Overview

Problem 

 

Novice golfers must be able to identify the common components of a golf club set as understanding the use of golf clubs from tee off through fairway, green, rough and hazards has a major impact on the outcome in a golf round. While learning to golf is best done as a hands-on activity, it can be overwhelming for a new golfer to try to learn and remember these different clubs while out on the green. These activity-oriented learners may also find learning terminology from a book to be quite boring.

 

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Solution

My solution is an interactive study aid and gamified eLearning. It is designed as a blended learning solution for students taking an existing introduction to golf course. This eLearning provides a brief description of the purpose and utility of the most common golf club families or subsets and, through gamification, allows users to practice identifying the various golf club features and uses.

 

Key features:

• Combined text and visual graphic study aid to present technical knowledge of the golf club families and subsets.

   

• Gamified 9-hole par-3 golf course challenge with built-in positive reinforcement to further engage the learner while cementing technical content. As the learner successfully completes each challenge, they watch their tally increase on the scorecard progress and their position advance to the next hole on the topical view of the golf course.

   

• Designed using a combination of x-API enabled conditions, triggers, variables and states allowing the learner journey to be tracked via an LMS or LRS platform.

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Design process 

 

Initial research with SME

I am an ammeter golfer and this eLearning experience is a tool I would have found invaluable during my first year in the sport.

 

Selecting clubs is required to complete a golf club set and required when determining the best club for each stage of a golf course. Golfers are free to pick and choose whatever clubs they want to round out a 14-club set. They can mix and match brands, models, types — there’s no rule stating what kind of clubs they have to play. This means golfers are not only free to choose, but also have to choose. It’s the curse that comes along with the blessing, if you will.

 

Understanding the use of a golf club in the context of a golf course is an essential but time consuming journey for a beginner golfer. Throughout my learning journey, I often sought access to learning materials whenever and wherever I could study – at home, during lunch breaks at work or even on the train! This eLearning is designed to offer other novice golfers flexible access to learning at their own convenience. I used numerous golf club textbooks and golf training guides to inform an introductory study aid on the topic of golf club families and subsets.

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Script / storyboarding (Text-based storyboard)

I began with a text-based storyboard to plan my content and triggers. I made the intentional choice to include 9 stages in my 9-hole golf club challenge. I knew that a golf enthusiast would appreciate that the nine stages matched the number of holes (nine) typical of a par 3, nine hole course.  

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Visual mock-ups

Once the text-based storyboard was revised and finalised, I began creating visual mockups for the scenario in Adobe XD. I created a custom palette and consistent contrast, and typography to ensure the design was visually sound. 

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I chose stock images to represent the golf club set, the background golf green, the wood, iron, wedge, putter and hybrid clubs and my main protagonist, the female golfer. I selected a vector graphic for the birds-eye golf course and the scorecard progress metre. 

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Explore the visual mock-up gallery below

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Development Stage 1  -  Study Aid

I began with a Storyline 360 tabs interaction to form my interactive study aid. I programmed separate tab states including selected, hover, visited and disabled. 

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Selected: The colour of the selected tab matches the background of the general content screen, which I felt was a good visual indicator of which tab the user is on.

 

Hover: The hover state is a semi-transparent version of the tab’s colour. 

 

Visited: I like more control over my states than the built-in states can give me sometimes and to get that control I give them custom names. In this case I called the visited state “checked” because I’ve added a check mark to the tab’s state to show it’s been seen. I incorporated a trigger on the tab’s layer to change the tab’s state to “checked” at the beginning of the layer’s timeline.

 

Disabled: When on a content screen, I didn’t want the user to see an active hover state for the currently-selected tab. That would be confusing and seem like a sloppy build. To keep it solid I added a transparent disabling shape on the layer and placed it directly over the tab, which effectively disables it from showing its hover state.

 

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Interact with the study aid below

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Development Stage 2  -  Nine-Hole Challenge

I continued to develop the 9-stage challenge in storyline 360. I used object triggers to reveal the answer to each question. When the learner selects the correct answer, the object trigger reveals a banner of acknowledgement and the learner is prompted to continue. When the learner selects the incorrect answer they are prompted to return to the study aid to revise and prepare to try again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I wanted to include positive reinforcement in my design and so included a success sequence using a golf scorecard and a course progression sequence that tracks the learners progress to a new hole on the birds-eye golf course. 

 

Birds-Eye Golf Course Progress:

A little flag at each completed stop on the golf course tracks the learner’s progress and makes the learner feel like they’re progressing through golf course. At each hole  I used a zoom region to zoom in tightly on the next hole, and then an immediate “Box Out” transition on the following question slide so that, together, it would evoke a feeling of zooming from the macro map to the next stage of game play where the golf protagonist needs some help. 

 

Scorecard Progress: 

Every time you answer a question correctly, the next line of the golf score card emerges in full colour. This mirrors the progression around a real golf course.

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xAPI implementation and the LMS/LRS

I generated an xAPI zip package that is compatible with an xAPI enabled LMS and LRS. This allows me to track:

• Specific golf club information accessed by each learner.

• How many users completed training.

• Progress status of learners.

• Time learners spent completing the eLearning.

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Future additions

 

Given the next chance, I would like to add a video interview with an experienced golfer and their golf club set to the study aid. A discussion with the owner of a personalised set would allow a novice golfer to gain insight into the intention behind each golf club selection and the benefits of tailoring a set of clubs to a golfer.

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