The Client
With more than 25 years of experience, Gogo is the leader in inflight connectivity and wireless entertainment services for commercial and business fleets worldwide. Gogo’s superior technologies, best-in-class service, and global reach help planes fly smarter and their passengers travel happier. Today, the company’s Commercial Aviation division has partnerships with 17 commercial airlines and has installed inflight connectivity technology on 3,000 commercial aircraft.
The Gogo Business Aviation division serves the business and private sectors. More than 4,500 business aircraft are flying with its solutions, including the world’s largest fractional ownership fleets. Gogo is a factory option at every major business aircraft manufacturer. Gogo has more than 1,000 employees and is headquartered in Chicago, IL, with additional facilities in Broomfield, CO, and various overseas locations.
Need / Challenge
The Gogo Business Aviation systems are installed on airplanes by external vendors who require training in Gogo’s technology and installation methods. Previously, this training was delivered in a three-day, 18-hour instructor-led classroom course.
Gogo’s instructional design (ID) staff decided to replace this with a modern, more efficient training program that starts with a seven-module e-learning course on the concepts and principles of Gogo’s systems, leading to hands-on training in a classroom and lab. The goal is that the e-learning course will provide the installers with solid foundational understanding of the technology, so that they can achieve maximum benefit from the hands-on sessions.
The Gogo Senior Instructional Designer developed the technical content in collaboration with internal subject matter experts and chose Articulate Storyline 3 as the authoring platform. He asked Clarity Consultants to provide an experienced ID consultant expert in Articulate to implement slides, recorded narration, and other interactive elements.
The Senior ID had high expectations and required a consultant who, along with possessing strong ID skills, would bring exceptional attention to detail and pride in the work product. In addition, the client sought a consultant willing and able to make recommendations on designing and building the interactive elements rather than only following directions. Gogo wanted a consultant who could add value to the training design.
Solution: What Clarity Did
Clarity Consultants identified a veteran Articulate consultant who had done exceptional work with previous Clarity clients and had the ability to suggest improvements and take direction. The consultant was based remotely. She and the Senior ID worked out a delivery schedule and a communication process that relied on emails and a weekly conference call.
During their communications, the consultant offered suggestions on some content elements, and as a result the client made changes based on her recommendation. She built the modules, thoroughly testing each one to the client’s satisfaction. The consultant delivered the complete set of modules in two months, on schedule and on budget.
Results: The Outcomes
The client was very pleased with the consultant’s Articulate work and her recommendations regarding the course content. The course is scheduled for deployment in fall, 2018. The Gogo technical support managers reviewed the modules and were so pleased with the content and quality that they are using the new course as on-boarding training for new support and operations staff. The ID team itself is “inspired,” in the client’s word, that they now have this impressive learning tool that will benefit the installers.