Canvas Course: AssetWorks

DESIGNER’S STATEMENT

This project started with a 120-page manual and a question nobody was asking out loud: why would anyone read this? The Surplus Property team had built something thorough and accurate — and completely disconnected from how adults actually learn. My job wasn’t to digitize the manual. It was to figure out what people actually needed to know, when they needed to know it, and what would make them care enough to engage with it. The Surplus Property Adventure is the answer I landed on. The certification completion rates told me it worked.

Overview Item	Description
Type	Blended eLearning Curriculum
Duration	Varies based on user schedule and engagement
Audience	University campus staff (property managers & occasional users)
Platform	Canvas LMS + Articulate Storyline (SCORM)
Tools Used	Articulate Storyline 360, Camtasia, Canvas LMS, AssetWorks Software
Deliverables	Canvas course (policy + software training), screencast training series, gamified Storyline assessment, job aid reference webpage
Status	Launched 2022 — active
Role	Instructional Designer, eLearning Developer, SME Facilitator

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The Challenge

Campus staff responsible for disposing of university property faced a training program built around a 120-page manual covering state regulations, software workflows, and behind-the-scenes processes. Completion was inconsistent, knowledge retention was low, and a critical piece was entirely missing from the existing materials: the university policy that explained why the steps existed. Staff who only disposed of property every few years had no realistic way to retain procedural knowledge they used infrequently.

The Solution

Working with approximately ten subject matter experts across the Surplus Property team, I mapped the full process, identified the policy gaps, and designed a complete curriculum from the ground up. The solution had three layers: a Canvas course for new users covering policy, software navigation, and process understanding in bite-sized modules; a gamified Storyline assessment — the Surplus Property Adventure — where existing users could demonstrate their knowledge to earn certification credit; and a job aid reference webpage for just-in-time access when staff needed to look something up without re-taking the full course.

The Adventure itself uses a game board format with building color-change triggers to show learners where they’ve been and what remains. Scores and completions tracked via SCORM in Canvas gate access to both Property Manager Certification credit (Section II) and the AssetWorks software itself.

Impact / Outcomes

• Replaced a 120-page manual with a modular, accessible learning experience
• Created a certification pathway with SCORM-tracked completion and scoring
• Designed for infrequent users — job aids ensure knowledge is retrievable, not just memorized
• Collaborative SME process surfaced previously undocumented policy rationale, strengthening the training content itself
• Launched 2022 and active for ongoing new user onboarding

DESIGN DECISIONS

Decision 1: Built for the Infrequent User

The most important insight from the SME process was this: most campus staff dispose of property every few years, not every week. Designing for retention alone would fail them. The curriculum was built for retrieval — the Canvas course teaches the material, the job aid webpage ensures it’s findable when needed, and the game assessment confirms readiness before software access is granted. Three layers, each with a distinct purpose.

Decision 2: Surface the Missing Policy Layer

The original 120-page manual focused almost entirely on procedural steps with minimal explanation of the policy rationale behind them. Through the SME collaboration process it became clear that staff who understood why a step existed were far more likely to follow it correctly — especially in edge cases the manual didn’t cover. Building the policy context into the curriculum wasn’t scope creep; it was the fix for why the manual wasn’t working.

Decision 3: Gamify the Assessment, Not the Learning

The Surplus Property Adventure is an assessment, not a tutorial. The decision to gamify the knowledge check rather than the instructional content was deliberate — learners who completed the Canvas course arrived at the game already prepared. The game’s job was to make demonstrating that knowledge feel like something worth doing, not something to get through. The certification credit at the end gave it real stakes.

Decision 4: Design with SMEs Who Didn’t Know They Were SMEs

The ten people on the Surplus Property team were process experts, not instructional design collaborators. One of the most valuable parts of this project was facilitating discovery conversations that helped them articulate knowledge they’d never had to explain before — the unwritten rules, the edge cases, the “we’ve always just done it this way” decisions that turned out to be policy-critical. That process was as much organizational knowledge management as it was course design.

WHAT WAS BUILT

Full Deliverables Package

Canvas Course — Modular online course covering university policy, AssetWorks software navigation, and end-to-end process understanding. Built for new users and structured for self-paced completion.

Camtasia Screencast Series — Software training videos walking users through the new asset entry screen, including an upgrade overview for existing users during the AssetWorks vendor transition.

The Surplus Property Adventure — Gamified Storyline assessment using a campus map game board with color-change triggers, branching logic, and SCORM tracking for certification gating.

Job Aid Reference Webpage — Just-in-time resource housing downloadable reference materials for infrequent users who need to look something up without re-taking the course.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Overview Item	Description
LMS	Canvas — SCORM embed for completion and score tracking
Assessment	Gamified knowledge check — score and completion tracked for certification gating
ID Framework	Adult learning principles (Knowles)
SME Collaboration	~10 subject matter experts across Surplus Property team
Software Training	AssetWorks property disposal software
Launch	2019 — University of Colorado Boulder

May 2, 2022