If you believe in Malcom Gladwell’s theory that he espouses in his book Outliers, that it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill, then I have accrued more than that in instructional time as a professional educator. While ten years is not yet a long career, I have compounded my experience by adding on to my workload, wherever possible, to gain more knowledge of the craft. I have experience in preschools, online courses, public high schools, summer camps and schools, and for the last six years I have moonlighted teaching college classes as well.
With this experience across a broad expanse of the field, it has been my graduate work in Instructional Design that has allowed me to vocalize the fact that there is no such thing as “mastery” in the classroom, and that the only thing consistent with creating an effective environment for learning is constant adaption and introspection on the part of the instructor.
Now that I stand on the precipice of shifting the focus of my career, I do not leave the classroom defeated, but I leave with a sense of determination to create the tools, or the learning environments, which will help even more learners engage with the process, and ultimately have my work transcend the walls of my windowless classroom.
My goal is to use the lesson from my time spent in public education, the lesson of constant revision, constant iteration, and to combine that with my technical knowledge, in order to become an instructional designer than can craft meaningful learning through robust user experiences.
Gather data from users and research what's been done before. Use this data to inform future design and prototypes.
Use pen and paper to brainstorm and create mockups. Then use Sketch for a more formal wireframing. This gives clients a visual representation of what the final product will look like.
Once a clear design is agreed upon by all involved parties, build a workable prototype using HTML and CSS. This gives clients an understanding of how the final product will actually operate.
Ask the users how the team's design worked. Did we solve the problem? How efficiently? Did our solution create new hindrances? What are they?
Go through the process all over again until a the product is honed and ready for consumption.
Legend:
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Somewhat Proficient
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Read the Synthesis Statement for these competencies.
Develops understanding of principles of universal web design. Students apply this understanding by designing and developing accessible web site using web authoring tools.
Reviews practical and pedagogical issues related to design and development of technological instruction. Emphasizes investigating instructional design as a field and community of practice, and reviewing core learning theory constructs applicable to design of instructional technology.
Helps students analyze, apply, and evaluate principles of instructional design to develop education and training materials spanning a wide range of knowledge domains and instructional technologies. Focuses on variety of instructional design models, with emphasis on recent contributions from cognitive science and related fields.
Provides students with the knowledge and skills for designing highly contextualized and engaging problem-solving learning environment using a grounded, theory-based design approach. Emphasizes the design of technology supported learning environments using a variety of pedagogical models.
Focuses on developing skills, insights, and understanding basics to performing research with emphasis on interpretation, application, critique, and use of findings in educational settings. Students develop expertise in action research methodology, design, and implementation.
Enables development of computer-based educational materials using widely known educational scripting language. Students explore basic authoring capabilities, and learn to apply those capabilities by designing and producing materials using commands, procedures, and functions of scripting language.
Enables design, implementation, and evaluation of technology-based education and training materials using advanced computer-based authoring tools.
Enables students to create and publish digital portfolio that demonstrates effective and meaningful integration and syntheses of instructional design and technology concepts, principles, and competencies learned across program courses at mid-degree program point.
Provides basic knowledge of available applications for creating, delivering, managing and tracking e-learning experiences. Students learn to create instructional products using the latest e-learning design applications.
Provides overview of media and technology tools used in teaching, learning and training. Focuses on developing skills necessary to implement digital media approaches using a systematic design process.
Enables students to create and publish a digital portfolio that demonstrates effective and meaningful integration and syntheses of instructional design and technology concepts, principles, and competencies learned across program courses at end-degree program point.
Enables design, implementation, and evaluation of technology-based education and training materials using advanced computer-based authoring tools.
Provides basic knowledge of the range of capabilities of available social networking, teleconferencing, and collaboration applications. Students learn to integrate the latest information and communication technologies into the creation of instructional products.