[00:00:00] Sabrina: Changing careers can be tough, because it feels like you're starting all over again. But the truth is, if you're a classroom teacher, you already have a ton of transferable skills that you can bring over with you to instructional design. The Devlin Peck team is mostly made up of former teachers who have made the transition to instructional design, and we are excited to share with you classroom skills that we still use as instructional designers. I'm Sabrina and I've been working as an instructional designer for just over a year and something that helped me get over any imposter syndrome I was feeling was to re evaluate what skills am I bringing with me to instructional design. There were a lot of my classroom skills that I learned that are really helping me now as an ID.
[00:00:34] And you may often hear that, as a teacher, you have so many transferable skills, but what exactly does that look like? Well, I sat down with some members of the Devlin Peck team and asked them exactly that: "As former teachers, what are some classroom skills you learned that you are still using as instructional designers?"
[00:00:48] They gave me one skill each, and they also gave some examples of what it looks like on the job, so that you can envision exactly what it's going to look like as an instructional designer. First up, we're going to hear from Joanna. [00:01:00] You may have seen her on the channel before, and she is a resume wizard. If you're interested in learning more about her transition to ID, you can check out the Q& A that she did with Devlin.
[00:01:07] We'll make sure to link it down below. Take it away, Joanna.
[00:01:10] Joanna: Um, hi, my name is Joanna, and I was a teacher for about 10 years. I was a teacher in South Korea and Taiwan, and now I'm currently Instructional Designer at Amazon Web Services, and I'm also a Bootcamp Pro. As a teacher, I did a lot of project management on the job.
[00:01:27] You know, a lot of organizing and planning for lesson plans and just yearly goals. So I think, um, project management was a huge piece of what I did as a teacher. I would say as an instructional designer, I, I use project management all the time now, um, I will usually look at, you know, the types of learning experiences that, um, we want to create that might be creating new learning experiences or updating learning experiences, but based on that assessment, I'm creating a project plan, and then I'm setting, [00:02:00] um, you know, an end goal that we're working towards, and we create, and I'll create milestones that, um, we work on,
[00:02:07] you know, towards to get to that goal. And then I have specific tasks outlined for the project team members, which in this case, instead of my students or learners, it'll be my SMEs. Um, and then I'm usually creating, um, some kind of communication plan to report out on that to managers and stakeholders and customers, which is kind of really similar to communicating updates to parents or administration and also checking in with learners on their progress.
[00:02:36] So, I mean, I'm creating workflows to kind of check in with the SMEs on how they're progressing with those tasks. So, I really use project management, I would say. every day. And it's actually one of the skills that I got complimented on when I transferred into this role. My manager was really impressed with my project management skills.
[00:02:55] And we often see that, um, even the other teachers on my team as well [00:03:00] have been complimented in a similar way because those skills really do transfer from, um, managing students and managing parent expectations and then doing just kind of the same thing, but, um, you know, with SMEs and, uh, with adult learners.
[00:03:14] I would say don't underestimate your skills that you have as a teacher. There's so much that transfers over. Um, and I don't know if we always get a lot of credit for that as a teacher, but I think you'll just be so, um, pleased and impressed to see how well that does transfer into an ID role. You know that you are more prepared than you think.
[00:03:37] Um, and yeah, basically, yeah, don't undersell yourself. I think that's the biggest thing.
[00:03:43] Sabrina: Thanks, Joanna. Project management is one of those big umbrella terms that can mean a lot of things, but hearing what it can look like as an instructional designer really helps make it much more concrete. Next up, we have Scott.
[00:03:53] Scott is our go to guy for anything Storyline related. Let's hear what he has to say about the skill he uses most often in [00:04:00] his current ID role.
[00:04:00] Scott: Hi, I am Scott Schmidt.
[00:04:02] I'm one of the bootcamp pros on Devlin's team. I taught at the high school level for 16 years, and now I'm an instructional, a full time instructional designer and helping out with the bootcamp here. So, one thing that I remember doing a lot as a teacher is, due to a lack of resources, I ended up having to build a lot of my own curriculum.
[00:04:24] And so a skill that I got really good at was backward design, the idea that you start with the end in mind, where you want the people to end up with what you want them to be able to do or know, and then work backward from there to design how you're going to get them there. So I did that quite a bit when I was building my curriculum.
