Author: Pascale Swanson

  • Assessment of Learning (AoL) in Instructional Design and Learning Experience Design

    Assessment of Learning (AoL) in Instructional Design and Learning Experience Design

    Close-up photograph of a perfect grade on a scantron test.

    Last week I wrote a post about three types of assessment common in the Ontario school system: Assessment as Learning (AaL), Assessment for Learning (AfL), and Assessment of Learning (AoL). That post described all three and explained their importance. If you haven’t read it yet, I suggest you start there.

    Over three weeks, I will break down each of the different types of assessment, as they pertain to instructional design and learning experience design. I will start with Assessment of Learning (AoL). Even though this type of assessment comes at the very end of learning, it’s the simplest to understand, and the most common form of assessment.

    Before I delve into AoL as it is used in instructional design and learning experience design, let’s review where the term came from as it relates to teaching in the primary and secondary school system.

    Description of AoL from the school system

    AoL is a formal assessment of what a learner has learned by the conclusion of the chapter or course. This is often in the form of a test or exam, although in some cases it could also be some sort of project or presentation. In the school system, AoL is also known as summative assessment or evaluation (not the same as evaluation in the instructional design world).

    AoL in instructional design

    When it comes to the instructional design environment, AoL may look a little different. Quizzes, tests, and exams are common but projects and presentations are rare outside of the school system. The only typical form of authentic assessment outside of the school system is the rarely-used style of workplace experience simulations.

    Let’s look at some considerations for AoL in instructional design.

    1. Assessment must be based on the learning outcomes

    The single most important aspect of creating good assessment, particularly AoL, is creating assessments that are strongly based on the learning outcomes. At the start of the course design process, you should have written some learning outcomes for the course. These outcomes, the instruction, and the assessment should be closely aligned. In fact, if a learner ever had the desire, for each test question they should be able to point to the associated learning outcome and point to the relevant learning content.

    Writing effective learning outcomes is a blog topic of its own, but I’d be remis not to include one valuable piece of information here: choose your action verbs wisely! If you stated that a learner will be able to know, understand, appreciate, or learn something, you’ll never be able to assess this.

    Instead, your learning outcomes should begin with a measurable action verb. Whether you choose to pick a verb from Bloom’s Taxonomy, Marzano’s Taxonomy, or elsewhere, it should be a verb that can actually be assessed.

    Often when creating eLearning, instructional designers feel a bit boxed in. They often feel that they can only use verbs that assess lower order thinking skills. This may be true when using a standard multiple choice test, but if you have the opportunity to include scenarios, you can assess higher order thinking skills as well. I’ll get to scenario-based assessment shortly, but for the time being, I don’t think I can overstate how valuable scenarios can be for AoL. They allow you to assess critical thinking and problem solving. They also are one of the best ways to assess learners on relatively open-ended questions.

    If you’d like more information on constructing learning outcomes, I’d recommend this post from Mohawk College.

    2. Writing multiple choice tests

    Although they’re not my favourite, I’d like to mention multiple choice tests here, because they are so prevalent. Patti Shank and Trina Rimmer each have great articles on multiple choice tests, but here are some brief notes to creating effective multiple choice tests.

    1. Ensure that the stem of the question is clear and brief. Unless the information is absolutely essential, overly long stems can confuse learners.
    2. Ensure that the answer options are also brief and direct. Keep them all approximately the same length and use similar language and style. The answer shouldn’t be apparent from the way the options are worded.
    3. Avoid double negatives. Learners who know the answer may get it wrong simply because they are confused by the wording.
    4. Try not to connect questions. If a learner answers one question incorrectly, it should not affect their ability to answer any other question.
    5. For online tests in particular, consider randomizing the questions and shuffling the answer options to reduce cheating attempts. However, one exception is when the answer options to a question are numbers – in this situation, have the numbers go in order from smallest to largest (or vice versa).

