Articulate Storyline - eLearning Project
Level Up Your Leadership Game:
Essential Skills for iGaming Customer Support Team Leaders
Summary
This gamified, scenario-based eLearning module was designed to prepare new and aspiring igaming support team leaders for their role. The inspiration for this module was a team leadership training that I facilitated a few years ago for an international iGaming/eSports company based in the Caribbean.
Together with the executive team and SMEs, I conducted a needs analysis, defined learning objectives, and developed a 3-day, in-person leadership training. A while later, when I developed my instructional design expertise, I went back and we developed this scenario-based learning experience that is aligned with real workplace challenges that the team leaders face.
Using interactive gaming elements, branching scenarios, and a mentor character, I created an engaging learning experience that builds leadership confidence.
Read on to see how this project came together.
Target Audience
New and aspiring customer support team leaders in the iGaming/eSports Industry.
Responsibilities
Instructional Design
eLearning Development
Graphic Design
Tools Used
Articulate Storyline 360
Miro
Canva
Vyond
Freepik
ChatGPT
Leonardo.ai
The Problem
Based on surveys and personal interviews with 28 customer support team leaders, several key leadership challenges were identified. Team leaders reported high absenteeism leading to last-minute shift conflicts and difficulty addressing underperformance. Many felt un(der)prepared to provide effective coaching, navigate sensitive attendance issues, or resolve team conflicts due to a lack of communication and feedback skills.
This led to undesired behavior from the team leaders, who either avoided the confrontation, tried to work around the problem, or picked up the slack themselves.
After the in-person training and consulting with the executive team, we chose a combination of eLearning and peer coaching to resolve these challenges and improve team performance.
The Solution
Drawing from the direct input through surveys and interviews with team leaders, this module was carefully crafted to address the real challenges they face in leading high-performing support teams. Designed with adult learning principles in mind, the experience focuses on practical relevance, self-directed learning, and immediate application.
Scenarios reflect day-to-day situations like giving constructive feedback, handling absenteeism, and managing team conflict. The scenarios are brought to life through interactive decision points and branching paths. Delivered in a self-paced, user-friendly format, the module encourages flexible learning while reinforcing key leadership behaviors through engaging, mission-style storytelling and gamification.
My Process
I designed this gamified, scenario-based eLearning module for new and aspiring team leaders in iGaming customer support. The design was grounded in insights from surveys and interviews with 28 team leaders who shared real challenges, like avoiding tough conversations, stepping in too often to solve problems, and feeling unclear about their leadership role. These patterns shaped the learning experience.
To address these issues, I created a module that combines interactive storytelling with decision-based scenarios. Drawing from adult learning principles such as Knowles’ Andragogy and experiential learning theory, I focused on relevance, practice, and immediate feedback. Learners engage in realistic conversations with AI-driven guidance and explore the consequences of their choices in a safe, immersive environment with a fun-factor.
The Learning Objectives:
Demonstrate assertive communication by clearly articulating expectations during daily team interactions.
Lead performance improvement discussions that guide underperforming team members toward measurable goals.
Conduct one-on-one meetings with frequently late or absent team members using structured, empathetic feedback.
Apply motivational strategies tailored to individual behaviors to boost engagement.
Mediate team conflicts by guiding solution-focused, collaborative dialogue.
Action Map
After the needs analysis survey and individual interviews with team leaders, we created an action map focused on achieving the business goals. The goal was to increase team performance and engagement, decrease absenteeism, and at the same time equip team leaders with the skills and confidence to address issues with their agents.
The action mapping resulted in 5 critical actions and skills: how to communicate in an assertive and confident manner, how to address underperformance, how to speak to the problem of being late or absent, how to mediate conflict in the team, and how to motivate team members.
Storyboard
Once we finalized the high-priority observable actions and with that the analysis phase in the ADDIE model, I designed relatable scenario-based examples for the learner to complete. I wrote the script for these scenarios in a narrative voice that would best mimic day-to-day workplace interactions.
Allowing the user to make mistakes and connect actions with real-world outcomes optimizes learning and personalization of the learning experience and leads to better results.
For each scenario, I also added a friendly mentor character who can provide advice based on the desired action of the scenario.
Visual Mockups
To bring the learning experience to life, I chose a sci-fi-based scenario sequence to lead the learner to the desired result.
The mood board included spaceships, space and galaxy images, images of the starship bridge and command deck, and space uniforms.
The color palette included shades of grey, black, and teal.
For the fonts, we chose a bold, futuristic typeface for the headings, and a standard, clear font for sub-titles and regular body text.
The characters were created with Leonardo.ai, and were meant to represent the diverse crew of the Spaceship Resolute.
Interactive Prototype and Full Development
To make sure the learning experience felt smooth and effective, I started by building an interactive prototype in Articulate Storyline 360. It walked learners through the introduction and first scenario and included the key elements they’d use throughout the module, like making choices, seeing the impact of those choices, getting guidance from a mentor, and checking a job aid.
I introduced the mentor character Kael and job aid with light animations to help learners notice and remember them, using Mayer’s Signaling Principle to guide their focus. The first version had background audio throughout, but after testing, I scaled it back to just the intro and key scenes where a skill-level was completed. This made the experience more focused and aligned with the Coherence Principle, which says learners do better when distractions are removed.
This phase of the project was also a great opportunity to work with variables, like personalizing the experience with the learner’s name and tracking their progress with a success meter (command deck mission panels light up green when they have completed them successfully). I used layers for pop-up content, and states to change button behavior and visuals based on user interaction.
Full Development
Once the prototype was tested and refined, I moved on to the full build in Storyline. I developed the remaining scenarios using the same approach, by combining states, layers, variables, and conditional triggers to create a responsive and engaging experience. This phase brought everything together and really sharpened my Storyline skills, especially in building out scenarios, feedback, and immersive interactions that kept the learning active and connected to a realistic experience.
Evaluation / Results & Takeaways
This project gave me a deeper, hands-on understanding of the full instructional design process using the ADDIE framework: from concept through to final development. Although I had already completed a solid analysis phase for the original in-person training a year earlier, this time I took a fresh look to identify the core problem and confirm that an eLearning solution was the right fit.
I also sharpened my agile project management skills by working through regular feedback cycles, iterating quickly, and keeping the project moving forward with high-quality deliverables. Creating a clear and focused action map early on really helped me stay aligned with the business goals and design with purpose.
Unfortunately, there was only time to collect some feedback during the development phase, but ideally, I would have liked to evaluate the impact value of this eLearning experience using the Kirkpatrick Model of Evaluation by gathering data on its four levels of evaluation: Reaction, Learning, Behavior, and Results.
Building this module was both a creative and strategic challenge, and I really enjoyed crafting a learning experience that feels useful for team leaders and is also fun to work through.
I look forward to creating many more captivating learning experiences and helping learners develop their full potential.
Ready to Make learning fun and useful again?
Let’s create powerful learning experiences that make a difference for your company. I’m looking forward to connecting with you and your team.
