Custom Training Software based on Chatbot with Coaching/Mentoring Functionality

U.S. corporations spend enormous amounts of money on employee training. However, traditional training methods are usually quite costly both in terms of expenses and time spent, and they might not pay off. The issue is complicated by the limited human resources within a company or educational institution for nurturing leadership qualities.

Our Client could also have chosen traditional ways of selling his expertise, like other specialists, for example, selling video courses, with personal feedback from him or his assistants as maximum. But such an approach scales poorly: the more students, the less likely they get feedback.

The Client was looking for a software development company and came to us with a bold mission to solve the issue by automating his personal leadership development program, where the role of a coach and his assistants are performed by the script.

The idea was to create a game-changing personalized interactive web platform that will deal with the following tasks:

• Collecting learners’ data before starting the training in order to create a training plan without spending much time and resources;
• Tracking the training progress in order to determine whether a learner catches up or falls behind the training plan;
• Improving the effectiveness of the training program and the speed of knowledge acquisition using motivational techniques such as gamification.

Choosing the Right Learning Management System as a Framework

There are many ready-to-use learning platforms in the market. However, they don't suit all learning scenarios and have some well-known pitfalls (you can see which ones in the blogpost LMS for Training Companies: Best Practices for Successful Businesses).

Having experience with a standard platform that brought unexciting and limited learning experience, our Client opted for developing an LMS from scratch. The major reasons for that are as follows:

1. Avoid a limited learning experience. The learning design is unique and cannot be fully implemented with a ready-to-use solution;
2. Save time and money. The number and specifics of features the client wanted to apply to perfectly match his goals and vision would require global customization of any existing solution (which requires more time and money);
3. Have a possibility to add innovative features. There is a plan of subsequent implementation of Artificial Intelligence.

Arranging Communication and Management Process

The mutual work started from a discovery phase to elaborate a clear vision and scope of the project.

Belitsoft dedicated a Business Analyst for the project who together with the client and their representatives drafted a requirements document.

The Client realistically presumed possible changes that would arise in the process of development. For that reason, our dedicated development team suggested to the Client a Scrum framework and a Time and Material cooperation model.

Choosing a flexible Time and Material cooperation model, a client pays only for time and resources spent on the project. It ideally suits cases when a product's functionality, features, or scope can change during the process. Unlike the Dedicated development team model, a client doesn't pay a monthly salary to the outsourced team (even sick leaves and holidays) but can fully manage the process.

Using Scrum, which is an Agile development methodology, a client gets value (results and updates) iteratively (every sprint that is 1-4 weeks long) throughout the entire development process. Besides, a client benefits from transparent communication with the development team directly or through the Project Manager, depending on the situation.

Working on Project OTY, we divided the development process into 2-week sprints. Weekly calls were arranged to report and give updates to the Client, to get feedback, or to discuss new ideas or changes that the Client decided to introduce into the product.

Such an approach made the development process fast, flexible, transparent and effective.

Setting up the Development and Testing Process

No matter which training platform you use, there are always certain aspects to consider:

1. Content creation. The client already had the entire course well-arranged. However, in case there is only a paper version, we have the expertise and resources to digitize a hard copy.

2. UI/UX Design. As the course was supposed to be fully redesigned to highlight its personalized approach, unique message and curriculum, the Belitsoft team suggested applying a completely new UI/UX design based on a conversational user interface.

The Belitsoft designer created a prototype of each page and agreed on it with the client during regular calls. Such an agile approach and regularly communicated with the client to get their feedback and make any necessary changes.

3. Choosing Tech stack and Development. Choosing a technology stack is one of the primary steps in software development.

For ProjectOTY, we made the wise decision to choose:

• Operation system: Ubuntu
• Database: MySQL, AWS Aurora
• Backend programming language: PHP
• Frontend (App and Admin panel): NUXTJS, Nginx

4. Software Testing. To ensure smooth work and high quality of the platform, software testing is a must. For that, a QA engineer was dedicated to the project to eliminate possible bugs.

The Team Size and Timeframe

A software development company with experience can suggest the best solution for each case, ensuring a smooth and timely project. Every team member has a well-defined and clear role. The communication is regular and transparent. It all leads to a wise budget, resources, and time allocation.

The Vision and Scope drafting for Project OTY began in April 2020, and development started in October 2020 after its complete agreement. The product's MVP went live in May 2021.

The team included:

• 1 x Business Analyst (at the early stage only)
• 1 x Project Manager
• 1 x Backend developer
• 2 x Frontend developers
• 1 x UI/UX Designer
• 1 x DevOps
• 1 x QA engineer (at the final stage only)

The selected team size and cooperation model proved its efficiency as the project was launched in short terms, even considering the development from scratch.

How Does an Interactive Conversational Training Program Work?

Step 1. Defining initial users' data.

