Parenting For Servicemembers And Veterans

OVERVIEW:

Parenting for Service members and Veterans is a media rich, interactive course that provides tools and resources to improve parenting skills and to create opportunities for Service members and Veterans to reconnect with their families after military deployment. The course serves to supplement a parent’s existing knowledge and experience; strives to empower parents to interact with their children in new ways; and reinforces the good habits parents may already have.

CHALLENGES:

A major challenge facing providers of elearning is the provision of meaningful interactive course ware that is responsive to learners, allowing them to actively participate in the learning process. The use of various interactive approaches such as simulation, video, and branching and a focus on the needs of the learner the course allows learners to guide their instructional paths to meet their parenting needs.

SOLUTIONS:

Planning Committee members collaborated closely with Instructional System Designers and New Media Producers to synthesize engaging interactive exercises and quizzes designed to assist users with the material and parenting skills to which they have been introduced.

This course leveraged video of real families to help users “connect” with the course content, and create a memorable learning experience. The video crew traveled to film the real-life military families in their homes. Videos were shot in a flowing non-scripted style to maintain a degree of sincerity by the families on a variety of personal and emotional subjects. Video shoot time for this project was 12 hours in total camera time. In addition to the video processed for use in the courseware formally, there was a Video Repository created for an additional 100 clips of footage taken that reinforces the learning objectives. This allows the users the ability to widen their search for further information at their own pace while still maintaining a presence within the courseware environment.

CLIENT:

Department of Veterans Affairs

MARKET:

Federal Government

NATURE OF WORK:

eLearning, 508 Compliance, Video

RESULTS:

Unlike other online tools for parenting, the Parenting for Servicemembers and Veterans program focuses on providing guidance that parents can use to modify and enhance their own behavior, rather than just the behavior of their children. The modules feature stories from actual Veteran/military families and interactive activities that deal with parenting scenarios and opportunities for reconnections. All parents can use this course to improve their relationships and address challenges that come with parenting children of all ages and backgrounds.