Transitioning from Higher Ed to Instructional Design During a Pandemic With Labour Day fast...
Transitioning from Higher Ed to Instructional Design During a Pandemic
With Labour Day fast approaching, and the debates about what a return to in-person college and university classes might look like, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on my journey over the past year and a half.
I had been interested in instructional design for a long time and, like so many things, had assumed that someday I’d get around to doing something about it. I spent a lot of years bouncing around the world of ESL and Communications in higher ed, along with my friends and colleagues Catrina Ascenuik, Alanna Carter, and Shereen Seoudi, who have also since made the switch to instructional design. We all taught a variety of classes and developed a lot of intensive curriculum. Then, one day in March of 2020, we were sent home, and the four of us were told we had a week to start getting our curriculum online- they called us “virtualizers”- whatever that means.
We happened to be working at the same University at the time, and as luck would have it, that university uses D2L Brightspace. At that point in time, we were only moderately familiar with the ins and outs of Brightspace, but there’s nothing like a global pandemic and a team of expectant colleagues to get you learning quickly!
We muddled our way through creating content and quizzes. We’d take turns teaching each other tips and tricks we figured out through trial and error, searching for online video tutorials and information (thankfully Brightspace has a lot of them!), and emailing computing services…repeatedly. There were many late-night, frustrated phone calls, and a lot of “aha” moments. And the most amazing thing happened. We got faster and better and more confident in our abilities to create remote learning materials; we also gained a new appreciation for the LMS that we’d previously all but ignored.
When I think of all the hardships and uncertainties that people endured throughout this time, I’m incredibly grateful for all the opportunities I was given and made for myself. With everything suddenly switching to remote delivery, we were able to attend and present at conferences that would otherwise have been geographically challenging- we presented in Vancouver and Edinburgh three days apart. As that initial semester drew to a close, and with a little push from Catrina, we all signed up for an instructional design certificate.
As remote delivery continued, we excitedly explored third party tools and honed our online instructing skills, sharing our materials and teaching each other, and anyone else who cared to listen, what we had learned. Our students were very willing test subjects and gave a lot of valuable feedback on their experience. And our certificate classes were helping us take the knowledge we had acquired and view it through an instructional design lens. Everything started to click into place.
When we saw that D2L was hiring last winter, it seemed incredibly serendipitous. Merging my passion for learning and education with my newfound interest in online learning and instructional design through this fabulous tool I had spent so much time becoming familiar with- it was clearly meant to be.
So many of my friends and colleagues from the colleges and universities have asked for advice on making the transition from higher ed, and I’ve shared this story to help inspire them to find their own way into online development, e-learning, and instructional design. I couldn’t be happier with the path I’m on and am excited to see where it will take me from here.
I’d love to hear from some of you about your journey to instructional design. What’s your story?
Reacties
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Thanks for sharing your story, Shayne! I also enjoyed teaching before moving to instructional design. Increased education opportunities, through online learning, is one of the bright spots of this pandemic.
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Thanks for sharing your story, Shayne! I also enjoyed teaching before moving to instructional design. Increased education opportunities, through online learning, is one of the bright spots of this pandemic.