[00:04:47] And now as an instructional designer, I am doing a lot of that same. That same stuff when, when I'm designing my learning experiences for my job right now, it's, it's crazy how I I'll catch myself thinking, [00:05:00] "this is exactly what I used to do when I was a teacher for my students." So now if I'm, if I'm gonna mention how we, how I specifically use that as an ID, uh, basically, you know, projects come in for my team.
[00:05:16] We get a project request and my first thought is, "okay, I need to meet with my SME and, and just start with what is it that we want them to do? Where do we want them to end up with, end up at, excuse me, at the end, once they've taken this learning experience. What do we want them to be able to know? What do we want them to be able to do?"
[00:05:36] I always start with that. Because, inevitably, the SME wants to start with "I was thinking we would include this, and we would include that, and I've got all this content..." and I'm thinking, "let's start with where we want them to end up, and we'll figure out how those things work into that." So, so yeah, I definitely start with where I want them to end up, and one reason that really helps is, because it's very easy to [00:06:00] fall into the trap, both as a teacher and an ID....
[00:06:03] it's very easy to fall into the trap of thinking, "Ooh, this would be cool to add into my learning experience. Ooh, this would be so much fun. And it's related. So maybe it'll help them learn. Maybe it won't, but it's going to be fun, right?" And, uh, so it's, it's when you do backward design effectively, it really helps you catch yourself to avoid those things and focus on, let's see, "I'm only going to include things that I know are going to help the learner get to where I want them to end up.
[00:06:34] At the, at the end, all right, maybe it includes some of that fun stuff, but maybe it doesn't because I think, hmm, is this really enhancing the learning? Is this really something that's going to effectively get the learner where I need them to go?" So that is definitely, uh, a big, big help and, uh, helps me streamline my projects, helps me make learning experiences that are hyper focused on, uh, [00:07:00] what I want the learner to do, especially as an ID when you're working with adults, they don't want all the fluff.
[00:07:05] They want exactly what they need in order to learn what they need to know how to do or get the knowledge that they need to know. So if I was going to give you one piece of advice that I've learned as in my experience as an ID as it relates to backward design is always make sure that anything that you're going to include in a learning experience, whether it's Uh, an eLearning simulation, whether it's a job aid, uh, whether it's, you know, step by step instructions on how to do something, the one thing I would always recommend- you know, you're going to start with the end in mind-
[00:07:47] always keep that end in mind with whatever you're going to design. Everything that you decide you're thinking about incorporating into the learning experience, always think to yourself, "is this [00:08:00] really critical for getting the learner to where I want them to go? "
[00:08:05] Sabrina: Backwards design is such a great approach to creating learning experiences.
[00:08:09] Thanks for sharing that, Scott. This next team member you're probably already familiar with. Kristin has shared lots of great tips from using Vyond to being successful in your first corporate ID job.
[00:08:19] Floor's all yours, Kristin.
[00:08:21] Kristin: Hi, I'm Kristin. I taught Language Arts and Social Studies for about six years before I landed my first corporate ID role, um, with a large tech company. And then from there, um, I worked at that tech company and then ended up moving into freelance with lots of different other companies.
[00:08:35] And so that has really allowed me to reflect on my teaching experience and how it's helped me in a lot of different ID settings, um, both freelance environments, um, and corporate environments as well. As a teacher, a skill that I used a lot was creating job aids for my students.
[00:08:50] Um, so creating quick reference guides that students could use to reference as they're completing projects to help them. And that's something that I've been able to use a lot on the job as an [00:09:00] instructional designer. And the transferable skills has been. It's clear the transferable skills that comes from that because oftentimes on the job, I'm making job aids.
[00:09:10] Uh, some examples are, um, I've made job aids for following security procedures, troubleshooting issues, following team processes. There's lots of different reasons that you might create a job aid on the job. Um, because they really are just like anchor charts. And one thing I found unique in my experience is being able to recommend the job aids for the solution because oftentimes, uh, we will suggest, you know, virtual lead instruction, eLearning and that's a great solution, but sometimes job aids are the solution and they can be more effective, um, especially when you want your employees to be able to reference it quickly and not have to, you know, go back into the LMS and look at the course all over again.
[00:09:53] And so being able to advise when a job aid would be more appropriate and fit better has been a transferable skill along with being able [00:10:00] to just create job aids quickly and efficiently that makes sense to learners. One of the biggest tips that I have for teachers going through the process is to draw upon your experience with creating a diverse range of learning experience and don't feel silly doing that.
