What were you doing before Instructional Design?
I am not a teacher turned ID. I actually come from an administrative corporate/higher ed background. I kind of fell into the ID track a few years ago, and I was lucky enough to get a master’s degree at the university where I worked. While I was doing my Master’s, a Learning & Development position in the University’s HR department opened up, and I got to start really applying some of that great stuff I was learning.
What made you decide to join Applied Instructional Design Academy (AIDA)? Did you have any hesitation about joining?
So you might be asking yourself – well how the heck did you end up in AIDA? My real passion is for e-Learning development and I was doing very, very little of that in my L&D role. I did the Instructional Design Jumpstart workshop in January of this year hoping to get some pointers on how to set up my portfolio for the few pieces of e-Learning I had developed, but I didn’t sign up for AIDA. I said to myself, “Let’s see how far you get without spending this money.” My Workshop Advisor was awesome. She said that my plan made a lot of sense and if I did change my mind not to hesitate to reach out. She was not pushy at all. So by the time March rolled around and the next jumpstart was starting, I had gotten to such a point of frustration with my portfolio two or three times where I had abandoned my efforts. I decided it was time to bite the bullet.
What was your experience like in Applied Instructional Design Academy?
There are many reasons that AIDA turned out to be a great fit for me.
- The community is incredibly supportive of each other. We are all learning and we are all willing to share the knowledge that we have.
- The Success Advisor set up helps me stay on track, work through my road blocks, and gives me the prompt responses to questions that I need to be successful.
- My accountability partner is amazing. She acts as my sounding board when I feel overwhelmed or unsure of myself. We really lift each other up and provide each other lots of sanity checks!
- The group celebrates wins – big and small. I love going to coaching sessions and hearing about all of the awesome things people are doing.
- You can bring anything to the coaching sessions – resume, job descriptions, what to expect in an interview, samples, portfolios. Nothing is off limits and the conversations are always incredibly helpful.
- I’m feeling more and more confident that I could start my own business down the road, which is not something I would have ever considered before this program.
What are you doing now?
So now, a few months into the program, I’ve found a new ID role that is a better fit for me with more e-Learning development involved in it. I also worked with my Success Advisor in AIDA and realized that I not only want to start my own business, but that I want to ultimately try to be self-employed as an ID.
