At OpenSesame, we always look for ways to raise the bar for online training. This year, we set out to do something bold: build a megahit course.
We took customer feedback, insights from our pro experiences, and a mountain of engagement data. Then we handed it all over to the experts—our in-house Exclusive Content team—to create something impactful: a course designed to stand out, get laughs, and drive results.
93% of workers said they want training that’s easy to complete and understand.
– HR Dive
The final product? A fast-paced course that uses more humor and relatable scenarios than most training to spotlight a common struggle—disengaged learning.
This Quick Training Will Change the Way You Learn aims to transform required training into a growth opportunity.
“It was a full team effort on the Exclusive Content team,” said Missy Norbury-LeDoux, the eLearning Development Specialist who wrote the final script. “The developers worked together on the narrative, and our production team helped build it in Simon, our course creation tool.”
Here’s what Missy and Dave McFarland, Director of Content, shared in a behind-the-scenes Q&A on the course’s purpose, creative process, and impact.
Q: What was the goal of the course?
Missy: “We knew course completion was a burden, and we thought about introducing a mindshift. So, rather than dreading it, what if the required training were your secret weapon for getting ahead? We also had tons of insight from OpenSesame’s curators. Shout out to Molly Broder, who came up with this course idea in the first place. Our Customer Success team provided insight and even demoed the course for customers to get feedback.”
Dave: “We wanted to create a training that will change the way you learn. The intention was that many learners, when they’re told they have corporate training, cringe. Folks don’t always know why it’s important for them. They dread it because it’ll take time. Sometimes they don’t see the point. We created this course to be a fast and fun motivator for understanding the why of online training. And why it’s important to the role and success of the company.”
- OpenSesame designed a course to challenge how employees think about training. Instead of seeing it as a checkbox task, learners are encouraged to view it as a strategic advantage that fuels career development, team effectiveness, and personal momentum. Customer feedback early on was critical.
Q: How can this course be used best?
Missy: “It can be used as a first course for a learner in a longer series… to set the stage.”
Dave: “This would make the perfect new-hire video… it has levity and it’s fresh. Training doesn’t have to be tedious.”
- Whether it kicks off a training series or welcomes new employees, this course could set the tone for an engaging, human approach to learning. It’s a great way to show that your company values humor, relevance, and learner time.
Q: What was the inspiration behind the course story?
Missy: “A lot came from our experience as elearning developers and customer success managers on the frontlines of learning and development. Even if you know a course is important, it’s still hard to prioritize it. The procrastination that comes and how silly you feel as an elearning developer when you say ‘I still need to take my own courses.’”
Dave: “We wanted to create something people would want to finish. What’s the next joke going to be? There’s a lot of research on the role of humor in engaging people’s minds. Humor resonates in a way that makes people care. Humor is a vehicle for delivering a training message. Some of the things we do is poke lightly at tricks people use to get their elearning done. We created funny scenarios with the main character, but also have a narrator who is the voice of reason and an expert.”
- This course was built from the real-life observations of developers and the frontline stories from customer success managers. It addresses the universal struggle to stay motivated and uses humor as a central hook and storytelling device.
Q: Why did you take this approach?
Missy: “We saw the disconnect. We had stats from our Customer Success team about how people struggle to engage with slow, boring elearning content. They shared that Millennials and Gen Z will represent approximately 70% of the workforce by the end of this decade. And that people spend an average of 4–5 hours on their phones every day, but they struggle to take elearning courses, so there must be a disconnect there. Once we were writing it, we knew from our company and our subject matter experts that people struggle to take training, but much of this came from customer success managers and drew a lot from their experience.
We also used a fast pace to keep people’s attention. At OpenSesame, I run the neurodiversity employee resource group, and something that came up within that group is that sometimes we have to speed things up to make anything less mind-numbingly dull. So we wanted something that would be engaging from the start.”
Dave: “We know story-driven learning is well-documented as successful. This is the case with any form of communication. There’s a small nod to social media. Using fast cuts makes it a little more dynamic.”
- Humor and a speedier pacing were a strategic choice, not just for entertainment, but to drive deeper engagement. It highlights common distractions and gently pokes fun at them. The course builds empathy and invites learners to rethink how they approach training.
Q: Why did you pick this particular topic to apply the very best practices in course development?
Missy: “We wanted to show, in this brief, engaging format, just what power elearning can really hold when you prioritize the learner experience and make it fun and accessible for everyone.”
Dave: “We believed we could create something that could affect every learner in every industry.”
- When people understand how to learn better, they become better learners—at work, in life, and everywhere in between.
This course is available in 10 languages — Arabic, Canadian French, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Spanish, Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, and English. It also includes a downloadable resource for learners to get better results from their online training moving forward.
Note: If your OpenSesame Plus plan includes a limited number of course licenses, this course does not count against that total, making it a brilliant, no-cost addition to your lineup.