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Challenge 1: Participate in professional development activities.
Criteria for successful completion of this challenge: Evidence demonstrating completion of professional development training –and/or— membership in professional communities or associations. Reflection must address: How professional development opportunities have helped you grow your instructional design skill set (especially with the rapid changes that occur in the instructional design field).
Examples: AECT, ISTE, ELearning Guild, Quality Matters, etc.
Reflection
I present an artifact, a completion certificate from LinkedIn Learning, which supports my commitment to continual personal development. I earned this certificate by voluntarily completing a LinkedIn Learning course that covers the syntax, formatting, attributes, and best practices for web content design by using Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). As a budding instructional designer, I appreciate the value of participating in professional development activities that align with this challenge. Web designers use HTML, CSS, and scripting languages like JavaScript to create the web pages we use every day. By demonstrating my competency in using HTML, I am showing potential clients or employers I can effectively create functional and accessible web content.
I believe a continuous improvement mindset is paramount to becoming an effective ID professional. Therefore, I joined LinkedIn learning to supplement my coursework at Purdue University, primarily in the areas of videography, web design, and user experience. This course on HTML is one of several courses I have taken to broaden my educational technology toolkit.
When I think of my experience before beginning this course, I would rate myself at an intermediate level of competency in building and maintaining websites. Throughout the course, I developed valuable skills to ensure the content I create adheres to best design practices and provides enhanced accessibility for users with sight or hearing disabilities. I see the value in taking the extra steps to provide universal access to all users. I thoroughly enjoy learning new technology and I intend to continue to implement new technologies as they evolve.
I have room to grow in the area of website usability. For example, I intend to research user accessibility best practices. I also intend to sample other ID professionals’ work for evidence of good design. I maintain four websites in my current role. I am systematically reviewing the HTML content and improving the formatting based on the information I learned in the LinkedIn course.
Challenge 2: Establish and maintain contacts with other instructional design professionals.
Criteria for successful completion of this challenge: Evidence of a documented communication with professional contact(s) in the field (back and forth communication) –and/or— documentation of establishing contacts with other instructional design professionals. Reflection must address: How you have established and maintained relationships with other instructional design professionals.
Examples: Volunteering at AECT, volunteer teaching assistant, participating in roundtable discussions, research projects, holding workshops, e-mail or Facebook communication, etc.
Reflection
I submit two artifacts to demonstrate my ability to “Establish and maintain contacts with other instructional design professionals”. These artifacts are images of communications I have shared with other instructional design professionals. The first artifact highlights my participation in the Moodle forums. As a Moodle LMS administrator, I am an active participant in sharing acquired knowledge and asking questions when I have a problem. The second artifact demonstrates my participation in the Reddit community r/instructionaldesign as user "u/hysteresis123".
These artifacts work well to demonstrate that I actively network within the instructional design community and seek to both provide and receive help as I design instructional materials. I use Moodle forums to share knowledge with learning professionals around the world. This open-source community drives innovation and creates education equity for individuals globally. Reddit is a unique community of individual “subreddits” where members with similar interests, who remain anonymous via unique usernames, create a hive mind to share information and solve problems. These unique environments are well suited to satisfy this challenge. Each provides a unique perspective on the instructional design process.
I feel that the ever-changing landscape of instructional design necessitates communication with other ID professionals across many industries to keep up with the latest trends and also to learn from mistakes that other IDers have made. Though I am happily employed and have no immediate intention to change jobs, I believe that maintaining relationships and keeping an up-to-date profile is essential if I decide to change employers. My impression is that many employers are focused on what a candidate has “done” just as much as what education they have completed. Therefore, these artifacts support my mission to remain employed within this industry.
I plan to continually grow in this area by expanding my network and searching for opportunities to participate in professional organizations. One organization, in particular, the AECT, is one I would like to join and participate in to continue to build out my professional network.
Challenge 3: 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: Publications, professional presentations, blog posts, work trainings, adding technology into classrooms, online discussions where sharing of ideas or resources are used, other evidence of acquiring and applying new tech skills in ID practice (design, performance, workplace, educational, other).
Reflection
I present an artifact that supports my ability to “Acquire and apply new technology skills in instructional design practice”. The artifact is a flowchart that I created using Microsoft Visio. This instructional analysis diagram maps out the five essential skills that a student must complete to accomplish the task listed in my goal statement. The artifact demonstrates my ability to apply technology to develop an instructional design document component.
The process of creating an instructional analysis document is an early step that identifies the skills and knowledge that should be presented in the learning experience (Dick et al., 2015). During the early phase of the systematic approach to design, the instructional designer must consider “what should the student do or know?” at the completion. A diagram provides a visual mapping of the skills that are taught. The skills often consist of subskills and possibly entry skills. I view the instructional analysis diagram as a guiding beacon that keeps the instructional designer on track when developing and arranging the individual components of the lesson. A visually appealing, logical diagram is the foundation of a successful instructional design project. I believe my diagram meets these guiding principles and will ensure my future lesson development will be a high-quality, engaging experience for the learner.
I have previously produced electrical wiring schematics using diagramming software but had not used Microsoft Visio for process diagramming before this course assignment. In the Dick & Carey text, which has many helpful visuals, I learned many best practices for diagramming a process. I learned that a diamond shape indicates a decision point that creates a logical fork in the sequence. As I completed this assignment, I reflected on my natural tendency to decompose complex situations into manageable chunks. I hope to continue using Microsoft Visio as a diagramming tool as I encounter new challenges.
I believe I have room to grow professionally in this area by continuing to learn both the technology side (Microsoft Visio) and the theory side (Systematic design) of content creation. I intend to review journal articles to gather more data points and observe what formats other instructional designers use to create instructional analysis diagrams. Additionally, I plan to investigate creating templates within Microsoft Visio to expedite future diagram development.
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