Sub-Badge 3: ID Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes

Challenge: Acquire and apply new technology skills in instructional design practice. 

Criteria for successful completion of this challenge: Evidence of sharing ideas, best practices or application of new technology skills in the field.  Reflection must address: How you acquired your new skills (webinar, training, etc.) and how you have applied these new abilities in your own instructional design practice. 

Examples: Professional presentations, blog posts, work trainings, adding technology into classrooms, online discussions where sharing of ideas or resources are used, LDT Technology Badges (make sure to focus on the application of the skills learned), other evidence of acquiring and applying new tech skills in ID practice (design, performance, workplace, educational, other).

Reflection

The challenge is to acquire and apply new technology skills in instructional design practice. The artifact I am presenting is an Adobe Captivate e-learning module on learning dirga pranayama for stress relief. I also did a screencast of this module in case portfolio reviewers do not have Adobe Captivate, and I have a script for the module to ensure it is ADA accessible. Prior to making this completed e-learning module, I had never used Adobe Captivate; therefore, this completed e-learning module reflects acquiring and applying new technology skills in instructional design practice. I had to teach myself how to use it and make it function because I also submitted this as a weekly assignment in EDCI 531.

In the world of instructional design, learning how to use new technology, or new-technology-to-you as is the case with Adobe Captivate for me, is very important because the field is constantly changing in terms of popular software in use by IDs. It is not possible to succeed as a professional within the field of instructional design without a willingness to learn new technologies. In ID-specific job descriptions and in job interviews, technology experience is presented as qualifying a person for the job, so being able to acquire and apply skills with existing or emerging technologies will get and keep a person employed in ID. The artifact demonstrates the competency because it showcases that I am able to create a functioning e-learning module using Adobe Captivate with no experience other than watching tutorial videos and exploring the functions within the program. I successfully made the e-learning module interactive by linking pages using functioning buttons, by providing voiceover narration, and by including a hyperlink to an assessment.

I have used video and audio editing software before, and I have a very brief experience with Articulate’s Rise 360 program. I also have extensive experience using Microsoft PowerPoint. Rise is very similar to Captivate in that it is a template-based program that seeks to make it easy to create an e-learning module. Knowing PowerPoint is helpful due to the similarity of animations that one can apply to various elements on the slides. Additionally, knowing video and audio editing software, like Adobe Premiere Pro, Camtasia, Garage Band, and other programs, was helpful to me because Captivate uses the same timeline-based track system for recording audio and timing it with your slides/pages. I am still learning how to use Captivate, but this module showcases a solid, basic understanding of a new-to-me technology in a fully functioning e-learning module that teaches learners how to do a specific type of breathing technique for stress relief called dirga pranayama. Because my background is in teaching English and in designing staff training and student e-learning modules using PowerPoint, I could have used Captivate many times in the past. For example, for a local community college, I designed 40 e-learning videos on grammar and writing topics using PowerPoint and Zoom to screencapture and narrate it. One important thing to note is that Captivate is much more time consuming to do than creating a PowerPoint and doing a basic screencast recording of it, so it should be used when the instructional designer has ample time to develop and build it out. In the case of my 40 videos, I would not have been able to devote that amount of time to all of them, but some of them could have been more easily developed using Captivate now that I know a few of the basic functions of it.

The artifact I have provided works well for this challenge because I did not know how to use Captivate at all before making this e-learning module, and it shows that I acquired and applied new knowledge by learning Captivate on my own and finalizing this functioning e-learning experience. I would not necessarily change anything with this particular e-learning module on dirga pranayama because I feel like my end product is a solid representation of the content and the delivery method using Captivate. What I have learned from the experience, however, is that I would like to learn more with a teacher or mentor leading me through some of the more complicated elements of the program. Because of this realization, I plan to do an Adobe Captivate certified training that is instructor-led. I believe this is a good next step for me not only to learn the intricacies of the program better, but also because getting a certification in Adobe Captivate will help me on the job market and in my future career. This will help me continue to be a well-rounded professional and instructional designer.

ID Method/Theory used: This e-learning module, Learn Dirga Pranayama for Stress Relief, was designed using Gagne's Theory of Instruction.