Philosophy
Instructional Design, as a professional field, is fairly young and still developing in almost every respect, especially as educational technologies create both new opportunities and hurdles for educators and students alike. As practical matter, though, Instructional Design is attempting to solve one of the oldest problems of human existence: how do we learn, and how can we do it better?
I believe my unconventional route to working as a professional Instructional Designer, and specifically my extensive work in video production, has been a major factor in my ability to connect educators to effective solutions. I'm able to consider the problems and goals of subject matter experts from angles that others don't, and I'm willing to draw from a wide variety of best practices across different disciplines because of the extremely varied work experiences I have.
For instance, film and video production is a deeply collaborative process where hardly any decision, no matter how small, is made by a single person without at least one other person's input or approval. This, of course, is a very different approach from a traditional college lecture, but it actually dovetails very nicely with more recent research that shows students retain significantly more information when they're active participants in the generation of ideas or solutions, as opposed to passive recipients of facts. Similarly, students engaged in these active, creative endeavors are much more effective when they learn to give and receive effective feedback, a skill that requires not just subject matter knowledge, but empathy, tact, and sincerity. Lastly, being able to transfer and reapply skills in novel situations has helped me become a more effective designer in the more traditional methods as well.
The structure that I normally use when I'm approaching a new project is Backward Design. Because I have worked in a variety of industries, from Healthcare IT, to Restaurants and Service, to Film and Video Production, I like to spend a lot of time with subject matter experts just asking questions and getting familiar with what has and hasn't worked for them in the past. This allows me to help define problems and goals with specific, achievable benchmarks for success. From there, we work through what assessments prove that learners have acquired the skills or knowledge we are looking to impart. Behind that, we discuss stopping point knowledge and skill checks, scaffolded intermediate goals, assignments, and activities that help learners build confidence and practice in safe, supportive environments. Lastly, we discuss how to best parcel out the introduction of information. What I like about this workflow is that it is effective with both hard and soft skills, as well as across both STEM and the humanities. For me, the key to its flexibility is my ability to leverage the process while drawing on my transferable skills and previous experiences to insure success.
Below are links to sample work that I hope illustrates my process and philosophy in more vivid detail. I hope you'll take a look.
