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Disney e-Learning:Historical Overview & Consumer Products Project Proposal

August 28, 2006 RFQ RESPONSE SUBMITTED BY

Allen Interactions, Studio i2134 Allston WayBerkeley, CA 94704

Michael FaheyRegional Sales [email protected]

Jason ZeamanStudio [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


The Walt Disney Company

Letter of Introduction

August 28, 2006

Richard J. Criado

Disney Strategic Sourcing and Procurement New Media & Technology1375 Buena Vista Dr., 3rd Floor NorthLake Buena Vista, FL 32830

Dear Mr. Criado,

Thank you for the opportunity to submit this proposal to The Walt Disney Company for the Disney Historical Overview & Consumer Products e-Learning project.

Allen Interactions brings a long history of expertise in the design and development of award winning custom e-Learning with proven techniques in the areas of product, soft skills and concept training.

The attached proposal is based on our current understanding of your needs. The custom developed (3) e-Learning courses: TWDC Historical Overview, DCP Historical Overview, and Corporate Historical Overview. These courses will provide e-Learning tools to The Walt Disney Company for the training of employees, agents, and consultants. The modules within the first course will provide a historical overview and milestones with regards to The Walt Disney Company. The second course will detail the Company’s Consumer Products Division historical events and milestones. The third course will focus on the various milestones and historical events from the Disney Corporate perspective. For pricing purposes the Corporate Historical Overview Course will grouped this into the TWDC Historical Overview course.

Allen Interactions’ e-Learning courses will be used to support the difficult culture change necessary to truly fortify an ever-changing employment workforce within The Walt Disney Company worldwide.

Please don’t hesitate to let me know if I can provide any further information.

This proposal is valid for a period of 90 days from August 28th, 2006.

Sincerely,

Michael Fahey

Allen Interactions Inc.

Confidential Allen Interactions Page 2


Table Of Contents

LETTER OF INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................2EXECUTIVE SUMMARY........................................................................................3

e-Learning Experience.....................................................................................3

Company Culture.............................................................................................3

Technical Capability.........................................................................................3

Interactivity......................................................................................................3

Project Management Philosophy......................................................................3

Ease of Implementation...................................................................................3

Pricing..............................................................................................................3

Why Allen Interactions?....................................................................................3COMPANY OVERVIEW.........................................................................................3

Company Background......................................................................................3

Our Goals.........................................................................................................3DEVELOPMENT PROCESS: THE SAVVY APPROACH................................................3PROJECT SUMMARY............................................................................................3SCOPE OF PROJECT............................................................................................3

Business Need..................................................................................................3

Proposed e-Learning Courses...........................................................................3

Intended Audience...........................................................................................3SAMPLE WORK BREAKDOWN..............................................................................3ALLEN INTERACTIONS STAFFING PLAN................................................................3COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT PLAN................................................................3QUALITY MANAGEMENT PLAN.............................................................................3SAMPLE RISK MANAGEMENT PLAN......................................................................3

Risk: LMS Challenges.......................................................................................3PRICING............................................................................................................3

Quality e-Learning Can Be Cost Effective.........................................................3

The Appropriate e-Learning Investment...........................................................3



Cost..................................................................................................................3APPENDIX A: AWARDS & COMPETENCIES..........................................................3

Awards:............................................................................................................3

Instructional Design:........................................................................................3

Competencies:.................................................................................................3

Instructional Design.........................................................................................3

Creativity..........................................................................................................3APPENDIX B: CUSTOMER REFERENCES................................................................3APPENDIX C: AWARD WINNING EXAMPLES..........................................................3APPENDIX D: EXAMPLES – DCP SCREENS.............................................................3APPENDIX E: QA BUDDY DATA™..........................................................................3APPENDIX F: SAMPLE DELIVERY SIGN-OFF FORM.................................................3APPENDIX G: SAMPLE CHANGE OF SCOPE FORM..................................................3



EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

e-Learning Experience

Allen Interactions has assembled a team of industry experts, including instructional designers, educators, developers, and multimedia producers, to continue Dr. Allen’s mission—inspiring more effective and engaging uses of interactive multimedia for learning and communication.

Allen Interactions is built on exceptional experience, with a variety of technologies, tools, and instructional approaches to address just about any type of performance need. Over the last 20 years, we have invented some of the most widely used tools and paradigms, including authoring tools, LMS systems, and quality assurance tools.