    3. Creating scenarios

    You may be tempted to skip this section if you create compliance training – I urge you not to. Many instructional designers complain that compliance training is only about giving rules and yelling at learners. With that attitude, it makes sense that they only feel that a simple multiple choice test of lower order thinking skills is appropriate for the AoL.

    However, I strongly disagree with these thoughts. I make compliance training for a living. Every single course I create is about rules, policies, and regulations. However, I think that by focusing on why those rules, policies, and regulations exist, you can get to the goal of the instruction. With that goal in mind, it’s easy to build effective training scenarios that assess how learners will use the rule, policy, or regulation in the real world. And that is what will actually make a different in the life of the learner.

    For example, if the training requirements were to teach learners to do XYZ, don’t simply ask the learners ‘What is XYZ?’ or ‘What are the steps to XYZ?’. This really doesn’t assess whether they understand it, or will ever use it. Instead, ask yourself (or your SME), ‘Why do they want the learners to do XYZ?’. Based on this answer, you can build a scenario.

    While I was working on my Master’s of Instructional Design and Technology, I dutifully learned all the theories, principles, and best practices that our instructors told us to learn. But it wasn’t until I came across Cathy Moore’s scenario-based learning design process called Action Mapping that I became truly excited by the idea of designing learning.

    Action Mapping teaches instructional designers how to build a course (or assessment piece) through scenarios. Here is a brief overview. The first step is to identify what the problem is, and how you’ll know it’s been solved. Then, assuming the problem can be solved through training, the process first focuses on what they need to be able to do to solve the problem. The information taught to the learners flows from there (not the other way around). Finally, scenario-based activities are developed that focus on what the learner needs to be able to do, and they allow the learner to ‘pull’ information, as needed, to solve the scenario problems. [for more information on pull learning, check out this article by Tom Kuhlmann]

    Using Action Mapping, or a similar strategy, can help you design AoL that assesses higher order thinking skills and gives you information that more accurately represents whether the learners understood the course content. Even though Action Mapping is based on how learners attain the content in the first place, the same principles and strategies can be used for AoL.

    4. Gamification

    I have included gamification as a heading here to let you know that I haven’t forgotten about it, and am not purposefully ignoring it. I will delve into gamification in the Assessment for Learning (AfL) post.

    This is mainly because, in my opinion, gamification is an excellent way to learn content, but at the end of the day AoL should focus on how well the learner knows the content without the distractions of points, scores, timers, and leaderboards.

    5. Tracking assessments

    My final thoughts related to the instructional design of AoL is that before writing your assessment, you should consider how the scores will be tracked. Are you working within an LMS? For an eLearning module will the scores be collected via the SCORM or xAPI course, or will the questions be LMS-based? Make sure you know the answers to these questions before beginning the design of the assessment, because these considerations could have a major impact what you can and can’t do when designing the AoL.

    AoL in learning experience design

    Learning experience design takes instructional design one step further by considering the learner experience. Since the learner experience doesn’t stop at the end of the course, it continues on with the AoL, let’s look at a few ways that can we ensure the learner is having a positive experience on the AoL.

    1. Navigation

    If the AoL is not within the eLearning module (or even if it is, but it is significantly different than the rest of the module), you may want to provide the learners with some navigation help before they begin the assessment. You could include a short video, images, or simply text describing how to navigate the assessment.

    Unfortunately, I’ve learned this the hard way. While creating my second-ever course during my Master’s degree, I developed a final assessment within the Moodle LMS. Since the assessment environment was significantly different than the course environment, many learners struggled to understand how to navigate through the assessment. This was the number one complaint I received. Since then, I’ve tried my best to ensure that I don’t add to the stress of my learners by familiarizing them with the assessment environment.

    2. Clarity and visual design

    Clarity of an AoL primarily comes down to clear instructions and appropriate vocabulary (that is consistent with the vocabulary used within the course content). Before releasing an AoL to your learners, have another person read through the instructions and check that they understand them perfectly.

