Throughout my career as an Instructional Designer, I’ve had the opportunity to work on some exciting projects. The following are a few snippets of the work I have done. (NOTE: For proprietary reasons, in some cases only screen grabs are provided.)
Large Projects
Saskatchewan History & Folklore Society
Courseware Developer Guidelines
Flex Ed
Collibra University
Cornerstone Sales and Service
Capital Region Housing
Saskatchewan History & Folklore Society
Working with a team of Instructional Designers, the Saskatchewan History & Folklore Society received a complete online make-over. This included the creation of a new WordPress powered website, organization of educational materials, and creating a searchable online catalogue of over 10,000 images. Along the way, every effort was made to retain the history, traditions, and ethos of the Society in a way that satisfied both users and stakeholders. Usability testing and consultations were conducted to ensure that the new website met the needs of all parties. My responsibilities included helping with the following:
- Website redesign
- Creating online forms and feedback channels
- Editing existing content, and designing effective educational materials
- Tagging and cataloguing images
Courseware Developer Guidelines
In November of 2014, Intelligent Design approached me to review their course creation process, with the goal of generating a comprehensive and sustainable protocol that was in line with the best practices of online education. Reaching this goal required several phases, including:
- Front-End Analysis of current practices
- Soliciting feedback from users, parents, teachers, and other stakeholders
- Evaluating data
- Creating draft Guidelines
- A revisions process with executive stakeholders
- Generation of Final Guidelines
- Oversight and Management of Implementation process
High School Development Plan – Flex ED.
As Flex ED increased their educational presence within the province, they required a Development Plan for High School. This began with a comprehensive review of their current courses compared to best practices in online education. Upon completion of the review, they requested suggestions on how to effectively expand their library of course offerings. The end result was the creation of roadmap detailing which areas to improve in their current courses, plus a 2 – 3 year plan charting out the most effective Courseware Development pathway. Overall, this project required:
- Front-end Analysis of the current state of Flex Ed. High School courses.
- Soliciting feedback from teachers, students, parents, and client stakeholders on ways to improve courses.
- Analyzing data, and comparing it to current Best Practices in online education.
- Creating a document outlining the most effective use of resource to repair current courses.
- Meeting with client stakeholders and teachers to gather input on their visions for the future.
- Analyzing data obtained from Flex ED and the Ministry of Education.
- Generating a 2 – 3 year roadmap on how to grow the High School course library.
- Presenting findings and dialoguing with client stakeholders.
Courseware Development – Collibra University.
Working with a team of Instructional Design professionals, Collibra University sought to expand their catalogue of online education materials. During this process, several new courses were released, and assessments created for all existing offerings. Additionally, a set of developer guidelines were created to ensure course quality was consistent, and in line with Best Practices. Finally, to help promote their growing library of material, the initial stages of a social media campaign was charted. My contribution to this project consisted of:
- Creation of assessment questions for new, and existing, courses.
- Consultation with SME’s to ensure assessment accuracy.
- Assisted with new course roll-out.
- Co-authored developer/reviewer guidelines.
- Research and consultation on Social Media options.
- Initial set-up and organization of YouTube channel.
Website Design – Cornerstone Sales and Service
As a new distributor of Pottinger Farm Equipment, Cornerstone Sales and Service sought to establish a web presence that would also serve as a store front. Based on consultation with shareholders an initial demo was created, and after meeting with them again they commissioned the construction of a full site. Among the requested features were Social Media integration, photo galleries, a contact form, and links to hosted documents. The end result was an website that met their current needs, while providing room for future growth. Overall, this project included the following:
- Consultation with shareholders.
- Construction of Demo website.
- Integration with existing Social Media, and prep work for expansion to other platforms.
- Assembly of finished product, as well as SEO optimization.
- Ongoing support and updates as needed.
Capital Region Housing sought to create an online First-Time home buyers guide using existing seminar materials. Working together, we identified several potential modules as well as located additional subject matter experts. From this a 10 module, self-paced Moodle course was built including activities, quizzes, self-reflection, feedback, and multi-media. After thorough usability testing, the guide was launched in the Spring of 2019.
- Liaisoned with project coordinator to determine needs
- Conducted research to find resources and subject matter experts
- Built and branded course in Moodle
- Co-authored Users Guide
- Helped facilitate usability testing and integrated user feedback
- Provided continued support until project launch