My journey into instructional design has been much like most people, you finally just landed there. For me I say landed there because all of my previous educational pursuits and most favorite jobs have always had a hint of instructional design (teaching, training, creating learning experiences, helping people to understand difficult concepts).
Sound familiar? I’m sure it does. My passion has always been for learning, and I will continue to be a lifelong learner!
I enjoy sharing knowledge and wisdom, but I enjoy empowering others to learn and grow more than anything. With more than a decade of training in a corporate setting, being an educational consultant, and teaching in an adult education program, I have created my fair share of instructional experiences. The following examples are a demonstration of diversity and a range of skills.
Projects
Here is an Adult Learning video created in Powtoons. The goal was to provide a high-level view to inform college-level learners about what motivates adults to learn.
Whether creating lessons to explain the Adult Learning Theory, or maybe the Scientific Method, I always strive to ensure the learning experience is engaging and informative.
Complicated made Simple
The following course started out as a simple PowerPoint presentation. With a little hard work, ingenuity, help from Tweety Bird, and a focus on the ADDIE model, this lesson went from boring to beautiful and wowed the crowd of adult learners in the GED program that really didn’t enjoy science the first time around.
Articulate Storyline made it easy to upload and convert this existing lesson into a fabulous course. For the full course just follow the link.
How-to Videos (Micro-Learning Style)
Now we move on to Moovly which is a free alternative to Camtasia but has a very similar interface, and we take a look at a How-to video guiding users through the Ged.com website.
This GED study guide micro-learning lesson was created to help students locate the free resources available to help them pass their exam.
The video was created in Moovly, using Bandicam to record the screen as the website was navigated and Bandicut to edit. Screenshots of certain pages were taken and highlighted to fill the loading pages and also accentuate the directions and steps.
*By the way, yours truly did all of the voiceovers in the videos. I created personas after performing my front-end analysis and used the data to connect with my audience.
SAT Prep
Here is an SAT prep lesson that was developed for students who will take the writing portion of the test. The lesson focused on clarifying persuasive writing techniques, specifically; ethos, pathos, and logos. Lessons, examples, activities, and quizzes were included. The course was made interactive by the inclusion of a selection tool embedded in the PowerPoint presentation.
Click here for the full SAT Prep lesson
Gamified Learning in Action
My most favorite learning experiences always involve a little bit of fun. I created the following Grocery Store game after being presented with the issue that people who have small food budgets, often are unable to eat healthy. The goal of this game was to teach finance and budgeting, as well as, health and nutrition.
The game was created in PowerPoint and was made interactive by inserting triggers on the images as well as buttons for navigation. Click here for the full game.
Supplementing a Lesson
An easy way to add supplemental and informative content, that doesn’t overwhelm your learner, is to create an infographic. Just choose a few key concepts that reinforce your message and practice good layout.
The following is an infographic created to reinforce healthy habits to complement the course Grocery Store Game.
For more information on layout and design ideas, check out Hagen and Golombisky “White Space is not your Enemy” and Julie Dirksen “Design for How People Learn.”
Training Combos for Corporate
Okay, so now we’ve seen courses and lessons, informative and procedural; infographics and videos for K-12 and higher education. Now it’s time to shine the light on learning experiences created for companies and organizations.
Customer Service Training
The first grouping is a customer service refresher for a boutique that was struggling with customer retention. The store owner wanted something simple to inspire their associates to remember the ABC’s of their mission. The video was created using Bandicam and Bandicuts, narrated by me.
…and the corresponding infographic was born in Adobe Spark.
Office Necessities
Whoo-hoo…Vacation time has finally arrived. Schedule is set, reservations are made, you’ve told your boss, but what about your clients, vendors, and your co-worker in Tucson?
No worries, just make sure to turn on your “Out-of-Office-Replies (OOR)” “ummmm…How do I do that???”, you might ask.
A client wanted a quick way to teach their employees how to create an OOR and while we were at it, make sure they knew how to insert their signature following company standards. Learners were provided a thorough but quick step-by-step lesson, multiple examples, and a list of Do’s and Don’ts according to company policy. Click here for the complete course.
The additional resource was created as a step-by-step job aid to keep close to the desk if printed, or easily retrieve in pdf format.
A fun little video was also created just to demonstrate a scenario and put the employees at ease if they didn’t already know the intricacies of email.
Click the link to see a friendly Email Emergency.
More Serious Subjects
In an era of active shooters in schools, places of worship, and office complexes, the following course was created to inform employees about workplace violence; how to spot the signs and who to tell.
A variety of techniques were used to make sure the gravity of the situation was known to employees. Multiple Knowledge checks, quizzes, and activities were included to promote retention of information. Click here for the complete course.
Social Justice Projects
The following video was created to get the attention of a potential client. All of the textual content was created based on the organizations existing website, snippets were gleaned and inserted into the video to bond with the client and demonstrate recognition of the clients vision and mission. The video definitely got the attention of the client. The pitch went great, and the contract was secured.
*Note: Only the videos are included in their entirety. The slideshows and course demonstrations are just samples images of the complete presentations. However, links are included if the fullness thereof is desired.
Enjoy life and Happy learning!
A Little About Me
My career goals and objectives as a professional educator and creator of learning experiences will be to continue creating courses and training materials that apply the best practices of Instructional Design. The medium of corporate training as well as higher education are the focus for my future experiences.
Click on the link to find out more about me by visiting my LinkedIn profile.
Memberships:
Who We Serve: Our members and customers are professionals who help others achieve their full potential by improving their knowledge, skills, and abilities in the workplace. They go by many titles: talent development managers, trainers, instructional designers, performance consultants, frontline managers, workplace learning professionals, and more
The Learning Guild is a community of practice for those supporting the design, development, strategy, and management of organizational learning.
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