Federated Learning Model
(FLM)

Ensure consistent, scalable corporate learning experiences

Role: Lead Process Manager / Designer

Context: Learning Management Platform

Launch: Dec 2023

My individual contribution

I led a cross-funtional team of designers and developers within Schwab Technology Services (STS) Learning & Development to identify gaps and offer innovative solutions that improved operational efficiencies, data collection, and overall user experience. I also led the design, development, and deployment of a Federated Learning Model (FLM)-compliant project and audit management desktop application for instructional designers. You can learn more about the desktop application, MAKER, here.

Service Designer

Instructional Designer

Digital Transformation Manager

Organizational Change Manager

___ PROJECT DETAILS

Understanding the project.

About

Following COVID the corporate learning organization shifted to a FLM for employee skill development. The FLM and our group’s specific learning playbook strategy directed how several learning teams can work collectively towards the same goal, ensuring scalable and consistent learning experiences for all employees.

Impact

The FLM implementation impacted 200 Instructional Designers serving 30k employees across the company. With HR lacking a clear compliance process my work was instrumental in aligning learning content across the company, resulting in significant positive business impact as measured by the Kirkpatrick Model. The work I did on the FML implementation resulted in $15.3M/yr in value to the company.

What is a Federated Learning Model?

Key to understanding this project is knowing how a Federated Learning Model differentiates itself from other models. Every institute has a training model to help streamline learning processes and proceedures. Companies commonly implement a centralized or decentralized structure to deliver learning programs and facilitate skill development.

Centralized Learning Model

  • Directed at the center

  • Delivered from the center

  • Difficult for large companies

Federated Learning Model

  • Directed locally with direction from the center

  • Delivered locally

  • Standardized and scalable

Decentralized Learning Model

  • Directed locally

  • Delivered locally

  • Leads to inconsistencies

01/

CHAPTER

ANALYZE

___ TAKE INVENTORY

Needs Analysis.

Following the ADDIE Model

My approach to the digital transformation of our Learning & Development teams followed the ADDIE model, which is the standard model for Instructional Designers.

I started with a comprehensive Needs Analysis. I worked closesly with Stakeholders across the enterprise, as well as subject matter experts (SMEs) from Instructional Design teams to take inventory of existing tools and processes to better understand the requirements and pain points each team needed to solve. The insights I gathered were key in helping me make the right decisions to align corporate technology and processes, learning content, and training strategies with the FLM digital transformation goals.

The Needs Analysis focused on 3 key questions:

  • What are people doing now?

  • What do we want them to do?

  • Why aren’t they doing it?

Existing Training Programs

Objectives & Skill Sets

Prioritize & Recreate
Training Strategies

Target audience.

Instructional Designers

Program Managers

Engineering

Corporate Comms

Product Owners

HR Learning

Business Analysts

SBM

___ TRAINING STAKEHOLDERS

Driving digital transformation.

My engagement with key stakeholders to driving awareness and desire was key to success and meeting overall KPIs in alignment with company OKRs.
I did this by identifying influential partners across the company and bringing them along to align the rest of the company behind the digital transformation initiative.

Evangelize digital transformation

I empowered stakeholders with the knowledge and ability needed to comply with the Federated Learning Model. I did this by training stakeholders to evaluate their programs and reach out to me for help in transitioning their impacted content to the new Federated Learning Model. This was important due to the massive amount of content that already existed.

Train Stakeholders

Many training and development programs were impacted by the digital transformation to the Federated Learning Model, including the following:

Impacted programs

___ TERRAFORM

Digital adoption.

New technology deployment

Terraform was our test program in how we were going to use the new tools and engage this new methodology with our audiences.
I was responsible for understanding the objectives and standards from Engineering Product Owners, and bridged the gap between them and the Learning and Development team with their new learning process. I did this through a robust discovery process and detailed service design of existing learning content and processes.

I collaborated with the Learning and Development team, applying my experience in instructional design to create new learning content in alignment with the new tools and processes. I also helped do beta testing and collected evaluation data in alignment with program KPIs.