    Additionally, it helps to include comments at the start of the assessment related to the required passing grade, the number of questions in the assessment, and an example rubric if rubrics will be used.

    Visual design is mostly of concern for AoL completed within an eLearning module. All of the visual design considerations that exist for the content part of the eLearning module continue to matter on the AoL. Distracting or confusing designs can significantly impact a learner’s ability to complete an AoL.

    3. Accessibility

    Review your learner analysis when preparing your AoL. Although you may consider variety in questions to be important, adding images, audio, or video could be troublesome if you have learners with visual or auditory impairments.

    Additionally, any learners who will complete the AoL on a mobile device and will be in a public place may not be able to unmute the course, so they may not be able to answer questions that rely on audio or video.

    Continuing to consider the mobile learners, try out your AoL on a mobile device prior to releasing it to the learners. You may find that the radio buttons or checkboxes used to answer questions are too small for your fingers to select.

    4. Reduce stressors

    Many learner’s experience test anxiety to some level. Don’t make things worse by adding in a timer or trick questions.

    Feedback for AoL

    As with gamification, I have included feedback as a heading here to let you know that I haven’t forgotten about it, and am not purposefully ignoring it. However, I won’t make it a focus of this post because many learners don’t look beyond their final test score.

    Ideally, all learners would carefully read the feedback and review any concepts they answered incorrectly even though they won’t be re-assessed, but this rarely happens in real life. This means that the feedback given while the learners are learning (AaL) and (AfL), which has the possibility of altering learner behaviour, needs to be filled with meaningful comments. So be sure to visit the Assessment for Learning post to read more about this topic.

    Conclusion

    When I first decided to write this post, I never expected it to be this long! But with learning outcomes, scenarios, navigation, accessibility, and more, there’s lots to consider when creating AoL.

    I’ve only skimmed the surface on some topics, but it should be enough to help you refine your online searching. In the future I might explore some of these topics in more depth. Hopefully, you’ve read at least one thing here that you’ve never considered before.

    You’ll find the same kinds of information (on slightly different topics) in the upcoming posts on Assessment for Learning (AfL) and Assessment as Learning (AaL). Stay tuned for them.

  • How to be happy like a child (#248)

    How to be happy like a child (#248)

    This portfolio piece marks my return to completing the eLearning Heroes Challenges. It has been over a year since my last project and I wanted to return with a bang, so I chose this particularly unstructured – yet challenging – topic as my first project in 2019.

    This portfolio piece was created for the eLearning Heroes Challenge #248 (Choose your own eLearning challenge, extreme edition), which required the combination of three previous challenges into one entry. I chose #186 (Create an eLearning template using Pantone’s 2018 color of the year), #242 (Use audio, music, and sound effects in eLearning), and #247 (Using eLearning characters to engage and connect with learners).

    To add in an even bigger challenge, I also used this as an opportunity to practice some photoshopping skills. In this case I took 6 images and turned each individual image into a mini-movie. These mini-movies were made without the addition of any extra elements or backgrounds.

    For example, I took an image of a child playing soccer and animated the boy and the ball. To make this work, I had to fill in the background of where the boy and the ball originally were placed so that there wasn’t a hole in the background when they moved out of their original locations.

    I am really pleased with how this project turned out. I believe strongly in the project’s message and the experts’ words of wisdom. I hope you enjoy it!

  • Assessment ‘As’, ‘For’, and ‘Of’ Learning

    Assessment ‘As’, ‘For’, and ‘Of’ Learning

    Student filling out answers to a test with a pencil.

    Before beginning my journey as an learning experience designer, I was a teacher for many years. Shortly before I left the profession, the big, exciting idea surrounding assessment and evaluation was the triple threat of Assessment as Learning (AaL), Assessment for Learning (AfL), and Assessment of Learning (AoL).