Company Culture

Allen Interactions’ design and development teams are organized into “Studios”. Each Studio is like a small, independent business unit fully responsible for its own goals, policies, staffing and style. While maintaining the Allen Interactions’ standards, the studios create their own personality and culture. This innovative structure allows us to give our clients the flexibility and individual attention they deserve.

Technical Capability

Allen Interactions has unsurpassed technical expertise in leading tools, products, and languages. Dr. Allen pioneered this industry by creating one of the leading development tools (Authorware) and we now have some of the top Flash developers in the country.

We have top-level expertise and experience in: Flash MX Authorware Dreamweaver HTML XML Visual Basic SQL

Java Adobe Photoshop Adobe Premiere Adobe Illustrator 3D tools Lectora ASP

Our team has developed one of the premiere authoring tools in the industry (Authorware), the first voice-recognition role play authoring system (DialogCoach), and we integrated our work into most commercial Learning Management Systems.



Interactivity

The very reason Allen Interactions was started in 1993 is because our founder, Dr. Michael Allen, witnessed that, although there were good tools in the industry, very few organizations or vendors developed anything beyond basic presentation and multiple-choice questions.

We take a different approach: we define instructional interactivity as interaction that actively stimulates the learner’s mind to do those things that improve ability and readiness to perform effectively.

Project Management Philosophy

Of the many factors leading to our success, clients of Allen Interactions often rave about our project management, customer service, and creativity. We are proud of all three, but our ability to partner energetically and enthusiastically with client teams while managing all the creative and technical events is critical to our success.

Allen has worked, literally for decades, to perfect processes for managing complex training development projects, and we feel that our methods are the best in the industry. And they are unique.

Example: Quality Assurance is built into our process through the use of a proprietary tool, called QA Buddy, to manage the process. We have a dedicated QA department, which is critical to successfully identifying and correcting issues.

Ease of Implementation

We have developed systems based on SCORM and AICC standards for countless infrastructure configurations and systems. Third party LMS providers to develop their offline tracking components have also called on us. The solutions we develop can be delivered on CD-ROM or Online.

Pricing

Based upon the completed Savvy Start Consultation Phase, proposed pricing will be a fixed fee plus expenses. See: Pricing.

Why Allen Interactions?

Our clients love what we do for them and how we do it. Composed of skilled men and women who have devoted their careers to excellence in training, Allen’s Studios continuously define more efficient ways of developing learning experiences that truly change behavior—not just achieve good post-test scores. Our designs do more than look pretty. See Appendix A: Awards & Competencies.



COMPANY OVERVIEW

Corporate FactsPrivately HeldFounded 1993

Headquarters1120 Centre Pointe DriveSuite 800Mendota Heights, MN 55120Tel: 651-203-3700Fax: 651-203-3799www.alleninteractions.com

Studio Locations:BerkeleyMendota HeightsTampa

Company Background

Dr. Michael Allen, the original creator of Authorware, founded Allen Interactions, Inc. in 1993 to train multimedia professionals and to build engaging interactive learning applications. The consistent theme of Dr. Allen’s work has been to use the computer to enhance each individual’s learning by providing “lasting learning experiences.”

Allen Interactions has assembled a team of world-renowned industry experts, including instructional designers, educators, developers, and multimedia producers, to continue Dr. Allen’s mission—inspiring more effective and engaging uses of interactive multimedia for learning and communication.

We are a team-based organization of over 75 individuals that can build and maintain close functional relationships and respond quickly to work demands and client needs. We have been providing e-Learning services and product solutions for over ten years, always adjusting along the way to accommodate market needs and trends.

In a recently published report from Brandon Hall entitled, “Custom Content Developers: Comparative Analysis of 97 Outsource e-Learning Providers,” Allen Interactions was the third most mentioned custom content development organization among a survey of over 200 CLOs, e-Learning managers, and training directors.


http://www.alleninteractions.com/


Our Goals

Allen Interactions has extensive experience creating powerful learning solutions.

Allen Interactions takes a distinctive approach to developing learning solutions. We focus first and foremost on the needed outcomes—not the form of delivery or the technology. Our goal is to:

Enable people to do the right thing at the right time.

Effective learning programs must:

Enhance the learner’s motivation (desire) to learn

Focus the learner on behavior-enhancing tasks

Create memorable learning experiences which transfer to effective job performance

These three goals are significant challenges for anyone, but they are challenges that Allen Interactions has recognized and met repeatedly for years.



Development Process: The Savvy Approach

Allen Interactions has created the Savvy development process to deliver meaningful and memorable e-Learning experiences for its clients.

