My Journey to Instructional Design

As a career educator and technology enthusiast, I have had the opportunity to teach in many settings, including remotely, as well as to teach many different types of learners. My passion for education and eLearning has led me to pursue a career in Instructional Design. As I continue my education and career in this field, I have several goals that I would like to establish. My ultimate goal is to find a job in instructional design and continue to improve my skills in the future. To that end, I have a short-term goal of gaining familiarity and basic competency in at least 1 LMS design tool or application such as Storyline 360. I also have a medium-term goal of being able to create at least a 2 module or 30 minute course from start to finish with appropriate learning activities aligned to learning objectives. My long-term goal is to create and continue to add to a personal portfolio with at least 3 different instructional design deliverables such as infographics, images, and LMS courses to share with potential future employers.

For my short term goal of gaining basic competency in at least one learning management tool, As I have considered the many different LMS's available, I believe that learning one specific LMS is not as important as developing the skills of creating visually and educationally effective courses with appropriate content. I want to produce fun, engaging, and effective eLearning courses for students! I will make meaningful progress towards this goal while studying in learning design courses at ASU and by exploring good examples of eLearning courses and tutorials online. Current instructional designers found on LinkedIn, personal contacts who work in the field, and instructors who have experience designing eLearning courses are all excellent resources for learning how to use a learning management design application and its features to create excellent, user-friendly courses. I plan to share my work as I go, working out loud on this blog, in my course slack community, and via email with personal contacts to get feedback from these sources as I also learn from their shared work.

My medium term goal is to be able to create at least a two-module or 30 minute course from start to finish aligning all learning activities with the objectives for the course. I want my courses to be truly exceptional and this requires extensive knowledge of appropriate learning andragogy and best practices for helping learners engage in and retain learning, especially as it pertains to eLearning and self-paced courses. To this end, I may need to develop a course outline, assessment strategies, working storyboard and script that all align with the course objectives and include content that is appropriate, engaging, and relevant. This process will require working backwards by breaking the final objective into manageable lessons or modules and creating meaningful and engaging learning experiences within those lessons using digital tools. I will need to ensure that the modules and activities not only align with the learning objectives, but also feature excellent teaching strategies using such principles as Gagne’s 9 events (2) to follow a systematic approach to learning. On the digital end, I will follow Mayer’s 12 principles of Multimedia (3) to ensure the learning activities are visually appealing, user friendly and maximize engagement. I will then gather feedback from my learning design community as well as use google feedback forms with my actual students to continue to improve the course using the ADDIE model (SAM for short). This includes a repeating cycle of gathering information from subject matter experts, designing, developing, and implementing a course and then reviewing, evaluating and redesigning as needed with feedback from all stakeholders. The people who I will look to for feedback and guidance during this process are both my students as they offer feedback for a course and other successful instructional designers and co-workers as they offer ideas and suggestions for improving my work.

My long-term goal is to create a personal portfolio with at least 3 different types of deliverables that I can add to over time. In order to show potential future employers my skills, I will need to create examples of important elements of instructional design such as infographics, images, videos, LMS courses, and more to showcase my abilities. My personal contacts within the instructional design field will be an excellent way to share my portfolio, receive feedback, and learn from their experiences of creating a portfolio. A successful contact currently working as an instructional designer is ideal. I hope to be able to gain insight from those who have successfully created exceptional courses and content.

As I consider these goals, I want to keep in mind the principles of learning design that are appropriate for adults. Namely: 1. Learners need to be self-directed and involved in their own learning and evaluation. 2. Learning needs to be experience-based, not just memorization. 3. Learning must be relevant and applicable to their real and immediate work, life, interests, etc. 4. Learning experiences should be problem based rather than focused on just content (1). For example, rather than creating a module where students must read a list of the important steps in good communication, they could be shown examples and non-examples, given case-studies to critique, and simulations that they can then use to practice those skills in relevant ways as they transfer learning to other settings in their own lives. This can be embedded into a digital format where students use interactive video, audio, and written content that aligns with the specific learning objectives. This is all much easier said that done, but the process should be collaborative and flexible as changes are made and the process repeats.

My goals to learn the digital design skills of at least one learning management system, to create a 2-module or 30 minute digital course, and to add these and other elements to my own portfolio will help me develop excellent skills as I seek a career in instructional design and can be achieved by using the community and tools available to me in my learning design courses such as instructors and classmates, using online resources, computer programs, asking for feedback from those currently working in the field, and by gathering feedback from actual students. I look forward to growing my skills and career in instructional design.

References:

1. www.instructionaldesign.org, "Andragogy." https://www.instructionaldesign.org/theories/andragogy/#:~:text=Andragogy%20makes%20the%20following%20assumptions,topic%20is%20of%20immediate%20value.

2. Northern Illinois University Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning, "Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction," https://www.niu.edu/citl/resources/guides/instructional-guide/gagnes-nine-events-of-instruction.shtml

3. University of Hartford Faculty Center for Learning Development, "12 Principles of Multimedia Learning," https://www.hartford.edu/faculty-staff/faculty/fcld/_files/12%20Principles%20of%20Multimedia%20Learning.pdf