckily, we were able to source alternative images or edit them to deliver the consistency and accuracy Seadrill needed.”
Importantly, we also designed the course to make it easier to render as a video, as per Seadrill’s requirements. Rather than lots of prompts and interactivity, we kept those elements to a minimum so it would still make sense to a learner watching it as a video course.
Assessed as excellent
The deliverables for Seadrill included the interactive e-learning course as well as the video version. “Sign-off was straightforward and our client was really happy,” said Pete. “We’re already working on more courses for Seadrill, including an introduction to risk assessment, which refers to this TBRA course and also an environmental awareness course. We care a lot about providing that consistency and clarity, so the learner has a much better experience.”
Client thoughts
“Reuzer took the specification and content requirements, and built a detailed online training module for supervisors, which included animations, voice-over, and knowledge assessment quizzes to give an easily accessible, high-quality learning tool. This will build and continually improve skills in risk assessment as part of our core value of Safety Conscious and delivering safe and efficient services to customers.”
– Peter Smith, Head of Process Safety and Environment, Seadrill