Training & Instructional Design

Building world-class instructional design content

Challenge: Onboard traditional students and college professors onto Second Life in a virtual classroom for remote learning -- in 2004, before remote learning was as prevalent as it would become in the 2020s.

Solution: I worked with key members of faculty to design and implement guides that took students and professors into the world of Second Life, learning basic setup (creating an avatar, navigation, communication) and using the virtual classrooms. This required extensive documentation of how to create accounts, find the private island, and use the edu-focused features (asking a question in class). These were distilled into fun infographic-based guides which told the story of a new student on the virtual campus, learning how to participate in campus life.

My work with Pellissippi State as a contractor wasn't my first foray into instructional design, but it was one of the most challenging. Later, I would design the LLamapod iPod case, which required the addition of marketing techniques to show users both how and why the unique case design was superior. At ITT Tech, I helped create the game design curriculum, sitting on an advisory committee to review the pedagogy of the curriculum and make key decisions around the associate's degree the company had planned. I also created lesson plans and assessments, plus supplemental learning materials. Then, at The Unofficial Apple Weblog, we wrote dozens of how-to guides using clear, engaging content methods. During my time at AOL, I built video how-to content for new tools in our CMS, conducting online trainings with a global team. As a freelancer, I have built onboarding guides, training materials, and tutorials all with a focus on human-centered design. At Dealio, I created a fun, engaging onboarding video using puppets. Most recently, I built developer enablement content for Oracle, with a focus on database, multicloud, and AI.