    Most teachers, especially those who had been working with the former formative/summative assessment model didn’t really like the AaL/AfL/AoL model. I, on the other hand, loved the model. Not only does it include the concepts of formative and summative assessment, but it also brings in the idea of metacognition. Research has shown that learners with strong metacognition skills (i.e., they very aware of their own personal methods and preferences of learning) are more successful in school.

    My love for this model is so strong that even as a learning experience designer, I continue to use it to craft my assessments. So, how does it work? Well, it’s based on three different types of assessment, each with it’s own purpose.

    Let’s start with the one that is the most common, and therefore the easiest to understand.

    Assessment of Learning (AoL)

    AoL is a formal assessment of what a learner has learned by the conclusion of the chapter, module, or course, etc. This is often in the form of a test or exam. Behavioural-based courses may also use a marked branching scenario for the AoL. At the primary or secondary school level, it could also be some sort of project or presentation.

    In the teaching world, AoL is also known as evaluation (note this is different than the term evaluation in the instructional design world). It is also known as summative assessment in the former formative/summative assessment model.

    Assessment for Learning (AfL)

    AfL is a less formal (or entirely informal) assessment of what a learner has learned from an individual topic or task. This type of assessment is either unmarked (contains only feedback), or a mark is given simply for the learner’s own knowledge – but it does not count toward a final grade score. This is often in the form of a quiz or game.

    As you might have noticed from the name, the focus of AfL is on the process of learning. Assessment is (or at least should be) strongly tied in with the learning process. The AfL step helps learners identify their strengths and weaknesses, and it ultimately helps the learners focus on what they need to know to succeed.

    AfL is also known as formative assessment in the former formative/summative assessment model. In the instructional design world, this is sometimes known as a knowledge check.

    Assessment as Learning (AaL)

    AaL is where the metacognition piece comes in. Just like the AfL, AaL has a strong focus on the process of learning. These types of assessments are not marked, but instead provide the learner with information about how they are progressing. This allows the learner to make their own personal evaluation about their knowledge and whether they are ready to move on to new content, or if they need to revisit what they have just learned.

    In this case, feedback is crucial – in particular, immediate and personalized feedback. This is because the learner is basing their personal evaluation of their knowledge on the feedback provided to them. Having to wait to finish an entire quiz before finding out if they were correct on question number one is not effective. Similarly, receiving general feedback that doesn’t address their own issues is not effective.

    In addition to immediate and personalized feedback, an important aspect of AaL is the frequency of use. AaL is most effective when it is used regularly. For example, following each topic. This helps the learner build competency and confidence when they are progressing well. Additionally, it helps learners target in quickly on their weaknesses when they are getting stuck.

    A final important aspect of AaL is the ‘how’. Without asking learners how they know what they know, you are missing the valuable metacognition piece. Ideally, AaL will engage learners in the learning process by helping them understand where their thoughts and assumptions come from. When done well, it can also help learners understand how they learn best (and no, I’m not talking about the debunked theory of learning styles, I’m referring to things such as how they favour piecing together information, what type of context building works best for them, how they effectively retrieve information from their long term memory, etc.)

    Conclusion

    In my opinion, compared to other assessment models, such as the formative/summative model, the AaL/AfL/AoL is the complete package. When used properly, both the learner and the teacher, facilitator, or content developer are well aware of how the learner is progressing. They are also aware of what steps need to be taken for each specific learner to be successful because they have already zeroed in on the exact stumbling block of the learner.

    Keep your eyes peeled over the next few weeks as I delve into each of these assessment types more thoroughly, including how to incorporate them in an instructional design environment and how to adapt them to fulfill effective learning experience design.

  • Mid-year Review, 2019

    Mid-year Review, 2019

    It’s now the end of August and I though it would be a good time to look back at my goals for the year. Not to brag about how much I’ve accomplished, but rather to motivate myself to continue my personal and professional growth, because I think I’ve been slacking on meeting my goals.