Savvy, a process of successive approximation, is practical, double-checks assumptions, promotes creativity, communicates effectively, involves all key stakeholders, and aligns solutions to needs.

The Savvy process is divided into three phases, Preparation, Iterative Design, and Iterative Development. Iterative cycles are used both in design and in development work to confirm the desirability of what was done and make corrections.

Preparation

The Preparation phase is the period of information gathering before actual design starts. Both the client and Allen Interactions engage in exploration to understand the business problem in broad terms and prepare for the intensive design activities to follow in the Savvy Start.

Iterative Design

After background information has been gathered, including business needs and key players, the Iterative Design phase begins. This phase includes the Savvy Start, Project Planning, and Additional Design. Iterative Design is characterized by cycles of design, rapid prototyping, and review.



The Savvy StartIterative Design begins with a kickoff event called the Savvy Start. The Savvy Start is a group review of background information followed by rapid prototyping sessions, which set the direction for the entire project. Key initial designs are created as the basis for project planning. Deliverables include: Rough functional prototypes of key learning interactions. Savvy Start Summary Report, which contains the results of the Savvy Start

meetings: Solution Strategy: behavioral objectives and descriptions of who will

use the learning application, the learning events planned, and why these specific events were chosen as the means of developing the needed behavioral changes.

General Design Principles: key features that the application must have or avoid.

Instructional Design: The primary concepts that will be used to achieve meaningful, memorable, and motivational learning Interface Design.

Technical Specifications: outline of accessibility, compliance with standards, and platform compatibility

Contact information for team and communication plan Client corporate media and content style guides

Project PlanningThe Allen Interactions’ Producer works with the client project lead to create the Project Plan after a few more in-depth conversations regarding the prototypes and the Savvy Start Summary Report, teasing out any remaining project development details that would impact a timeline or budget. This document summarizes the project, the project management approach, scope statement, work breakdown schedule, project schedule, cost estimates and risk response plan.

Additional DesignThe design process continues beyond the Savvy Start with additional cycles of iterations. Functional Prototypes: Rough prototypes from the Savvy Start are revised

and made more fully functioning. There will be at least 2 rounds of functional prototypes developed for each unique interaction (the first round of functional prototypes is usually developed in the Savvy Start). This design process is cyclical and includes review and comment by the client and by learners.

Media Prototypes: After Functional Prototype sign-off, then media elements are prototyped to establish “look-and-feel.” The prototypes are presented as static images (i.e. jpg, gif).

Integrated Prototypes: After Media Prototype signoff, then the media and functional prototypes are integrated together along with representative content (i.e. feedback copy, sound, video, etc.). The Integrated Prototypes



are then presented to 5-10 end-users and the users are observed using the program in its current state. Discovery from user review and the Integrated Prototypes will be incorporated into the Design Proof sign-off.

Iterative Development

Construction: The Design ProofAfter the design prototypes are approved, the Construction Phase begins. Up to this point, media, functional, and integrated prototypes were used to establish the instructional approach and design for the unique interactions. But how each of the interactions fit together to establish an entire project -- how they are loaded, launched, tracked, etc. has yet to be established. These are all included in the Design Proof – which is considered a “blueprint” of the project.

The Design Proof provides all the information the team needs to create the architectural design of the project. Issues like complete navigation, LMS integration, feedback mechanisms and development tools will all be addressed in the Design Proof. In other words, answers to all the 'connective tissue' questions should be available.

Design Proofs are used to scout out potential problems so they don’t become last-minute issues. It's the big opportunity for our client to check-in on how the course will function as a whole.

The Design Proof evaluation is a critical and distinct evaluation event in the process. Because all the pieces are coming together as a whole, it's possible to get the clearest sense of what the overall solution is becoming. And yet, there is time to note corrections to the Design Proof if clearly needed.

Production: Building the CourseThe Production Phase is focused almost entirely on developing approved designs after the Design Proof is signed. Production models (reusable software structures) are built where applicable. Full content development and integration occurs. The major outcome of the Production Phase is the Alpha.

1. Alpha: The Alpha is a complete version of the instructional application ready

to be validated against the approved design. All content and media are implemented.

Evaluation of the Alpha is expected to find few deviations from style guides, some graphical errors, some text changes and a few functional problems.

During Production, any significant deviations from what has been previously agreed upon must be covered by change-of-scope agreements.

2. Beta: During the Validation Phase, the Alpha is modified to reflect changes

identified in its evaluation review.



The Beta is implemented on the final platform for dissemination, if this has not been done previously.

