Cybersecurity Microlearning Library

This microlearning library helped my client's organization navigate a high volume of phishing attempts.

• Responsibilities: Instructional Design, eLearning Development, Graphic Design
• Target Audience: Employees and partners of Nurse Next Door
• Tools Used: Storyline 3, Illustrator
• Budget: Low to Medium
• Year: 2017

I designed and developed this mobile-friendly library of microlearning courses using Storyline 3 and Adobe Illustrator.

Process

The client came to me after their organization and clients began experiencing a high volume of phishing attempts. Since they had seen similar organizations get taken advantage of by these attempts, they were eager to provide training that would help people discern legitimate emails from phishing emails.

I worked with the client's pre-existing, long-form content to create a library of microlearning courses. These courses could be completed in a matter of minutes; they were action-oriented and perfect for an on-the-go audience.

Instructional Design

Since the client already had long-form content, I started with that and chunked it into small, bite-sized pieces.

Also, the original content was quite technical. I used the personalization principle to make it more conversational, and I decided to introduce an avatar to lead the experiences and make them more engaging.

For this project specifically, I decided to make the main character a "phisher." This way, the user could hear the information directly from the mouth of the person who knows the strategies and techniques to take advantage of people and get the information that they seek.

eLearning Development

Once I had the content for a course ready-to-go, I moved into development with Articulate Storyline 3.

I included interactivity wherever it made sense to do so, and when information built on information that came before it, I introduced gamification elements to "lock" the future content.

I used variables to include the user's real name and email address in the courses to make it more realistic and enhance transfer. I also asked the user to recall important pieces of information, such as the email address where phishing attempts should be forwarded to.

Finally, I introduced emails that looked like they were from the client's organization and asked the learner to identify what was off about them.

The client was very satisfied with the end result, and this microlearning library helped stop any data or information leaks from occurring.

Takeaways

This project showed me how powerful microlearning can be when put to good use. Since the target audience was on the go, these sub-5-minute courses helped people learn the necessary knowledge and skills whenever they had some extra time.

I also enjoyed designing for mobile devices, ensuring that buttons were big and easy to touch.

Going forward, I'm keeping my eye out to use more microlearning strategies when the needs of the project demand them.