Case Study · Training Videos

UBC Canada District made six sensitive topics stick with scenario-based animated videos

Feedback. Bias. Stereotypes. Learning styles. Skill transfer. UDL. One series, one visual language, six videos trainers reuse everywhere.

UBC CANADA DISTRICT

On This Page

Industry

Higher Education

Deliverables

6 training videos

Style

2D scenario-based

Timeline

14 weeks

Services Used

Script & Story

✓

Storyboarding

✓

2D Animation

✓

Voice & Sound

✓

The Challenge

When the training everyone has to take is the training nobody wants to watch

UBC Canada District needed to turn its instructor development program into training that could reach tradespeople across the country, without relying on everyone being in the same classroom. The challenge was making topics like feedback, bias, and adult-learning theory feel practical instead of academic. As the producer, my job was to take those ideas and turn them into clear, relatable situations instructors would actually recognize from the job site. We weren’t just putting classroom material online. We were making it easier to understand, easier to access, and more useful in the real world.

FOUR CONSTRAINTS WE DESIGNED AROUND

It had to work with nobody in the room. No facilitator to read the audience or answer the objection.
It had to disarm, not accuse. On bias and stereotypes, tone decides whether anything gets through.
It had to make frameworks physical. Six abstract models, each needing something concrete to hang on.
It had to read as one program. Six separate videos that still felt like a single course.

The Solution

Why scenario beats explanation on the topics people resist

We produced six standalone animated videos, with each one focused on a single concept. Instead of starting with definitions, we built the scripts around situations instructors would recognize. They see the problem happen first, then we introduce the idea behind it.

Animation was the right choice because it let us deal with sensitive topics like bias without putting a real person in the role of the “bad guy.” It also gave us more freedom to show thoughts, compare different teaching approaches, and explain abstract ideas visually.

To keep the series consistent and cost-effective, we created one cast of characters, a shared set of environments, and a visual style based on UBC Canada District’s brand. That gave all six videos the feel of one complete training program.

HOW EACH EPISODE WAS BUILT

Find the moment first

We start from a situation instructors recognize, not from the learning objective. If nobody nods in the first fifteen seconds, the rest of the video is already lost.

Write it to be heard, not read

Every script is read aloud before it is approved. Training copy that scans fine on a page often collapses the moment a voice has to carry it.

Approve the sketch, not the render

Every scene is boarded and signed off before animation begins. Changing a drawing costs minutes. Changing a finished animated scene costs days.

Build the library, then the series

Characters and environments are designed once for all six. That is what makes episode six affordable and what makes the set feel like one course.

Storyboards

Every scene was drawn and approved before a single frame was animated. Storyboarding is the cheapest possible place to discover that an analogy does not land.

Design & illustration

A single character set and environment library carries all six videos, so the series reads as one program rather than six unrelated films.

Final Video Production

A single character set and environment library carries all six videos, so the series reads as one program rather than six unrelated films. Here are 15 second version of the final videos we produced.

#1 Feedback (SBII)

Giving feedback that gets heard — the SBII model in a real conversation.

Video 1

flagship of the series

#2 Bias

Recognizing bias in the moment it happens, not in the abstract.

Scenario

workplace moment

#3 Stereotypes

The stories we assume about people — told as a story, not a lecture.

Story-driven

character led

#4 Learning Styles

Why one-size-fits-all training fails — and what to do instead.

Visual model

made concrete

#5 Skill Transfer

Getting skills from the training room to the job — the transfer model, animated.

Framework

brought to life

#6 UDL for Trainers

Universal Design for Learning, made practical for the people running sessions.

Practical

trainer-ready

Training videos your teams will actually watch and remember

Bring us your training challenge, and we’ll turn it into a practical video strategy with training videos designed to improve engagement and knowledge retention.

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