The Beta review should produce few errors, and those should include only minor typos or word changes or functional glitches.

3. Gold Master The Gold Master has no functional glitches or errors of any kind and

works as expected within the guidelines set for the project.

EvaluationAt this time, you may wish to work with Allen Interactions to design a Final Evaluation Phase, which includes Kirkpatrick's Four Levels of Evaluation. If your project has not budgeted for evaluation, this may be a good time to consider an evaluation and maintenance contract.



PROJECT SUMMARYWe are pleased to have the opportunity to work with The Walt Disney Company to develop web-based e-Learning modules for the Disney Historical Overview and Consumer Products course. We are looking forward to our relationship with The Walt Disney Company and various Disney teams.

The Disney Historical Overview module is intended to provide employees, agents and contractors at The Walt Disney Company with skills and knowledge regarding Disney historical milestones. The second course will review the Company’s Consumer Products division.

The project is scheduled to deliver three courses between the periods of August 30, 2006 – December 31, 2006. All modules will be creatively designed with a pre-determined Disney team in conjunction with the Allen Interactions team. Allen Interactions will also work with The Walt Disney Company internal IT Department to load the courses on the internal Disney’s Company servers for deployment through Disney’s Learning Management System.



SCOPE OF PROJECTBusiness Need

The Walt Disney Company (“TDWC”), together with its subsidiary and affiliated companies, comprises a $20+ billion multinational entertainment company operating in many major business segments that include consumer products, filmed entertainment, theme parks and resorts, broadcasting, professional sports franchises, cruise lines, and other diverse business interests. Major domestic business units are located in the greater Los Angeles, California metropolitan area, the Northeast Tri-State area (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut), and Orlando, Florida. Corporate headquarters is located in Burbank, California. International operations are located in Canada, Europe (Paris, Milan, and London), Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore) and South America.

This RFQ is an integral part of a broader strategic sourcing and cost containment effort throughout The Walt Disney Company designed to achieve:

Reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Predictable, superior quality/service levels across all geographies Continuous innovation and improvement Supplier diversity

Proposed e-Learning Courses

TWDC Historical Overview DCP Overview Corporate Historical Overview

Intended Audience

The intended audience for the DCP course will be all employees within the Consumer Products division. For the TWDC course the intended audience is all employees within the entire Company. The intended audience for the Corporate Historical Overview course will be all employees within the Corporate Division of The Walt Disney Company.



SAMPLE WORK BREAKDOWN

Typical major deliverables are outlined in the matrix below. The Walt Disney Company and Allen will be responsible for the review and approval of the noted items below. E-mail acceptance and sign-off documents are a necessary part of the process to ensure business objectives are met within the budget and time constraints.

Step Deliverables Sign-OffDuration

(workdays)1 Design 1.1 Develop Round 2 Prototypes (Note: only conceptual interactions)

5 days1.2 Design Look + Feel options1.3 Deliver Round 2 Prototypes & Look + Feel options

1.4The Walt Disney Company review + approval of Round 2 Prototypes, Look + Feel

0.5 day

2 Development 2.1 Write content

12 days2.2 Create media components2.3 Develop Integrated Prototypes with approved Look + Feel2.4 Deliver Integrated Prototypes

2.5 The Walt Disney Company review + approval of Integrated Prototypes

0.5 day

2.6 Build Course from Integrated Prototypes feedback 15 days2.7 Deliver Course Alpha 3 Review + Deployment3.1 Alpha review 2 days3.2 Revise Course from Alpha feedback 5 days3.3 Deliver Course Beta 3.4 Beta review + QA 2 days3.5 Revise Course from Beta feedback 3 days3.6 Deliver Course Gold + load onto The Walt Disney Company LMS

Total: 45 days



ALLEN INTERACTIONS STAFFING PLANTeam Member ResponsibilitiesProducer Define project deliverables

Develop the budget, timeline, project risks (and strategies to mitigate), Project Plan, and project web page

Prepares weekly status reports, provides links to prototypes, and communicates any relevant project data

Direct and manage the project team, identify project staffing needs, and acquiring appropriate resources

Develop a project schedule with input from the developers, alter schedule with project team inputs, and create schedule assurances with project team's approval

Manage the client relationship to maintain scope and/or formally change scope

Analyzes the project's instructional strategy and makes recommendations

Available throughout the life of the project for reviews, meetings, and re-design

Instructional Designer Writes, edits, and develops instructional content with team and clients

Generates creative instructional solutions for e-Learning applications

Lead Developer Develops prototypes Performs high-level modeling Writes and tests programming code

