The Problem
The Music Education Department within Los Angeles Public Schools, a conceptual school district, recognized that some itinerant elementary music teachers who teach Orchestra have trouble identifying strategies that help their students produce a good sound. This leads to poor student performance and disappointing concerts, which in turn undermine the department’s reputation and its advocacy for arts education.
These music teachers may be new or accustomed to only teaching Vocal / General Music. Often, they have little or no experience playing or teaching these instruments at all, because they were Music Performance majors in college, rather than Music Education majors. Drawing on my 18+ years of experience as a music educator, I identified a gap in knowledge and skills around tone production – especially among teachers teaching outside their primary area of expertise.
The Solution
After identifying the problem and determining that there is a deficit of knowledge and skills, I proposed the solutions of training and instructional peer coaching. Training will enhance and reinforce knowledge and skill development, while peer coaching offers personalized, more accelerated learning. The training I developed is a scenario-based, story-driven eLearning project that calls music teachers to practice making decisions regarding how to best support their students in playing their instruments with proper technique to create a good sound, all in a risk-free environment.
My Process
I designed this project from concept to completion and applied several stages of the ADDIE model of instructional design. The analysis stage involved identifying the root cause of the problem, action mapping, proposing a solution, and identifying areas towards which to target the training. The design phase consisted of writing a text-based storyboard to serve as the project’s blueprint. Development included creating a style guide and visual mockups for visual continuity and constructing an interactive prototype with multiple stages of feedback and iteration from instructional designers, music teachers, and peers, all the way up to the full build.
Action Map
For this project, I served as both the instructional designer and the subject matter expert (SME), reflecting on my classroom experience to guide content and decision-making. In the action mapping process, I began by writing the business goal:
The number of music students who produce a good sound will increase by 40% in three months as orchestra teachers employ proper instrument technique and tone production.
I then identified actions that need to be taken in order to reach this goal. I selected a sample of music instruments and made a comprehensive inventory of measurable actions that students erroneously make while playing these instruments and that teachers have trouble addressing. The emphasis was on actions, rather than knowledge, as actions are observable and improving those actions would change behavior. From this extensive list, I prioritized the most common mistakes and used them as the foundation of the project.
While the chosen actions do not encompass the entirety of issues related to creating a good sound, addressing these will directly improve teacher and student success, because they are problems that occur with high frequency. Giving teacher and student support in adopting these behaviors will lead to better technique and tone production, which in effect supports the business goal.
Text-Based Storyboard
After I chose the three high-priority actions on which to base the project, I wrote a text-based storyboard to serve as the foundation of the project’s design, detailing prompts, dialogue, visual, audio, and programming notes. The learning experience is designed to put the learner in situations that simulate the real-world experience of teaching orchestra.
The training presents three scenarios in which the learner chooses one of three actions to take; one is the correct action, and the other two are distractors. Immediate feedback is built into the project, as there are distinct consequences written for when the learner makes the right and wrong decisions. Good outcomes for selecting the right choice include a rehearsal and reinforcement of the information, engaging the learner in cognitive information processing. Selecting the wrong action leads to memorable negative consequences. Furthermore, the success meter is a visual cue that tracks the learner’s decision-making in a risk-free environment.
I wrote in a narrator who contributes a trusted voice that immerses the learner in the story. The narration and character dialogue are conversational in tone, supporting Mayer’s Personalization Principle. The project includes a mentor character who offers the learner guidance when needed, applying Mayer’s Embodiment Principle, should they choose to exercise learner choice.
Visual Mockups
Once the storyboard was drafted in all of its detail, it was time to create visual mockups to capture the story through imagery. This took place in stages of constructing a mood board, style guide, wireframes, and mockups until the desired look and feel was achieved.
Mood Board
First, I collected a cache of visuals as a source of inspiration and assembled a mood board in Adobe XD. The images consist of music instrument method books, websites for music notation and instructional materials, record company logos, and even concert halls, all of which are images that music teachers are familiar with. The photos and illustrations of music students influenced the color scheme. The inspiration drawn from this collection of graphics made the project all the more convincing.
Style Guide
After images were compiled within the mood board, I drew from these photos and illustrations to design a style guide for visual cohesion in colors, textfaces, and buttons. The browns in the color palette are hues I extracted from violin photographs. The blues are meant to elicit calm and focus, as referenced by color psychology. Additionally, I tested the color palette for web accessibility to ensure strong visual contrast and inclusivity for all learners.
Visual Mockups
With the style guide finalized, I began translating those visual standards into wireframes and visual mockups, using Adobe XD. I developed wireframes as a first step in testing the layout and to ensure a straightforward user interface.
