My Goals As A Learning Designer

Introduction

I have never written a blog post before and I am definitely feeling a bit apprehensive about where to even start. So this seems like a good spot!

Hello! My name is Danica. I am currently in my first semester at Arizona State University working towards a Master’s Certificate in Instructional Design. I have always enjoyed learning, even as I ran from the possibility of joining the educational field at the behest of both my mother and father. I had such a hard time accepting that this field is in my blood. Until now. So here I am, at what seems like the beginning of my journey towards (hopefully) becoming a freelance instructional designer.

Why Instructional Design?

I have always been aware of education as a career, but always through the lens of teaching in public schools. My mother is a Middle School Teacher and has been pretty much my whole life. I have always loved learning new things and if any two things go so well together, it is a love of learning and teaching. I tried so hard to avoid teaching because, like every young girl, I did not want to be exactly like my mother. So I worked in customer service, got my Bachelor’s Degree in Drama (another fascination of mine as a child), and struggled to find my path.

In May of 2018, I got a job working for Nordstrom Card Services in the credit department, which was essentially a call center customer service position helping credit card holders. I was very good at my job. And, being the ambitious, hungry individual that I am, I applied (twice) and got a position on a team that was considered to be the best of the best on the floor. I was part of an elite group of workers that was given more responsibility and were groomed for leadership positions. 

While on this team, I launched a company-wide newsletter, built different programs, assisted in de-escalating calls, and found my way into building hour-long training refreshers for those working on the floor. These training sessions were something that I developed from start to finish, from asking leaders what they needed their teams to be refreshed on, to talking with Subject Matter Experts, or SMEs, building the training classes, and conducting trials to ensure that they were ready to be rolled out. I loved it. 

Within a few months of working on these projects, a new initiative rolled out: Training Assistants. This position was to work with the training department as a SME to help guide and coach the new associates who entered the company. Of course I had to be a part of this team. I applied and was accepted as one of the first three associates chosen. It was through this position that I discovered that corporate training was my passion. Not public education as my family so often insisted, but training and helping individuals grow and discover how to be the best they could be. 

One day, late in 2019, I was leaving a meeting and I saw the in-house Instructional Design working on creating materials and coursework for a training module, and I asked him what he was doing. He explained to me what Instructional Design is and how he builds curriculum and modules for the trainers to use while they are training. I sat with him for about 10 minutes and as he explained what he was doing, I fell in love with this field. I realized that my calling was in the discovery and creation of instructional materials and not necessarily in teaching itself. This conversation led me to the decision to get my Master’s of Education (and my single-subject credential because I finally caved to the constant urging to be a teacher).

So, why am I here?

After I got my Master’s and Teaching Credential, I needed a job. My boyfriend (now fiance yay!) and I had just moved out to Arizona and being fresh out of school I thought the only path I had was to get a job as an English Teacher. Throughout my program I learned how to design material, build courses and units, lesson plans, create learning from a list of standards that were barely comprehensible, and I thought I was ready to take on the world of public education!

However, public education is so much more than simply planning, designing, teaching and grading. I was all of a sudden in charge of the well-being of 150 different students, 32 of which were under 504 or IEP plans, and I was expected to jump through hoops…and worst of all I was expected to call parents. Call parents. I do not know how public educators do it. I lasted 4 months. 4 long and excruciating months that tanked my mental health and nearly destroyed me. So, I decided to jump ship and go back to a corporate position.

Throughout my time working at Nordstrom and through school, perhaps the past 6 or 7 years, I have been dabbling with filming videos that I also edited and posted (and took down, and posted, and took down again) to YouTube. I would record the video games I played, I would record myself, I would edit the videos in PremierPro and Audition and splice and edit it together to become a finished product. I figured out how to put music to these videos and how to add a voiceover on top of them. More recently in the past year I began working on learning the instructional design tools I learned about. I tried out the Articulate Suite, PowerPoint products, and Adobe. Fun fact: I still play video games and work on recording, editing, and uploading them in my spare time. 

What do I do for work?

In November of 2021 I started working for an auto finance company as a Talent Development Specialist, or trainer. I put the skills I learned through my graduate program to good use and I worked hard to learn the content I needed to teach. I also learned how to work normal hours and not take my work home with me (remember the ambitious part?). I learned what work-life balance is and finally felt like I found a place where I fit. Working as a trainer afforded me the opportunity to lightly work on developing materials and also to train and teach, something I am naturally confident and gifted in. 

I consistently worked towards finding time to develop materials, organize our archives, and challenge myself to grow into that position I discovered years ago. And in March of 2022, an Instructional Designer position opened up in my company, housed in Arizona, out of the location I worked out of. It was as if all the hard work I put in was pushing me forward and about to pay off. So, I applied. I may have bypassed my boss, which is a no-no in the corporate world, but when she found out she seemed supportive. I interviewed and the process took way too long.

But I got it. As of 8/22/22 I am officially an Instructional Designer with my company.

Why this program?

I am not confident in my abilities in Instructional Design. I have an understanding of the process, that I figured out while working at Nordstrom, and an understanding of the programs (with room to grow) due to my own interests and desires to learn. But, I feel that I need a formalized program to assist me in reaching my full potential. I am under no illusion that I could figure it out on my own if need-be, but I want to learn the way to design that works for me and delivers results that I can be proud of. 

What can I achieve by the end of this course?

I am taking this course to gain an understanding of the past and present of the instructional design field. I feel that it is important to know what has come before in order to work on what might come next. There is so much to be gained by taking these courses that I hope to throw myself in the deep end of learning to best understand the field I want to work in. I want to understand different methods of design, and different ways that instructional design heavyweights think the process should go. I want to begin to develop my own process.

Mainly, I would like to achieve an understanding of the different processes of design by the end of this course. Focusing, completing my assignments, and really thinking about the material and how it pertains to me and my future is how I might achieve this goal. Understanding the different potential processes of instructional design will help me in the future, choosing which method is more likely to help me through a particular problem or struggle. 

 

What can I achieve midway through this program?

I expect that I will be in this program for about a year, ending by the summer of 2023. Which might put me at the midway point after I begin classes next semester, but not all the way through them yet. At that point, I would be at a point to begin developing confidence in my ability to design a module from start to finish. I will have an understanding of the processes, and the possibilities, and hopefully at this point in my education I will have been able to confidently begin the designing process.

By the midway point in this program I would like to be able to translate what I learn in this program to my position. In order to achieve this I will need to put each and every assignment I work on through the process I begin to develop. I will also need to treat every assignment as a short-term instructional design problem that needs to be solved, utilizing what I learn and the different methods of design to help me get to where I want to be.

 

What can I achieve at the end of this program?

One of the reasons I wanted to join this program is to build a portfolio that I can show to potential clients and begin to build a freelance Instructional Design business. I want to build not only my knowledge of designing, but also my confidence. I want to be able to take what I have learned and translate it into different projects that I can be proud of. By the end of this program I hope to have the skills, the projects, and the aptitude to build a solid portfolio with deliverables that I can be proud of and use to bid on my first contract or freelance gig.

My overall goal that I would like to achieve by the end of this program is to have a portfolio that has at least two completed projects. This is achievable while working hard to accomplish the different problems posed and by using the skills being taught through my classes. 

 

Hopefully, I can make it happen.

- Danica