Media Artist Designs and creates media prototypes Creates media assets for task production. Modifies the graphics related to the navigation

interface Consults regarding screen design and information

management of screensExecutive ProducerJason [email protected]

Manages Allen team Assists on the project as needed Performs Executive Reviews Client contact for any issue that needs to be

escalated above the Producer levelRegional Sales ManagerMichael [email protected]

Overall business and contract issues Client contact for other projects or follow-up work Client contact for any issue that needs to be escalated

above the Executive Producer level





COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT PLAN

Activity Owner FrequencyCreate Project Status Reports Allen Producer WeeklyUpdate Project Web Page Allen Producer As neededReview Documents and Files Allen, Disney As neededAnalyze Project Budget & Scheduling Allen, Disney As needed

QUALITY MANAGEMENT PLAN

Allen Interactions will work to assure that team members and stakeholders understand the purpose of each deliverable and the expectations for reviews.

Maximum review time expectations, for major deliverables, will be listed in the Project Schedule. To assure efficient management of the project, the client will strive to conduct reviews in a timely fashion according to schedules listed in the Project Plan. If the client reviews cannot be completed in the planned time frame, the potential impact on project schedule and scope should be discussed by the primary contacts.

Quality Assurance, or QA, is defined simply as assuring quality in the final deliverables that you receive for your end-users. Our QA department takes on the role of user advocate, examining all areas of the solution.

Allen Interactions has developed a productivity tool that facilitates communication between the client team and the development team as part of their Quality Assurance (QA) process. See APPENDIX E: QA Buddy Data ™ Sheet



SAMPLE RISK MANAGEMENT PLANRisk Probability Impact Owner ResponseManaging overall project schedule and scope

High High Allen Assure that SMEs and Developers are keeping content within scope of project training goals

LMS integration Medium High Disney, Allen

Validate feasibility of this approach as soon as possible

SMEs not available Medium High Disney, Allen

Determine SME availability and work into project schedule

Holiday vacation schedules

Medium Medium Disney, Allen

Communicate vacation schedules and keep in contact re: any changes

Risk: LMS ChallengesWe have years of experience in implementing e-Learning courses into various LMS platforms. Briefly, some of the lessons learned are:

The folks developing the e-Learning are rarely the ones who can control LMS implementation. This is the equivalent of hiring a mechanic in New Zealand to fix your car here in the USA. The mechanic must do it over the phone, without easy access to data first-hand, etc. The result is that it takes more hours and scheduled time to problem-solve than can generally be anticipated.

Often the people responsible for the LMS are in a different functional organization than the people who own the e-Learning. Someone with pull in both organizations needs to negotiate an appropriate commitment from the LMS team.

Plan on our developers needing some access to either your LMS expert or your LMS vendor in order to determine the implications for the course. Note: This won’t be nearly as much of an issue if we use the LMS created for the Sexual Harassment course.

We bring this up now because we want to prevent misunderstandings about our role in making sure the e-Learning and LMS work well together. We've created a small "teachlet" to help our clients get familiar with LMS and Flash implementation issues. We feel this would be a good introduction to have to our first conversations about your specific project:

http://ezine.alleni.com/LMSTeachlet/LMSTeachlet.html


http://ezine.alleni.com/LMSTeachlet/LMSTeachlet.html


PRICING

It is important to determine the correct level of investment. The business cost of ineffective e-Learning goes far beyond simply losing all the money spent for it. The total cost can be many, many times the direct cost of e-Learning and may easily soar to multiples of the combined costs of the poor e-Learning and on-the-job training fixes being provided. The final “bill” is a sizeable sum comprised of these tangible costs, plus all the costs of poor performance and a possibly broad array of missed opportunities.

Quality e-Learning Can Be Cost Effective

We believe that quality e-Learning can be cost effective. Throughout our years of experience, we have observed the following:

As you can see in the graph above, too little investment in an e-Learning project often results in boring, ineffective e-Learning and low ROI. At the same time, there is a point at which spending additional dollars on "bells and whistles" does not result in greater learning nor greater ROI.

The Appropriate e-Learning Investment

With each project we undertake, we work to ensure the most effective results within the available budget. Of course, we are willing to work above or below these proposed cost parameters, but this proposal represents our best effort to provide you with Allen Interactions' award winning gold-standard e-Learning that will return your investment many times over.


Cost

Based on Allen’s current understanding of the project, the fixed fee for the development of the three (3) web-based training courses is $317,120.

