Interview with Mike Kavanagh of Driving Risk Down ltd.
This week we spoke with Mike Kavanagh, the owner of a firm providing driver safety courses.
Mike has been using ZebraZapps for over a year. He has a unique story, so we have asked Mike to tell us about his experience with ZebraZapps in his own words.
MK: My name is Mike Kavanagh, and I have a small Driver Training Company (Driving Risk Down ltd) where we provide various types of driver safety training courses to companies in Ireland. Up until now, our driving courses tended to be in-vehicle or in a classroom. It’s only recently that we began to use virtual classes and to consider producing e-learning materials as additional training options.
I had read a number of Michael Allen’s books so I was aware of the importance of CCAF as a model. I was conscious that I needed to engage the learner in the process, and I felt that ZebraZapps was a very flexible tool to create a wide variety of activities. I don’t have a programming background and I have no interest in writing code.
“The idea of using a very logical and visual tool such as ZebraZapps really appealed to me.”
To date, I have only created two learning modules using ZebraZapps. I wanted to create something a little more interactive than a series of slides followed by multiple choice questions at the end of the course.
My first module looks at the area of carrying out vehicle safety checks. I wanted to try to recreate the process a person would follow if they were actually carrying out the checks. I, therefore, created a number of images showing the different views of a car and the learner would simply click on the relevant image to bring up that view.
They would then click on the various items to check and once they clicked on the ‘check your score’ button, they would get some feedback on how they did.
The other learning module related to identifying various types of hazards. I filmed a number of road scenes and inserted a still image in each video to use as a backdrop for the learner to click on hazards that they identified. The module starts with a short video (initial challenge) where the learner has to click on any potential hazards that they identify.
Depending on how they do, the program determines where they will actually start in the course. There are basically 15 separate hazard videos. If they identify between 1 – 5 potential hazards on their initial challenge, they will begin at video 1. If they identify between 6 – 9 potential hazards, they will begin at video 6 and if they manage to identify all 10 potential hazards, begin at video 11. Essentially as they work up from video 1, the hazards get a little more difficult to identify and they have less time to do it.
I feel that I am scratching the surface with what Zebra is actually capable of doing. I personally found the support from ZebraZapps Customer Success Services to be excellent, they have helped me to sort out a number of issues that I had.
Over the next few months, I hope to create a number of other learning modules which will involve the learner having to make various decisions. Depending on the option/s they select, the program will determine the consequences each learner will face.
I have made both of these learning modules available in the App Shopp if you want to try them out for yourself. They are called ‘Web Site Vehicle Safety Checks Challenge’ and ‘Scanning to the Front (Day 1)’. It is only recently that I put the vehicle safety checks module on our website so I don’t really have any feedback to date.