I then elaborated on the wireframes to create visual mockups to clarify the vision by producing visuals that mimicked the actual music classroom environment to immerse the learner in the real-world experience. This process required much iteration, which extended beyond the stage of visual mockups. It was only after the first interactive prototype that the decision was made to no longer use a text-based approach and instead opt for an audio-based experience, and the layout required adjustment.
Furthermore, this stage included giving the cast members a change in wardrobe to differentiate everyday attire from that for a special occasion, giving the scenarios a more authentic feel.
More importantly, it consisted of tests of the actions in Vyond that could possibly be perceived as playing instruments, as Vyond provides few assets in their library that portray playing musical instruments.
Interactive Prototype
Before building the full project, I used the authoring tool Articulate Storyline 360 to develop an interactive prototype only through the first scenario-based question and its consequences for the purposes of testing the project on an audience and collecting their feedback on its functionality and visual design. This allowed me an opportunity to work out any design misalignments before developing the entire learning experience.
After collecting feedback, one of the key adjustments I made was incorporating multiple still images within the consequences that would change in coordination with the words of the narration. I had already chosen to limit the number of animated scenes, mostly due to the fact that Vyond has limited actions and assets built into the program that allow developers to animate people playing musical instruments. So I had to get creative. For instance, I used the action “whiteboard - presenting” when Mr. Williams conducts, and “typing” when he plays the piano. Adding more images with carefully crafted timing really brought the narration to life.
Additionally, through this process, I decided to redirect the project towards one that features audio as one of its stand-out qualities. Therefore, I first removed the prompt boxes and focused on narration, employing Mayer’s Redundancy Principle, while providing closed captions for accessibility. I also made all instrument sound effects automatic, rather than giving learners the option to press the button for audio. I used ElevenLabs for AI character voices and sound effects, re-generating at great length to get the most expressive voice, vocal delivery, and desired instrument sounds (or as close as the technology allows).
Full Development
After multiple rounds of collecting and applying feedback on the prototype, I developed the entire eLearning experience. The strengths of this project are not only in its storytelling, visuals, and sound design, but also in its implementation of branching scenarios. There are three possible conclusions based on the learner’s score, which I generated by programming a variable that was reflected visually by the success meter. Learners experience a happy conclusion if they answer all three questions correctly or a mediocre conclusion if they answer only two questions correctly. If they choose the wrong answers for the first two questions, they are immediately propelled to the negative conclusion, which they will also encounter if they only answer one of the three questions correctly. The learner’s name, which was requested in the name entry field on the title slide, finally comes into play at the end in these unforgettable conclusions.
Results and Takeaways
“Your project looks SO MUCH like our actual life! It looks like my room but nicer. Hahaha. I love how Ms. Song [mentor character] always supports us. This is so realistic, and the visuals are colorful and musical!” - Cheryl Fukushima, Itinerant Orchestra Teacher
“Your project is excellent and very interesting. I don't think there is anything like this out there to help music teachers.” - Garnet Basile, Instrumental Music Teacher
“I loved so many parts of your project! The part that stood out was the narrator guiding you through the scenario with storytelling. It felt so natural to hear him in the background. Then there are the elements of the visuals appearing on screen to match the script. It’s done right and helped explain exactly what’s going on. Lastly, I loved the creativity of the success meter and the mentor icon. It matches the theme of the scenario. Overall, great work on this project!” - Areej Mohamed, Instructional Designer
“I thought the visuals were fantastic!” - Shekinah, Instructional Designer
Music teachers appreciated how authentically the scenarios reflected classroom realities and common instructional challenges. They highlighted the colorful, musical aesthetic, the effectiveness of the mentor character, and the emotional impact of the conclusions. One teacher shared that it even reinforced her subject knowledge in trumpet pedagogy. Instructional designers noted the clarity of narration, strong design elements, and precise visual timing.
This project deepened my understanding of the importance of designing comprehensive visual mockups – early and with intention. With so many moving parts – backgrounds, characters, and layered assets – it became clear how foundational visual structure is to both storytelling and learner orientation. It also gave me the opportunity to sharpen my skills in Vyond and ElevenLabs and experiment with new tools like Adobe Audition and Illustrator to better align sound and imagery with my creative vision.
If I were involved in evaluating the impact of this training beyond the pilot, I would apply the Kirkpatrick Model to assess effectiveness across four levels:
Reaction:
Survey learners to collect data, assess engagement, gather feedback on the experience, and identify areas for improvement.
Learning:
Facilitate informal assessments and / or pointed discussions within professional development cohorts to confirm knowledge and skill acquisition.
Behavior:
Assign peer instructional coaches to observe and interview teachers to verify changes in practice after the training.
Results:
Conduct periodic observations, in the classroom and especially at the spring concert, to track student outcomes and measure progress toward the business goal.
This project reaffirmed my love for blending narrative with instructional strategy, and I’m excited to keep designing learning solutions that engage minds and make a difference.