___ LEARNING EXPERIENCE PLATFORM (LXP)

Digital transformation.

Part of our digital transformation included a newly utilized LXP with AI capabilities. Our LXP had the ability for us to create “skills” tags and connect those to learning content. Employees could then add desired skills to their employee profile and the system would recommend learning content to them.

AI power-up

It was my responsibility to become the expert on this new platform and its capabilities, how best to work with those capabilities so that our teams built learning content in a way that allowed us to get consistent data from the platform.

Update best practices

Maximizing the capabilities of the LXP required me to go outside of the company to do research on the vendor platform because our company had not yet enabled all of the features. This allowed me to influence the company and make a case for enabling various capabilities within the tool.

Influence HR

DESIGN

02/

CHAPTER

___ DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Design Solutions.

When designing solutions I focused on designing the right things, not just designing things right. This involved three steps:

Step 1: Define specific and measurable outcomes to drive digital transformation using Kirkpatrick’s 4 levels of evaluation

Following the ADDIE Model

Did Learner Find Value?

Did Learning Occure?

Was Learning Applied?

What Impact to Org?

Step 2: Create solutions that aligned objectives and strategies with instructional goals

Step 3: Determined testing strategies for measuring digital adoption

  • Implemented certification approval via LXP course completion & testing

  • Certification required for access to tools

Facilitator Guide Sample

03/

CHAPTER

DEVELOP

___ DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Create & Test.

HR Learning

I worked closely with HR Learning on defining the federated Learning Model process.

I led the development of a web application to drive digital adoption of the new FLM requirements. You can learn more about MAKER here.

Project & Audit Management

I partnered with the Learning & Development team to define their Learning Playbook and pilot digital solutions.

Learning & Development

In order to ensure broad adoption it was important to have a standardized and intuitive process for instructional designers to follow when creating artifacts.

I began by building a service blueprint of the existing process used by many teams, identifying what was working well and what was not, as well as ensuring that the process was compliant with the new FLM.

Once I had mapped out the existing process flow, I then created a service blueprint for the ideal state that aligned with the FLM.

Service Design

04/

CHAPTER

IMPLEMENT

___ DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Preparation & Engagement.

Influencing change around digital content delivery best practices

I drove change by engaging with key stakeholders in HR Learning to define best practices for the new Federated Learning Model.

  • Focus on accessibility (WCAG 2.2 compliant)

  • Clearly define online expectations and participation

  • Micro Learning

    • Text - phrases or short paragraphs

    • Image - photo or illustration

    • Video - short (under 10 minutes)

    • Audio - short snippets

    • Tests and quizzes

    • Games

  • Regular audience engagement

    • Provide prompt and frequent feedback to students using online knowledge checks and comments

  • Learning on Demand

  • Virtual meetings, live chats, video tutorials

I created a strategy for engaging participant, and collaborated with key partners across the business to align on messaging and drive awareness.

Engage participants

Notification to target audiences

  • Leadership advocacy

  • Emails

  • MS Teams Chat

Pre-course communication

  • Ready, Set, Go notifications

Introduction to the newly developed virtual learning resources

  • Workshops

  • Leadership introduction

  • Content launch

05/

CHAPTER

EVALUATE

___ DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Drive Outcomes.

I determined testing strategies for measuring digital adoption. This included establishing formative evaluations to validate whether the quality of learning resources satisfied the standards established during the Design phase, as well as summative evaluations using the Kirkpatrick method.

Evaluating performance

Formative evaluations were done while we were offering the course. They provide feedback which allowed me to continually improve our process and content (e.g. Micro Learning engagement. Often not graded).

Summative evaluations were done after the learning to provide judgments and data on the extent of goal achievement.

Formative vs Summative evaluation

Results

Polls

User feedback
4.6 / 5 Good use of time

80% received 100%
20% received 70-90%

Knowledge Checks

80% of people leaders reported regular use of applications in daily work

Feedback

100% adoption within 4mo
$1.09M/yr work hrs saved
$15M/yr ADA risk reduction

Analytics

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