Est. 2013

We Are Full Tilt Ahead

An Award Winning, Woman-Owned Education Technology and Academic Design Studio Located in the Washington DC Metro Area

We partner with Subject Matter Experts to build significant learning experiences online. From courses built in learning management systems such as Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, and D2L to engaging, interactive eLearning courses, Full Tilt Ahead can bring your teaching and learning visions to reality. Our team is built on three core strengths: brains, brawn and beauty.

We design learning experiences that are both evidence-based and informed by years of teaching experience. We work with clients and subject matter exports to establish powerful collaboration and execution strategies guided by our project management rigor. We create impressive design results with the infusion of our rich media production talent.

Our Team

Our Drive

Our mission as a woman-owned education technology company is to be a knowledgeable, experienced and reliable partner to all of our clients. Because of this, we focus on the creation of amazing experiences by leading and coordinating the development and delivery of every aspect of a project. Full Tilt Ahead is a full service academic design studio that creates, manages, develops, evaluates, and supports all aspects of instructional design and online learning.

Online learning for higher education is a passion for us. We can’t help but be energized by the emerging opportunities it provides for creativity and purposeful impact on the future. Working back and forth between the intricacies of faculty presence, content curiosities, creative presentation, technological capabilities, and student expectations is how we create significant learning experiences. Our instructional design and visual communications teams work together not only to visually dazzle and stimulate learners but to create learning environments where: navigation is light and non-invasive with clear direction, resources are centralized and always available and dense content is accessibly organized and displayed.

Our Process

FTA starts each project with and initial kick-off meeting to determine stakeholders, plan communications, project monitoring & reporting practices, and review project management, design, development and testing methodologies. This meeting will also review and confirm the scope of the project and ensure everyone involved fully understands the vision.

Kick-off highlights:

  • Identify stakeholders and sources of information that should influence the vision
  • Determine purpose, mission and audience
  • Align vision with requirements
  • Identify needs for development
  • Anticipate integration needs
  • Anticipate needs for scaling, sustainability, and maintenance

Our staff and subject matter experts work with you to understand and accommodate the purpose, audience, context, goals and content. We maintain a disciplined focus on project timelines and feedback cycles to ensure quality results within expected time frames.

We design and develop experiences that address multiple dimensions of learning calling on traditional, evidence-based practices and pushing towards creative enhancements supported by educational psychology principles and made possible by technological advancements. The foundation will be to show, scaffold and sustain knowledge, skills and attitudes in engaging and memorable ways. We work with subject-matter experts to ensure that we create meaningful experiences.

FTA focuses on consistency and clarity so users know what to expect, where to find things, and what commonly used terms mean in this context. Users derive meaning from structure and need guidance within learning experiences. The structure will be designed to cue users to what they should focus on currently and locate that focus within the overall structure.

FTA uses rigorous evaluation criteria to ensure quality. With a combined 55+ years of experience with online environments, we know what high quality online learning includes. The expertise to ensure quality outcomes during development is a core competency at Full Tilt Ahead.

In the final phase of development, FTA combines the process of testing for quality assurance with training to certify the final implementation. We recommend at least two pilot and training participants to ensure that there are no challenges and to address poor user experience issues that may come to light with the test run. In addition to leading remote training sessions with key personnel, we will provide overview training and integration documentation for each user role.

We understand that once a project launches that doesn’t mean it is over. Software will need to be updated, functionality will need to be expanded, content will need to be updated and new hires will need to be trained. FTA enters into each relationship preparing to empower clients and provide consulting and support when necessary.

Our Partners

Stride

Stride.ai: Our partner Stride.ai leverages artificial intelligence and natural language understanding to implement intelligent automation. We have worked with Stride.ai to build our Read Ahead SmartSkimmer engine that automatically skims digital texts to identify and highlight key words.

Sci Ani

SciAni produces beautiful, interactive 3D animations used to offer students interactive experiences in environments that may be too dangerous, scarce, or difficulty to access. We’ve worked with SciAni to build lab simulations that we have embedded into science courses.

Who We’ve Helped