Payable according to the following schedule per course:

20% upon execution of Master Agreement 20% upon delivery of Integrated Prototypes 20% upon delivery of the Alpha Build 20% upon delivery of the Beta Build 20% upon acceptance of the Final Gold Master

In addition to the fee, Client will reimburse Allen Interactions for all reasonable and necessary out-of-pocket expenses, including travel, directly associated with Allen Interactions performance of the above services. Travel expenses will be considered reasonable if the travel expenses are consistent with those travel expenses, including airfare of other air carriers that would be reimbursed under Apple internal expense reimbursement policies. Copies of all receipts for expenses are available to Apple upon request.

Resource Classification Vendor Job Title Hourly Rate (US) % of Hours on Project Programmer Senior Interactivity Developer $175 32%

Instructional Designer Instructional Strategist $200 20%

Graphic Artist and/or Multimedia Developer Senior Media Artist $160 26%

Course Developer Executive Producer $235 06%

Project Manager Senior Producer $200 16%

Blended Hourly Rate = $184 100%

TOTALService Phase Sr. Interactivity

DeveloperInstructional

StrategistSr. Media Artist Executive

ProducerSr. Producer Total Hours/Phase Total Cost/Phase

Design 270 195 280 45 130 920 $167,625 Develop 185 125 150 35 105 600 $110,600 Test 45 30 15 10 30 130 $24,625 Implement 55 0 0 7 15 77 $14,270 Total: 555 350 445 97 280 1727 $317,120

DCP: 5 ModulesService Phase Sr. Interactivity




Design 155 125 160 30 80 550 $100,775 Develop 110 80 90 20 65 365 $67,350 Test 30 20 10 5 20 85 $16,025 Implement 40 0 0 5 10 55 $10,175 Sub-Total: 335 225 260 60 175 1055 $194,325

TWDC: 3 ModulesService Phase Sr. Interactivity




Design 115 70 120 15 50 370 $66,850 Develop 75 45 60 15 40 235 $43,250 Test 15 10 5 5 10 45 $8,600 Implement 15 0 0 2 5 22 $4,095 Sub-Total: 220 125 185 37 105 672 $122,795

APPENDIX A: AWARDS & COMPETENCIES

Awards:

Allen Interactions has earned numerous awards for our engaging, interactive applications: Listed below are a few. Brandon Hall – Excellence in eLearning Gold Award – 2005 Brandon Hall – 2 Excellence in eLearning Bronze Awards – 2005 Brandon Hall – Excellence in eLearning Bronze Award – 2003 Brandon Hall – Excellence in eLearning Gold Award – 2002 Macromedia eLearning Innovations – 1st Place Winner in the Best

Corporate/Government Training Application category- 2002 Summit Awards –Summit Creativity Silver Award – 2001 Minnesota American Business Ethics Award People’s Choice Award

Instructional Design:

Our instructional designers are recognized by the industry for creating solutions that ensure clients meet their business needs. We are often asked to speak at industry events because we back up our theories with applications that truly motivate people, creating meaningful and memorable learning experiences. ASTD International 2006 Conference ASTD TechKnowledge 2006 Conference ASTD International 2005 Conference ASTD TechKnowledge 2005 Conference ASTD International 2004 Conference ASTD TechKnowledge 2004 Conference TAAC – Las Vegas Oct 2003 Institute of Industry Information – Taiwan Oct 2003 OLL – Los Angeles Sept 2003 Instructional Design Symposium – Boston June 2003 e-Learning Summit – LaQuinta May 2003 Pharmaceutical e-Learning Conference – Philadelphia April 2003 Training – Atlanta Feb 2003 OLL – Anaheim Sept 2002 Training – Atlanta Feb 2002 OLL – Los Angeles Sept 2001

Competencies:

Our history and experience have enabled us to build an organization performing the above services with success like no other in our industry. It is the rare combination of unsurpassed expertise in the following interrelated competencies that allows us to excel above our competition.

Instructional Design

Everything we do is rooted in the foundation of instructional design principles that ensure learning will in fact occur. If the end user is not motivated or engaged, learning will cease. Allen Interactions is continually recognized as the leader in creating designs that result in performance. The instructional design is focus of every creative, technical, and process analysis and development. We have included a copy of Michael Allen’s Guide to e-Learning.

Creativity

Our team members understand instructional design, are masters of design tools and are highly creative. This winning combination consistently develops and delivers interface designs that are meaningful, memorable, and motivating. Whether it is drawing, illustrating, animating, 3D rendering, directing/producing audio and video, editing, or digitizing, our experts will create an e-Learning design that is based on proven instructional principles.