    At the start of January (although I didn’t actually publish the post until mid-April), I made myself some goals for 2019. One goal for each letter of the alphabet. While I knew that was an ambitious endeavour, I think that nurturing my own learning is important to helping me become the best learning experience designer possible.

    I’ve been extremely busy with other tasks this spring and summer, so I feel like I’ve fallen off the path for my own learning. Last week I posted about getting back to developing my skills – in that case it was by playing around with Photoshop. I remember that being one of my goals; however, I actually struggle to remember what else I wanted to accomplish this year.

    So, I thought this would be a good time to revisit these goals – and to do it in a public forum, so that I would feel more motivation to follow-through.

    My list

    A  = Adapt (rapid eLearning tool)

    So far I have only looked at what is possible with this tool, but haven’t done much else.

    B = Blogging

    This one I could consider a relative success… I set up my blog, and this is now my 9th post in 5 months.

    C  = Character Animator

    Beyond my practice with this tool in grad school, I haven’t had the opportunity to practice my skills.

    D = Design (visual design)

    I actually attended two great talks on visual design at the Canadian eLearning Conference 2019, by the amazing Bianca Woods (http://biancawoods.weebly.com/) and the talented Sarah Dewar, and I’ve been trying to implement their tips ever since.

    E  = Evolve (rapid eLearning tool)

    As with Adapt, so far I have only looked at what is possible with this tool, but haven’t done much else.

    F  = Feedback

    This is something I am currently strongly pushing at my job, in fact, I have somewhat surreptitiously started adding immediate personalized feedback on all questions in our courses, without really mentioning that I am doing it to management… I think if I just slip it in, they can’t question it, right?

    G  = Gamification

    I attended a wonderful full-day workshop by Clint Clarkson from eLearning Alchemy (https://elearningalchemy.com/) at the Canadian eLearning Conference 2019 – he spoke about how easy it is to add in game thinking (even if not full-on gamification) to eLearning courses, and I left full of ideas for ways to implement these strategies.

    H  = Heroes (continue doing eLearning heroes challenges)

    Here I definitely feel I’ve fallen short, the last eLearning Heroes Challenge that I completed was in May 5, 2018… time to get back on the horse with that one!

    I  = Illustrator

    While I haven’t created anything unique in Illustrator (my least favourite Adobe product) since January, I have done quite a bit of editing of vector diagrams in Illustrator at work – I’m going to call this one a win since I struggle so profoundly with illustrator!

    J  = Join ID communities

    To be honest, I’d forgotten this was on my list, although I do think it is incredibly important – so even though I haven’t put much effort into it, I did meet a ton of amazing people at the Canadian eLearning Conference 2019, including (but not limited to) Connie Malamed (very briefly – but with such a celebrity, I say it counts! http://theelearningcoach.com/about/), the hilarious Simon Blair (https://www.simonblairtraining.com/), the insightful Tracy Parish (https://www.tracyparish.ca/), the loveable Cindy Plunkett, the game-loving Clint Clarkson (https://elearningalchemy.com/), and the award-winning Meagan Underwood; plus I have started using Twitter again (@PascaleSwanson)

    K  = Keynote summaries (post summaries of keynotes from conferences)

    I’ve dropped the ball on this one – so, to make up for it… keep your eyes peeled for a summary of an upcoming keynote later this year (perhaps from DevLearn, or maybe an eLearning Guild summit).

    L  = Lectora

    I think I might have to let this one slide, unless I can find the money to splurge this program.

    M  = Meetings (attend 2-3, including online summits w eLearning guild)

    So far in 2019 I have attended the Canadian eLearning Conference 2019 as well as a webinar from the eLearning Guild (Dynamic Video Interactions for Increased Engagement), and I plan to attend DevLearn 2019 and the webinars ‘The Business of Learning’ and ‘Microlearning Design’

    N  = Negative space (make better use of it)

    Another goal I had forgotten about, yet I must have subconsciously been considering, because I do feel that I’ve done a better job with whitespace recently – not to mention attending a conference by the lovely Bianca Baumann (https://www.biancabaumann.com/) at the Canadian eLearning Conference 2019.