Traditionally, verifying users' data requires personal interaction with a trainer, L&D manager, or educator. This involves creating multiple surveys, checking them, and curating each user individually. These repetitive tasks consume a lot of time and resources.

SOLUTION#1

The interactive training software automatically defines user's data, saving valuable resources for training companies, businesses, and educational institutions.

HOW IT WORKS

1. The software features a virtual "teacher" who explains key concepts through interactive dialogues, videos (with transcripts), and infographics.
2. After explaining each concept, the system asks users a series of questions to uncover their initial data and final goals.
3. All the gathered data is then used to create a personal Roadmap for each user, helping them achieve their goal.

HOW WE APPLIED IT IN THE PROJECT

A virtual “teacher” explains the notion of transformative moments in life. Then, asks a user to input transformative moments of their life one by one.

Step 2. Tracking users' progress.

Once the training is in progress, how would a user know how far they are from completing their Roadmap and how many more steps they need to take for completing the training?

SOLUTION#2

The system autonomously tracks a user's progress in real time.

HOW IT WORKS

1. When a user is passing the training, the current progress in the module is automatically calculated and shown to a user.
2. Together with the current progress in a module, the system automatically tracks the overall progress in building the Roadmap. This information is also revealed to a user.
3. Each user is constantly engaged in a dialogue to motivate them for quick and successful course completion.
4. The admin, curator, or L&D team lead can download detailed reports to see and analyze the current learners' progress.

HOW WE APPLIED IT IN THE PROJECT

A user is passing Module 3. The current progress within a Module and the overall progress in the Roadmap are being constantly recalculated once a user moves forward in the training.

Step 3. Increasing the effectiveness of the training program.

Businesses, educational institutions, and training companies invest in training programs to achieve positive outcomes. However, only one in four senior managers believe that training is critical to business results. Most courses lack feedback and post-training support, resulting in little or no real outcome. This wastes both money and time.

SOLUTION#3

The post-training phase increases the effectiveness program, ensuring the expected results. This is a unique part of the project that other leadership training programs lack and ignore.

HOW IT WORKS

1. To increase the effectiveness of the training and user retention, a user is offered fully interactive conversational training. It features dialogs, videos, pictures, gamification, and social learning (engagement of friends or community).
2. After completing the training, users are redirected to a post-training interface that summarizes the lessons learned, personal data, and goals.
3. Users can track their progress, edit and update their goals, and stay organized.
4. To maintain motivation, the system provides access to motivational resources and displays earned badges.

HOW WE APPLIED IT IN THE PROJECT

An example of a post-training interface with a completed Roadmap and a review of the learned lessons.

Top 6 Features Implemented

To make the training truly engaging and simple-to-use, we applied the following features and technologies:

Conversational Learning. This is the innovative learning model when a learner interacts with a virtual “teacher” or a chatbot in the form of a dialogue. In the current project, the “teacher” provides expert knowledge in taking on the role of a coach in question-and-answer dialogues. If applicable, a virtual assistant can be involved in exercises to check what has been learned.

Interactivity. The program includes various types of content that favor creating an immersive and engaging learning experience. We introduced in Project OTY a mixture of text and media (informative illustrations and videos with transcripts).

Gamification. To increase learners' engagement and add fun, game-design elements are used throughout the training process. It can be achievement badges, unlocking new levels, leaderboard, gems, strakes, etc. In Project OTY a learner is given achievement badges for completing some tasks or milestones.

Social Learning. It implies the involvement of other people in a learning process for feedback or knowledge exchange. Usually, a community is created within a platform or there is a sharing option.

In Project OTY we have also embedded the possibility to message friends, family, or colleagues to get feedback about the learner's unique strengths, which are necessary for building a personal Roadmap.

Chatbot. The chatbot is mostly used for organizational moments during the training, such as granting achievement badges or sending some templates.

For example, the OTY Bot sends a learner a template for a message that shall be resent to the learner's colleagues or friends for collecting opinions about their strengths.

Online Payment and Automatic Enrollment. The integration of an online payment makes the payment process quick and convenient for users. Once the payment is completed, a user automatically enrolls in the training.

Personal leadership development in companies leads to a 25% increase in organizational outcomes. And this number goes up when leadership training is extended to the workforce below senior levels.

Such remarkable outcomes can be reached thanks to the thoughtful alignment of learning and technology, as with Project OTY.

After 8 months of powerful cooperation, the MVP has gone live.

Inspired by the capabilities of new leadership training software, our Client is now considering subsequent development of the training program with the help of Belitsoft.

The subsequent phases of the development are supposed to include:

1. Creating a mobile version of the application for better user experience.
2. Implementing of AI to give learners personalized learning opportunities that are in alignment with their plan.
3. Sending proactive alerts to remind learners to come back and continue the process.
4. Introducing advanced progress tracking. Allowing the community, mentors, and the L&D team to track learners' progress and provide support, praise, and encouragement. Allowing learners to flag steps where they need assistance.