APPENDIX B: CUSTOMER REFERENCESAllen Interactions is a customer service focused organization. Each client is served by several experienced individuals:

1. Regional Sales Manager – a seasoned account executive with years of e-Learning experience who is focused on building and strengthening client relationships

2. Studio Executive – the manager of a Studio with years of experience in the design and development of e-Learning solutions who is focused on ensuring client service and satisfaction

Perhaps the greatest mark of success of client management capability is the consistent, repeat business of thrilled clients.

A partial, confidential list of Allen Interactions clients can be found in the client listed below. On this list, those clients who have additional projects (approx 70%) come back to Allen Interactions 90% of the time.

Companies such as American Express, Boston Scientific, Bank of America, Corning, Cummins, DaimlerChrysler, Delta, DuPont, Ecolab, GTECH, Macromedia, Manpower, Merck, Motorola, Northern Trust, State Farm, Union Bank, and UPS continually ask for our partnership for their externally sourced e-Learning needs.

Many of our existing clients refer other companies to us for their e-Learning needs.

We have provided some references below:

Apple ComputerBeth DaviesDirector, Talent Development1 Infinite Loop Cupertino, CA 95014(408) 974-6139

MotorolaSue SkovrankoPCS North America Marketing600 N. U.S. Hwy 45Libertyville, IL 60048(847) 523-0239

Union Bank of CaliforniaSusan IsaacsonVP Corporate Training and Development8148A Mercury Court San Diego, CA 92111(858) 496-5865

APPENDIX C: AWARD WINNING EXAMPLES

Sexual Harassment Prevention (Apple - All Managers)

Introduction and Context Setting

(In order to fulfill the requirements of the law we had to cover some content in a more passive manner. But we didn’t stop there.)

Branching Interaction

(Puts learners in business situations with multiple decision points and paths. Just like real-life. )

From basic, check the box, we have provided training. To “Wow…this is actually interesting”

Based on the new California law AB 1825, all California companies with more than 50 employees shall provide at least two hours of classroom or other effective interactive training and education regarding sexual harassment to all supervisory employees.

At Apple that meant everyone from the manager of the local Apple store all the way up to Steve Jobs had to take this training.

They looked at some of the off-shelf options, which would have satisfied the legal requirement…but they were boring. Horribly boring. Page after page of text and cheesy clip photos. The only interactivity was some multiple-choice questions.

They approached Allen Interactions about creating a course from scratch. After an initial Savvy Start in which we prototyped 7 completely unique interactions, they decided to hire us to create the whole course.

It does cover the material that needs to be covered. The compliance is there, but the learners weren’t bored to death satisfying the requirement. And Apple had a course that matched their look and culture.

All managers in Apple (over 4,000 people) took the course by December 31st, 2005. The training department we worked with

Conversation Interaction

(Simple simulation of speaking with a co-worker or direct report. Allows user to learn how to handle sensitive situations with tact while following policy. All with the learner in the driver seat.)

Meter Interaction

(Sometimes a simple interaction choice can be made more interesting through the use of media or controls that are rich, but easy-to-use. In this instance, learners are asked to assess the seriousness of various harassment situations by sliding a control up and down a meter that smoothly transitions from green to yellow to red).

received tons of positive comments.

Busy, over-worked managers told them things like “Wow, this was surprisingly interesting.” and “I actually learned something!” And out of all those high-level Apple supervisors, with too much on their to-do list and very, very high standards for quality, not a single negative comment. Not one.

Most important of all, because we used real-life contexts and had the learners actually make decisions, difficult decisions, and the people who took the course learned.

They had an experience with some risk, some investment in thinking on their part, the kind that gets remembered, the kind that leads to “A-ha!” moments.

It’s still too early to tell, but with e-Learning like this they may have not only fulfilled a requirement, they may have changed behavior.

Corning: Supervisor Effectiveness

The audience for this training includes both new and existing supervisors, some of whom had very little computer knowledge and very little experience managing staff in the manufacturing plants.

Drug Abuse, Compensation, and Employee Violence: initiating a conversation about any of these topics with a direct report strikes terror in many a good supervisor's heart. And what about performance reviews, conflict resolution, communicating with angry employees, and diversity? Supervising employees is not for the faint of heart.

Corning, Inc. had two courses that dealt with training supervisors in soft-skills. The first was a weeklong concept course. The second was a

weeklong, more in-depth role-playing course. Users said, "We love the role-playing, but can't we shorten or skip the concepts course?" Corning, Inc. turned to Allen Interactions for help.