    O  = Objectives (improve construction of objectives)

    Definitely an area I’d like to continue working on – I do have a book, “Preparing Instructional Objectives” by Robert F Magar that I purchased awhile ago and it has just rocketed to the top of my reading list.

    P  = Photoshop

    Well, as of last week, I can now add this to the ‘on track’ list of goals – although I had been ignoring my personal development in Photoshop skills due to a lack of time, I’ve just made this a priority again.

    Q  = Quality over quantity (despite manager’s desires)

    I continue to struggle in this area – my manager and boss are mostly concerned about money, yet I continue to push for what is best for the learner… this obviously results in some unpleasant clashes. To help me along this path, I plan to attend the upcoming eLearning Guild online summit called ‘The Business of Learning’

    R  = Research (continue to research in the field of ID)

    After Walden University updated their Alumni Library, I am no longer able to access high quality journals – I plan to reach out to the library (and perhaps OISE-UT as well) to see if there is any way I can access the journals to keep my knowledge up to date.

    S  = SME wrangling (develop skills to get the most out of my SMEs)

    I had actually planned to attend an eLearning Guild webinar on Leveraging SMEs but had to miss it to due work deadlines – I hope to watch a video copy of the webinar soon to learn about this important skill.

    T  = Talk (present a talk at a conference)

    I actually had an amazing experience presenting a project at the Show and Share portion of the Canadian eLearning Conference 2019 – not only was it a thrill to present my work to talented professionals, but I even won a nice little award (People’s Choice Award) for my work!

    U  = UI/UX

    This is something that has been at the top of my mind recently, particularly after an informative talk by Bianca Baumann (https://www.biancabaumann.com/) at the Canadian eLearning Conference 2019.

    V  = Variety (stretch my capabilities of design and development)

    Hmmm… this is a tough one… at work I am limited in what I can do at my job, yet I really have tried my hardest to stretch my capabilities of design and development… does that count? I guess I have also tried some different approaches in my own personal time as well, that might count… I’ll give this one a C+.

    W  = Writing (improve specific aspects – for example using contractions)

    Another goal that I had forgotten about, but I suppose this timing is appropriate as I am about to send off some scripts for narration – time to review them to ensure I have people teaching the course, not robots!

    X  = Xerox (“steal” from other professions, e.g., marketing – AIDA, WIIFM, etc.)

    I think this will be my next big challenge in the second half of the year.

    Y  = YouTube (update my channel)

    Ooooops…. I should probably do this!

    Z  = Zapworks

    I have played around with Zapworks, and even pitched an idea at work (it got turned down), but I still intended to continue to find ways to incorporate XR into my courses.

    Summary

    All-in-all I’m actually doing better than I thought. I think moving forward into the second half of the year, my focus will be particularly on blogging, joining ID communities, quality, variety, and xerox-ing from other professions. I also might look into co-authoring a professional paper with my colleague, if I can get access to the Walden or OISE libraries to perform the literature reviews.

    Based on the cute image I found for the header of this post, I think my main downfall has been step 2, aka lack of planning. Something I will look into starting in September.

    Have you met your goals this year? Where do you plan on focusing your efforts in the second half of the year? Do you have plans for achieving your goals?

  • Learning for Learning’s Sake

    Learning for Learning’s Sake

    Girl answering math problems on the chalkboard.

    I’m here… don’t send out a search party! I’m not dead, just haven’t had time to write any posts recently.

    Since I’ve been so busy, I’ve also noticed that I haven’t really had much time for my own learning. L&D professionals know better than anyone else how important learning is, so I’ve felt like I’ve been a bit short-sighted by getting involved in other projects at the expense of my own learning. So, I figured today I should carve out some time for myself, to learn something new.

