Just 10 Weeks Ago...


Has it really been less than three months since the summer term started?

I feel like I've had about a year's worth of professional development since the end of May.

I’ve been looking forward to OPWL 551 to enhance my day-to-day life as an Instructional Designer, and boy it did not disappoint! As Forrest Gump might say, this summer has kicked me in the butt-tocks! My eLearning prowess and approach to design has shifted significantly over the last couple of months and it’s so what I needed and wanted.

Life is a Learning Process

I needed to shake up my head. I’ve been doing ID work for about 10 years without it being called that and without any structure or guidance on how to make it the most effective (let alone engaging). You can so easily get stuck in ways of doing things just because it’s what you’re used to, not necessarily because it’s a better approach.


This post is not about promoting OPWL 551, but it really felt like the culmination of what OPWL 523, OPWL 525, and OPWL 537 have been preparing me for.

Three Revised ID Approaches and Processes in Three Months

As I’ve noted in previous blog posts, I’ve been somewhat intimidated by the processes involved in full storyboarding (other than just a basic video script), creating a design doc (other than using existing corporate standards), and approaching a course from a true scenario perspective (not just guided options).

My final project for OPWL 551 really morphed over the last four weeks of this class – not to mention the last 14 days! I had these grandiose ideas of what could be accomplished, let alone ever effectively created. As I moved through the process of creating the deliverables, I had this urge to just create it then reverse-storyboard, just because that’s how my neurons have been firing for so long. But I didn’t cave.

I revised. I looked at it from a different perspective. I put it away when my head hurt. Finally, an approached gelled in my head and I was able to narrow down and focus on what was a realistically achievable approach to this final product.

This involved a complete restructuring in my head of even what the specific learning outcome needed to be. I re-designed the overall project to be a phased-implementation in order to be able to achieve learning objectives and create something that would be “learn-from-able” for users.

Through this process I’ve already been able to look at some work projects and make suggestions about how we could make the courses more engaging through the use of “applied scenarios” rather than PowerPoint-looking screens with a basic knowledge check at the end – regurgitation is not learning, especially when you’re working with a highly safety-first organization. I actually think that this approach to some of the target trainings will win us some friends on the federal team.

Progress = Growth

Progress and growth are fabulous things (and isn’t that why most of us are in grad school?), but they often don’t come easily or without causing some degree of chaos. And my growth this summer is no exception. But it’s so been worth it…the learning and the shifting and the applying and the adjusting. What a bumpy road! But things are already starting to smooth out.

With being able to immediately apply so much of what I’ve been learning in OPWL directly to my full-time job, many of these learnings and habits are becoming more ingrained and refined. That learning-to-application cycle has been amazing for me. And it’s solidified for me that I’m living my best professional life as an Instructional Designer!


Time to go shopping for a bigger box for my hats.