Reflections on Designing an Instructional Mock-Up

The first completely self-directed eLearning design mock up that I created with my design team is linked below from Google Sites. This is made to replicate Canvas as an educational LMS platform that is easy to use for the designers and learners. The planning and design process was an excellent learning experience for an up-and-coming instructional designer and I found my background as an educator and experience using Canvas to be extremely helpful. 

As a team, we first used the provided needs assessment and background information provided by the university to create a content and task analysis with appropriate learning objectives and learning activities designed into the course. 

We were tasked with designing a course that would help teach university professors the technology and process of editing a course introduction video using DaVinci Resolve video editing software. An important first step in this process was to consult with the SME's (subject matter experts) in determining the proper use of DaVinci Resolve. The university also set specific parameters that each professor was required to meet as they created their videos. This allowed us to integrate the instructional content, the required performance indicators, and our knowledge as educators and learning designers to create a detailed design document to submit for approval. 

After feedback from the stakeholders and SME's, we were able to incorporate some necessary changes to improve our objectives, create more manageable lessons and then create our unit mock-up as seen above. I felt confident in my skills using the technology and multimedia elements along with my knowledge and practice of learning theory. I truly believe we created effective instruction, aligned with the goals and objectives that were tasked to us, while meeting the needs of our target learners. 

Upon reflection, one improvement I would like to make, is to gather more feedback from actual learners on the ease-of-use, educational relevance, and overall design of our mock-up. Since our learners will be university professors, I expect to get some well-informed and specific feedback. As designing instruction is an iterative process, this course is certain to change and grow with more feedback and updated technology or resources.