    When I graduated from my Master’s program back in December, I had a whole plan laid out over two years into the future of what I planned to learn, week-by-week. All of that has fallen by the wayside. Today I picked up where I left off – with some fun Photoshop skills.

    These days when I use Photoshop, I tend to use the same skills over and over. I never really try out anything new. This means my courses might be missing out on great graphics that I simply don’t even know I can make. Everything I use in my courses work, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t be even better.

    To ease back in to my own learning plan, I decided to play around with something simple (and fun) – Photoshop filters. Filters can dramatically change the look and feel of a photo. They can also draw attention to certain areas or aspects of the photo.

    Despite being something a beginner could use, in my odd, round-about way of learning Photoshop, I always skipped over them, because they seemed a bit too childish or cheesy. Well, as it turns out, some of the filters are neither childish nor cheesy. And you know what, some of the ones that are can still be useful when used in a fun, up-beat way.

    After spending some time playing around with the filters, I thought I should create something to remind myself of what I’d learned… enter Super Rodney!

    I wanted to create a comic (or at least a very small portion of one). Unfortunately, I didn’t have any story in mind. So, I just made up something silly. In the end, it’s the skills that I’m learning that matter, right?

    I hope you enjoy it! (because I have a feeling that you’ll be seeing more of Super Rodney in the future)

  • Canadian eLearning Conference 2019

    Canadian eLearning Conference 2019

    The conference

    Next Friday is a very exciting day for me because I will be presenting my instructional design and eLearning development work at a conference for the first time. The conference is the Canadian eLearning Conference and it will be held in Toronto on July 18 and 19. For more information, check out their website or follow their Twitter account (@cdnelearning).

    If you’re thinking of going, but haven’t decided for sure, maybe this will convince you: the keynote will be presented by none other than The eLearning Coach herself, Connie Malamed! To learn more about this impressive woman, check out her website.

    My passion for presenting

    While completing my graduate degree in Medical Sciences, I presented my work at conferences around the world. I loved every single one of those experiences (yes, even that one time when I completely choked!). In fact, giving talks at conferences was probably one of my favourite things about my graduate student experience.

    After switching careers and becoming a teacher, I kept up my habit of giving talks – sometimes at smaller professional development events, and other times at large conferences. In fact, I gave my first education talk was while I was still a Bachelor of Education student. That experience was quite intimidating because the audience was a room filled with the principals of the schools in my region. Luckily, the talk went well and I had multiple principals offer to give me a future job on the day I graduated.

    I’ve now been firmly planted in the field of learning experience design for a little over two years and I am looking to get back into the practice of speaking at conferences. I got my feet wet by presenting my instructional design graduate work at an online showcase for exemplary work in January 2018. And now I’m really looking forward to giving my first conference talk at the Canadian eLearning Conference.

    The presentation

    I’ll be presenting in the Show and Share portion of the conference. This event is a rapid-fire set of presentations that each describe an instructional design problem and how it was solved using eLearning and technology.

    My talk is called ‘Opening Up Confined Space Training’. This is how I’ve described the talk in the conference app: ‘Imagine your learner analysis showed that some of your learners are already experts, while others know next-to-nothing about the topic. Yet you are told to create only a single course, and everyone must take it. What do you do? That was the problem solved with this Confined Space Pre-entry course. Constructed using a concept attainment strategy, the course personalized the content delivered to the learners based on their success navigating through an interactive video-based activity that tested their prior knowledge. Not only did the course give learners credit for what they already knew, but the interactive videos delighted learners and kept them engaged.’

    For a taste of the experience that the learners had, click the image below to check out the demo.

    Come to the conference

    If you’re interested in finding out how successful my strategy was in dealing with a varied audience of learners, come to the conference. You’ll also learn about topics such as xAPI, UX/UI, visual design, branching scenarios, live online learning, learner personas, and more. See you there!