Today Is the First Day of the Rest of My Life — I’ve Started a New Instructional Design Course

Today is day 1 of my Instructional Design Principles Course with Eduflow.

I’m ever so grateful to be one of 30 individuals, chosen out of 1,000+ applicants.

I will use this course as a foundation to further my self-training in instructional design. After gaining essential design skills and creating my portfolio, I plan to apply for instructional design roles in mid to late February.

I previously wrote an introduction to instructional design if you want to learn more about the field of study (on Medium). In a nutshell, it’s the process of creating eLearning experiences for clients that result in the application of skills.

I’ve wanted to change my career from teaching/instructing for a while now but due to the pandemic and life, etc… it’s just not happened.

Until now!

Course preparation

The course I’m studying is a project-based course. This suits me rather well as I learn by doing, analyzing, and talking about my successes/mistakes.

I’ll study alongside other people in my cohort. We all have different backgrounds and are based in locations all over the world.

In preparation, I’ve been thinking about which topic to focus my first eLearning experience on, and thanks to the awesome instructional design community over on LinkedIn, I’ve narrowed it down to:

Handwashing for non clinical professionals

Choosing my eLearning experience topic

I struggled to make a decision and didn’t know whether to focus on a topic that suits current instructional design job postings (customer service?) or to focus my first experience on a topic that I know well (healthcare?) or one that I’m passionate about (travel?).

I decided to go for a topic I know well. As a prior healthcare student and hospital employee, I know about the importance of handwashing, so the content will be interesting, informative, and not so difficult as to let me focus on the theory and implementation of instructional design methods.

I’ve learned that through reaching out on LinkedIn, the subject matter isn’t of much importance in these first few weeks. I need to get to grips with instructional design theory, the processes and learn technical tools of the trade (Storyline 360, Camtasia, Vyond, etc..), rather than focusing on the topic.

Course grading

Participants must engage in 50% of the cohort discussions. We must also read over 70% of the course content and complete peer review activities.

I’m grateful that they don’t actually grade material and it’s more of a pass and you get a certificate kinda deal. For me personally, it takes the pressure off.

Deadline

My first deadline is Monday the 24th of January, so I’ll share this article now, then another after I’ve submitted my first assignment.

It’ll also be after my initial ‘meet and greet’ with my fellow participants on Thursday.

There’s mention of ‘speed dating’ (for professionals), which is exciting but also slightly nerve-wracking. Nevertheless, I’m up for it. I need to forge connections in the eLearning industry.

I’m hoping that I’ll have the energy to film and upload some vlogs onto YouTube too, as I’d love to give future participants a peek into my Eduflow course experience.

Skilling up with Storyline 360

I’m debating whether to study a course on Storyline 360 at the same time as this theory-based course, to create a more rounded self-set period of education, but I worry it might be too much work.

I do however need the technical skills, so I’ll look more into it this week.

I can’t afford a course that’s $1,000+ of dollars, so I’m looking more at free YouTube courses, or cheap courses on Udemy, Coursera, etc…

I’ll let you know what I find!

Week 1 summary

In short, this week we’ll create learner personas, learn more about the analysis phase of ADDIE, what SME’s (Subject Matter Experts) are, and meet others in the cohort through our first meeting.

There is also a large focus on peer coaching. Where I coach other peers and in return they coach me. This is in the form of sharing annonymous feedback on each other’s thoughts and work. It’s a novel concept to me and still in it’s infancy on the course. I enjoy helping others but can’t help feel slightly underqualified to share my advice. Nevertheless, I have opted into this project, which was completely unexpected by me. I’ve already felt very supported on the course.

I’ll also set my personal goals, which will be along the line of:

- Outline/ plan my first eLearning experience

- Create said eLearning experience on Storyline 360 by mid-February

- Form connections with other prospective instructional designers/ working instructional designers.

- Secure an internship (online/remote)

It’s an exciting time!

I’ll check back in with you next week.

Carrie