Ad Policy Education
eLearning Courses
Overview: This ongoing Ad Policy Education project is the first project I started working as an instructional designer at TikTok. It has seen many iterations since its initial launch on our external-facing platform TikTok Academy. As the solo instructional designer on this project when it started, to our present-date team of four, I have had the opportunity to contribute at different capacities as the catalogue of courses offered continues to expand. The current course catalogue is made up of six eLearning courses: two foundational, and four industry-specific courses that teach advertisers everything they need to know to run policy-compliant ads on the platform.
Project objective: Develop and maintain a comprehensive global advertiser training curriculum.
Audience: Advertisers, Agencies, Content Creators
Responsibilities: Ad Policy SME, Instructional Design, eLearning Development, Visual Design, Content Writing, Project Management
Tools Used: Rise Articulate, Canva, Adobe Illustrator
Process
First iteration of course that went live during Q1 of 2022
In the initial stages of this project, the goal was to design a learning experience that would teach advertisers about the ad policies on TikTok in way that was engaging, easy-to-understand, and self-paced. We determined that an eLearning course would be the best learning method. The first step I took was to created a Course Design Specifications document for each eLearning course that addressed the Analysis and Design phases of the ADDIE model of instructional design. Capturing details like the needs analysis, target audience analysis, content analysis, project specifications, overall learning approach, evaluation plan, learning objectives, and content/learning map of the project.
As the need for additional courses and our team grew, it was necessary to design a course roadmap to lay out the development of courses in consideration of needs of the business and industry demands.
Example of interactive elements embedded in course.
The next step was then to develop an Ad Policy Project Playbook that:
Determined general best practices such as the tone and language, terminology, spelling, and formatting, and Legal and PR restrictions to consider when writing the course content.
Established a general look and feel for images embedded in the course, color palette, fonts, process flow charts, buttons and template, fake ad templates, and the design of formative and summative knowledge checks.
Provided guidance on how and when to use specific interactions in an eLearning module such as an accordion, timeline, flashcards, hotspots etc. as well as the visual design rules to follow for each to maintain consistency throughout the course.
Established multi-step review process protocols to follow after the course has been developed and before it can be uploaded to LMS and published for external audiences. The course would need to undergo review from global SMEs, Knowledge Management, Legal and Public Relations teams. After review, the feedback provided by various teams would be implemented and then published.
Example of summative knowledge check.
We were then ready to design a content page/text-based storyboard for each eLearning course capturing the learning objectives for each course, course script, formative and summative knowledge checks, and additional resources utilized during the development of courses. A voluntary LSAT survey was also embedded at the end of the course to collect feedback from the learners on the course content, whether or not the course met their needs, and if they’d recommend the course to another advertiser.
After the storyboard was completed, the next phase was the development phase. The first iteration of courses were developed in Articulate Rise and the visual assets were designed in Adobe Illustrator and Canva. After the first iteration of courses were complete the courses were then sent to be reviewed by global SMEs, Knowledge Management, Legal and PR teams. As the feedback came back, changes were implemented in real-time to prepare courses for publishing. After final approvals and sign off by our Legal and PR teams the courses were then shared with the team that handles the external-facing platform TikTok Academy to be uploaded on to the LMS for implementation/go-live.