Learning how to think, not what to think

An airplane fashioned from straws. A flashlight made out of a Tic Tac box. A rubber band-propelled car. A wind turbine built from recycled plastic. These are just some of the inventions created by Destination Imagination student teams in response to real-life science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) challenges.

For Destination Imagination participants — who span in age from kindergarteners to college and university students — the competition isn’t just about winning; it’s about the journey of experiencing the creative process from imagination to innovation and learning new skills to succeed in school and beyond. Moreover, it’s an opportunity to collaborate with peers and celebrate differences in ideas and in each other.

Michele Tuck-Ponder, Executive Director of Imagination Destination, says: “We empower kids to be life-long learners, adventurers, and explorers by giving them the skills and confidence to tackle life’s challenges.”

Spanning 32 countries on five continents, the non-profit organization relies on the support of 35,000 adult volunteers working across Destination Imagination affiliates around the world to achieve its mission. Volunteers invest many hours, with team managers specifically investing approximately 40 to 60 hours of time into every student cohort, helping to guide and motivate teams as they nurture and develop their ideas.

“Because our youth compete regionally and globally, it’s important we’re consistent in the way we train our volunteers,” explains Tuck-Ponder. “We need to foster a common understanding of competition rules to create a level playing field for every participant.”

Introducing a modern, scalable learning capability

Driven by the need to provide consistent and level training experiences to thousands of volunteers, Destination Imagination decided to invest in a digital learning management system (LMS) to consolidate the training process.

“In the past, our onboarding efforts consisted of creating PowerPoint presentations and training materials and sending them to affiliates who would then customize and deliver them locally,” says Kris Beisel, Director, Educational Alliances and Training, Destination Imagination. “However, that approach led to inconsistent training experiences and different interpretations of competition guidelines which sometimes resulted in individuals or teams not being treated equally.”

Beisel continues: “It quickly became clear we needed a single, easily accessible training platform through which team managers and appraisers could receive the same level of instruction regardless of whether they were in Boston, Bogota, or Bangkok. And that’s when we learned about the capabilities of Adobe Learning Manager.”

Beisel chose Adobe Learning Manager as the company’s LMS after experiencing how simple and intuitive it was to use. She liked the fact it could deliver a consistent, modern learning experience on a desktop, laptop, or mobile device.

“When I used Adobe Learning Manager for the first time, I thought: ‘Wow, this is easy,’” recalls Beisel. “I could create and load courses onto the platform myself in just thirty minutes. And, if I needed any tips or guidance, I could find a wealth of insight from other authors online.”

Increasing knowledge retention with interactive content

Confident that she had selected the strongest possible foundation for the organization’s global training program, Beisel and her team set their sights on transforming the breadth and depth of Destination Imagination’s course offerings. Using Adobe Captivate, they developed a wide range of new interactive content featuring engaging learning exercises and games. For example, an explanatory video for appraisers on how to score a competition enables learners to score a student challenge as it unfolds, try different scoring options, and get feedback at the end.

The Educational Alliances and Training team has used Adobe Learning Manager to deliver training modules in critical areas such as youth protection, with a new, mandatory course and quiz for volunteers called Keeping DI Participants Safe; as well as team budget management — a requisite for fair competition conditions.

Beisel says that Adobe Adobe Learning Manager is now being used to deliver between 28 to 32 new training modules per year.

“Adobe Learning Manager has helped us deliver appealing and engaging training offerings, and as a result, we’re doubling the number of people taking courses every year,” explains Beisel. “Last year, 9,500 volunteers took approximately 11,000 courses through Adobe Learning Manager, and the number of courses each person is taking is increasing as they browse the course library and discover other topics of interest.”

She continues: “The net result is our team managers and appraisers feel better supported by our training, and crucially, we’ve seen the number of projects not meeting organizational guidelines drop significantly since we started delivering training via Adobe Learning Manager.”

Tailoring the training experience to local requirements

The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic only reaffirmed the value and timeliness of Adobe Learning Manager. While Destination Imagination affiliates still conduct in-person training sessions where local health and safety guidelines allow, volunteers have the option of taking an unprecedented number of online courses anytime, anywhere. Beisel says: “Adobe Learning Manager gives us a high level of flexibility and provides more choice for our volunteers, enriching their training experience.”

Additionally, Destination Imagination recently began to use Adobe Learning Manager to deliver online courses for the first time in eight local languages: Arabic, French Canadian, Korean, Mandarin, Polish, Spanish, Turkish, and Ukrainian.

Johnny Wells, Director of Education for Destination Imagination explains: “Adobe Learning Manager is helping us maximize the impact of our curricula by delivering the entire platform experience in local language, which helps our volunteers better digest and retain information. They simply select the language of their choice and Adobe Learning Manager does the rest.”

Staying relevant in a rapidly changing world

As Destination Imagination aims to strengthen its position in established markets and extend its reach in under resourced communities, Beisel plans to use Adobe Captivate to create new course content in areas such as project management and gender bias; fill remaining curricula gaps based on volunteer feedback and data insights; and take advantage of additional platform collaboration capabilities to enable team managers and appraisers from around the world to compare experiences and learn from one another.

Reflecting on the implementation success, Beisel says: “Adobe Learning Manager has had a transformative impact on our organization. By improving how our volunteers guide and support our student teams, we’re enabling participants to focus on what matters the most — learning and building critical life skills, rather than just simply winning a competition.”

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