Services Offered

Course and Curriculum Design and Development

We design and develop courses in which participants learn by doing and are mentored by experts. Our courses simulate the job situation in such a way that employees learn from their mistakes and experiences as they struggle with realistic challenges.

Our design approach relies on a partnership with our clients to ensure that we truly understand the desired business outcomes, performance objectives and even details about their business in order to create learning experiences that will have the greatest impact. We start by engaging our clients in a discussion to determine what people are doing wrong and why. Then, we design courses that enable participants to develop the skills and experience to deal with challenges that have often led to critical mistakes in the past.

For a course to be effective, people must be able to learn by doing authentic, motivating tasks in the context of solving real world types of problems relevant to their job roles. A course must be complex enough to allow participants to make the kind of decisions, and mistakes, they would make on-the-job. Socratic Arts designers are skilled at working with our clients to create rich, interesting, and challenging simulations that incorporate insights into the client’s culture, processes, and practices. Our designers and developers have a wealth of experience determining the most effective way for participants to practice key skills.

Socratic Arts courses are characterized by a high degree of interactivity between participants and coaches, where coaches serve as mentors in the learning process, not lecturers. We develop detailed coach guides to support coaches in these efforts by giving them insight into common student mistakes, tips and suggested questions. Socratic Arts has extensive experience developing courses that can be delivered in the classroom, in a virtual classroom, as a web-mentored, or as pure e-learning.

Classroom Programs

We develop classroom-based programs that are supported with participant and coach materials, which we develop collaboratively with our clients. Socratic Arts courses are characterized by a high degree of interactivity between participants and coaches, where coaches serve as guides through the learning process, not lecturers. Materials for classroom simulations include:

• fictional documents, scripts, and data that convey details of the scenario.
• performance support material, which provides just-in-time instructional resources for participants to access during the course.
• coach guides, which include general information about the course and targeted support to help coaches facilitate each session effectively.

Read about one of our classroom programs in the Case Studies section.

Virtual Classroom

We have a wealth of experience designing virtual programs that keep participants active and highly engaged rather than passive. Participants may work in teams, as effective teamwork is often a relevant performance objective, and by having team-deliverables, coaches can provide feedback to a greater number of course participants in a single session. Group discussions and skill tutorials are delivered in small groups which encourages engagement and interactivity.

For virtual courses, the supporting documentation is similar to that in our classroom courses, but we extend the coach guides to include instruction on working within the virtual class environment.

Read about one of our virtual classroom programs in the Case Studies section.

Web-Mentored

We develop course websites in which participant and mentor materials are housed, enabling participants to do their work remotely, both synchronously and asynchronously. Web-mentored courses may be delivered over a longer timeframe, where participants do their assigned work on a part-time basis. Participants may work alone or in teams (remote or co-located). Virtual teams may use a range of communication technologies, including email, telephone, online meeting spaces, shared documents and wikis, whatever is available. Periodically the cohort may “come together” using a virtual classroom or online meeting space to present and discuss their work products or to engage in group discussions and tutorials.

Read about one of our web-mentored courses in the Case Studies section.

Pure e-Learning

Socratic Arts develops e-learning courses in which users learn by doing authentic tasks, and receive feedback on their work from the computer program. Users are placed in a simulated situation (one that is relevant to their real world work) in which something happens fictionally and they need to respond. We use three main teaching architectures as design frameworks:

• Turn Taking: an event occurs, the learner responds, and sees the results of his or her actions; this process continues until a goal is achieved.
• Observe and Critique: the learner observes the behavior of others (often via video), or reviews documents and critiques them, typically employing a rubric.
• Investigate and Decide: the learner is presented with a complex decision to make. The learner must research appropriate background material to make and justify the decision.

These courses are entirely self-contained. The use of media ranges from simple text and graphics to interactive video. Because we have not found it to be effective, we rarely use animation, other than to illustrate an abstract process for instructional purposes. Instead, we prefer to use interactive video, focusing on two types of video-content: scenario video and expert video, which provides performance support. While not all performance support materials must be captured on video, we have found that videos of experts sharing their expertise and real life stories make a vivid and memorable impact on learners.

Read about one of our e-Learning Courses in the Case Studies section.