The target audience for this course was Orkin Pros, who are the service providers that are called out to residential and commercial locations to inspect for pest issues and provide treatments. One of the goals of this project was to make the content relevant for commercial Orkin Pros, which had a large impact on my decisions when selecting visual media for use. Because this course is one of the first in the entire service provider curriculum, little prior knowledge of the topic was required of the learners. 

I completed the majority of the design work, and all of the development on this course. I also analyzed the previous content to determine proper sequencing, subordinate skills, and relevancy. My team manager acted as a consultant regarding course goals and collaborated with me in the creation of the new video scripts. I designed new objectives, assessments, materials, and graphics, and worked on this project from start to finish. Upon completion, the course was implemented into the service provider curriculum on Rollins' LMS, where learner analytics were collected. 

In order to create the new video series, development software needed to be selected. Synthesia appeared to be an excellent choice for this course. Synthesia allows you to input text scripts, and then generates AI avatars that act as talking heads, narrating the scripts in conversational, human-like voices, and providing an animated, onscreen agent. These factors align with Mayer's personalization, voice, image, and embodiment principles. Synthesia also integrates design features that allow for motion graphics, on-screen text, scene transitions, and uploaded video footage & images. The ability to edit all of these elements within one tool, as well as avoiding the need to record an actor, greatly reduced the development time and cost of this project, showcasing the benefit of utilizing emerging technologies. 

The instructional design team manager consulted with me on the development of the new video scripts. Collaboration on this aspect of the project was very enjoyable, because I was working with someone who had much more content expertise than I did, and my knowledge of instructional design theory and media skills made for a great collaboration. Together we were able to create an engaging and relevant script that was effective from a learning perspective. 

Later on in development, we had a disagreement about the choice of avatar/voice I had used in one of the video prototypes. After she explained her thoughts on this point, we decided to test the video with the other designers on the team and receive feedback. From that group discussion, there was a consensus that another avatar was the better choice. This change improved the final deliverable and was an example of how being open-minded to criticism and effectively discussing design choices can lead to positive outcomes.