4 – Test and Refine

Test your resource in a real situation, learn from this, and then refine it.

Test your product

Remember your product is being made for real people to use. Now is the time to test it in real situations.

First ask, what area of the resource needs to be tested? (The theology? Learning design? Content? Function? Other?) What needs to be tested will determine if peer reviewing, field-testing with a group or expert feedback is best.

Field testing

Testing your resource with a sample target audience will help you refine it. Some of these options may help:

  • You may want to test one session of a curriculum with a group, even if more sessions are being written.
  • Ideally try it with a group who does not know you are producing it, and who will give reliable, honest feedback.
  • Test with a small group of people.
  • Use feedback from surveys, or observation, or feedback from the leaders/users of your resource.

Survey feedback

To get helpful feedback, ask what you need to know, and offer space for thoughts and ideas you have not considered. Set a short time limit to get fresh thoughts and ideas quickly. One way to gather feedback is via a survey.

A survey for participants / leaders / users

Structure your feedback questions to explore different areas of usefulness like:

  • What was helpful / useful?
  • What worked best?
  • What did not work so well?
  • What surprised / delighted / shocked you?
  • What is missing?
  • What would you change to improve this?

Feedback by observation

Another feedback method is by your team or someone else observing how the resource is received, and then writing it down. Write notes about:

  • At what times were people most engaged?
  • When did they lose attention?
  • How well did they understand the instructions / main points / message?
  • What do you want to keep or change now you have seen it in action?
  • What additional questions do you have for the leaders who tested your resource?

Expert feedback

For areas like theology, learning design, medical or specialist content – list specialists the team can ask for help to create the most useful and accurate resources.

Refining and polishing

Once you have tested your resource and gathered feedback, it’s time to make any last changes and do final checks.

Refining and final editing

Decide as a team what feedback you will implement –

  • What is critical and must be changed?
  • What is important and should be changed?
  • What might be helpful to change if there’s time?

Polishing and checking the final product

Final checks would involve:

  • A final proofread and layout check.
  • Check you have permission to use images.
  • Make sure all internet links function and are correct.
  • Quote the Bible accurately, with proper references.
  • Acknowledge all sources.
  • Make sure the overall quality and layout looks okay.
  • Check that your final product can be translated.

Finishing

You are close to finishing! Congratulations!

Finishing well

In many FlashLabs the resources are shared widely on resource websites (like Max7 or ReadySetGO) and through social media (like Telegram and WhatsApp). Here is a checklist to consider:

  • Output your product in different formats (for example, Word and PDF; or videos, video stems, audio / SFX stems; PowerPoint etc).
  • Gather the resource files together and share the final published version with the whole team.
  • Upload your resource to where it is needed, making translatable files easy to access.
  • If uploading to a site like Max7, also remember to upload files for translators, blank copies, or wordless versions of videos.
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