Week 1: The Doorway to Professional Learning Communities

Are you new to the field of Instructional Design? Where should you begin? How do you become an expert in this exciting and challenging field?

Do any of the abovementioned questions resonate with you? No worries—you are in the right place, and we will figure this out together. Blogs are an effective tool for instructional design (ID) professionals and have been shown to offer uniquely authentic, collaborative learning experiences that better equip practitioners for the realities of working in this complex and rewarding field (Ferriter, 2009). As my first blog post, I present the following blog analyses as an initial contribution to our global ID learning community:

E-Learning Industry is an invaluable resource for instructional design practitioners. Tess Taylor, a human resources and career coaching professional, provides a very informative blog titled: Top 10 In Demand Instructional Designer Skills. Herein, Taylor provides aspiring ID professionals with an overview of the skill sets that they should be cultivating to secure work and advancement opportunities in this field. Noteworthy capabilities include: intensely comprehending learning models, being artistically inclined, and having project management skills. This is a very useful site for new and aspiring ID candidates as it guides what competencies matter in this field, and it illuminates what is needed to best serve future clients. I plan to reflect on this resource throughout my educational journey, as well as in my career; it is important to ensure that I am developing in the right areas as I progress, and that I know the latest trends in the industry. This informative resource can be accessed here: https://elearningindustry.com/instructional-designer-skills-top-10

Love 2 Techwrite is another great blog written by marketing specialist and graduate student of Technical Communications, Helena Dixon. Particularly, her post, Design for All, is significant, because it addresses a key consideration for ID professionals: to design diverse and inclusive content. “The learning process itself is constantly changing, both in nature and diversity” (Ertmer & Newby, 2013), and additional complexities arise in consideration of accommodating disabilities. Dixon explains that ID professionals must strive to improve the accessibility of their project by being mindful of learners that may have visual or auditory impairments, as well as those with dyslexia and other permanent or situational limitations. This site has a wealth of insightful knowledge, and as a fellow student and up and coming technology specialist myself, I look forward to learning from and sharing ideas with this blogger moving forward. Here is the link for this post: https://love2techwrite.wordpress.com/2018/03/10/design-for-all/

 

21^st Century Teaching is a blog that provides a plethora of resources for teaching college-level and adult learners.  Making it ‘Real’ For Students: 4 Real-World Application Tips is one of the many posts that will greatly benefit future and current individuals working in ID. The author explains the importance of connecting course content with relatable, real-life scenarios to increase learner engagement. This fundamental understanding is crucial for specialists in our field, because the ultimate goal of any design project is to create learning experiences that are relevant and applicable to student needs. This can serve as an ongoing resource as I will always strive to create meaningful content for end users. The link for access is as follows: https://goaskeli.wordpress.com/2018/02/26/making-it-real-for-students-4-real-world-application-tips/

Do you know of additional ways to ensure success as an Instructional Design practitioner? I would love to hear your ideas in the comment section below. Thanks so much for joining me on this exciting pursuit!

-Ahisha, The Ecstatic Learning Addict 

References

Dixon, H. (2018, March 10). Design for All. [Web log post]. Retrieved March 11, 2018, from https://love2techwrite.wordpress.com/2018/03/10/design-for-all/

Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (2013). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 26(2), 43-71. doi:10.1002/piq.21143

Ferriter, B. (2009). Learning with blogs and wikis. Educational Leadership, 66(5), 34–38.

Goaskeli. (2018, February 26). Making it ‘Real’ For Students: 4 Real-World Application Tips [Web log post]. Retrieved March 11, 2018, from https://goaskeli.wordpress.com/2018/02/26/making-it-real-for-students-4-real-world-application-tips/ Taylor, T. (2017, July 22). Top 10 In Demand Instructional Designer Skills [Web log post]. Retrieved March 8, 2018, from https://elearningindustry.com/instructional-designer-skills-top-10

Taylor, T. (2017, July 22). Top 10 In Demand Instructional Designer Skills [Web log post]. Retrieved March 10, 2018, from https://elearningindustry.com/instructional-designer-skills-top-10