"But you can't teach soft-skills through e-Learning!"

At the beginning of the Corning/Allen Interactions collaboration, resistance to developing soft-skills e-Learning ranged from "It can't be done" to the arms-folded, "Prove it." How do you help supervisors navigate federal law, relevant company policies, and ethical communication while integrating good decision-making? By doing e-Learning right. The original weeklong concept course was transformed.

Corning agreed with us that one day of WBT would be a waste of time if it did not focus on changing actual performance. So we created e-Learning that gave supervisors practice in identifying on-the-job substance abuse, asking difficult questions of volatile employees, and responding to requests for raises.

Exciting Results - Hundreds of supervisors at Corning have completed the training. They're thrilled that the one-week concept course has been replaced by 6-8 hours of meaningful problem solving. Specific scenarios and interactions from the e-Learning course are now integrated into the instructor-led role-playing course as a reference point and a means of illustrating specific concepts. According to one instructor, students show up "ready to discuss, argue, and learn."

APPENDIX D: EXAMPLES – DCP SCREENS

APPENDIX E: QA Buddy Data™ Allen Interactions - QA Buddy™

Automatic Collection and Management of Reviewer Commentsvia Internet Software Eases Quality Assurance and Teaming

Allen Interactions has developed a productivity tool that facilitates communication between the client team and the development team as part of their Quality Assurance (QA) process.

Called “QA Buddy™”, the tool is a small application that resides within a larger e-Learning application and can be activated by a keystroke or mouse click. As the client or the Allen Interactions QA team reviews prototypes, alphas, or betas of the e-Learning application, QA Buddy™ collects typed comments from the reviewer along with ratings of the severity of the issue and stores them along with information about where the reviewer was in the e-Learning application. The development team can easily associate comments with specific content or functionality so that a correction or adjustment can be made.

FIGURE 1. While reviewing an e-Learning application, a reviewer launches a QA Buddy window to enter a comment, bug report, or feature request. QA Buddy automatically fills in the Location field to identify the comment with the appropriate location in the e-Learning application.

QA Buddy™ writes collected information to a local text file and, when an Internet connection is available, sends the information to the project database. QA Buddy™ can be launched from e-Learning applications created with any software application, such as Authorware, Flash, Visual Basic, and HTML.

Once a reviewer has entered a comment via QA Buddy™, the project manager at Allen Interactions can view comments in a variety of ways (e.g., by module, reviewer, date, developer, and status). The manager can select any specific comment in order to assign it to a team member for resolution, enter notes to guide the development team, or provide feedback or rationale to the client reviewer. Members of the client team also have access to the comments database and can track the progress of their comments and receive feedback from the project manager. Reviewers can see that their requested changes have been made and tested, or learn why they haven’t been implemented (e.g., request is out of scope, deferred until later, or developers need more information).

FIGURE 2. The project manager or client can see a list of project issues and comments at any time, using the QA Buddy™ Administration web interface.

APPENDIX F: SAMPLE DELIVERY SIGN-OFF FORM

SAMPLE Deliverable Sign-Off

Status: Alpha

On November 9th, 2006, Allen Interactions delivered the Alpha of the e-Learning course to The Walt Disney Company.

Requested Approvals:

Items delivered and dates approved listed here:

Allen Interactions Inc. The Walt Disney Company

Signature Date

Skai RusisSenior ProducerAllen Interactions Inc.

Signature Date

Senior Training ManagerThe Walt Disney Company

APPENDIX G: SAMPLE CHANGE OF SCOPE FORM

SAMPLE Change of Scope

Project TWDC08-1SName Senior Training DeveloperDate November 1, 2006

Changes are an inevitable part of any software development effort. Budgets and contracts are created with a certain amount of room for changes and adjustments. When significant changes to the scope of the project occur, it is necessary to document those changes and evaluate them within the context of the project as a whole. By tracking these changes, project can be managed more efficiently, problem areas can be identified, and an accurate project history can be used to inform future projects.

The change documented here is a change in:

X ContentFunctionalitySchedule

Description of the Change1. Due to integration of Sample notifications, a new task interaction needs to be built.

Impact of the Change Logic structure for main menu will need to be recoded to incorporate new task. A new task called “Set Notifications” must be developed.

Adjustment of schedule / contract / budget The increase in content will impact the current budget by: $2,000.

Signature Date

Skai RusisSenior ProducerAllen Interactions Inc.

Signature Date

Senior Training ManagerThe Walt Disney Company