[00:10:15] You have so much background in creating and delivering a variety of different learning solutions and with a variety of different learning methods like anchor charts, direct instruction, all of that, and it's valuable. So you have great insights and don't be afraid to use them.
[00:10:30] Sabrina: Thanks, Kristin.
[00:10:30] Anchor charts and job aids are definitely from the same family, and they organize content in very similar ways. Next up, making his YouTube debut, we have Shawn. And Shawn has some very impressive visual design skills. I highly recommend checking out his portfolio. Let's hear what Shawn has to say.
[00:10:47] Shawn: Hi, everyone.
[00:10:48] My name is Shawn Porter, and I'm a bootcamp pro on Devlin Peck's team. I've been teaching for over eight years, and now I'm an instructional designer. I think one of my favorite things about [00:11:00] anything learning related is engagement. I just, I love thinking about like, "what makes something so interesting that people are willing to put hours into, even when they don't need to, right?"
[00:11:10] Like hobbies and things like that, because we, we do love to learn. So, for me, in education, One of my big things is always trying to learn how to engage students. And I might do that in more simple ways, like with storytelling or things like that. And then I work into more, you know, detailed areas, like trying to get my learners to really think through problems or challenge them.
[00:11:31] And then it's a matter of like learning like what's too much challenge to where someone's going to give up versus what's too little challenge or somebody's not really feeling challenged and they just kind of get bored. And I realize that plays really well in instructional design as well. For instance, when I design a scenario based eLearning, the whole idea is that we're teaching through stories.
[00:11:52] We're teaching through this scenario and we don't want to make it dry. We want it to be authentic and feel like a real story with real, [00:12:00] meaningful consequences, you know, you'll hear me say all the time, "meaningful consequences," um, you know, and then also, like, any kind of like, um, interaction based learning, where you're having them work through the problems, think through the problems.
[00:12:13] Again, that works in scenario based learning as well, but can also apply to just a variety of different learning types. And then of course, learner challenge, like how do you develop a learning course that can meet a variety of learners? How do you program that in, especially if it's something like an eLearning?
[00:12:29] How do you program in different challenge levels and things like that? And that again, it's just something that I'm always thinking about because I want to engage my learners. I want them to be working through it. I want their brain active as often as possible to just really maximize that retention. Um, especially within engagement and things like that, you know, it's not, you don't just have to just slap on a few, you know, nice graphics and sound effects and say that's engaging, right?
[00:12:54] It's about that deeper connection, getting your learners to think, getting your learners to process things, [00:13:00] and if possible, getting your learners to do the thing that they're trying, that you're, that you're teaching them to do, right? So that would be my encouragement to you is: think of ways that you can engage your learners, whether it's in the classroom or in the corporate setting.
[00:13:14] Sabrina: Challenging learners just the right amount in a learning experience is such a great skill to have. Thank you for sharing, Shawn. The last and final skill that we're going to talk about comes from me.
[00:13:25] As a teacher, I asked a lot of open ended questions. So, I was a former math teacher, and finding a way to gather information from kids, see where they're at, see what they knew, and help guide where they were going next, it can be tough. And asking open ended questions was the way that I did that. That is a skill that I use as an instructional designer.
[00:13:45] When I had my first Subject Matter Expert meeting, I knew that I had to make the most of my time. I needed to gather as much content information as I could from this person in this little bit of time that I had with them. So the best way to do that was asking open ended [00:14:00] questions. When I asked open ended questions, I can gather and pull more and more information and open up that conversation.
[00:14:06] If I asked a closed question of, "Is blank a problem you're seeing with employees?" I'm probably going to get a closed answer with "yes," "no." Maybe they'll elaborate a little bit more, but maybe not. But if I ask a question of, like, "What problems are you seeing with employees? What mistakes are employees making?"
[00:14:26] If I open it up, I'm going to get much more open answers, where they're going to list some things for me, and then I can dig in. "Why do you think that's a problem? What do you think is standing in people's way?" I can ask more and more open ended questions, and I'm really just going to dig and pull more and more of that content from our subject matter expert, making the most of my time with them.
[00:14:45] Asking open ended questions isn't easy. just helpful when you're asking and trying to gather more information. But what it's going to do is it's going to help you gather relevant information. Stuff that you can take right into your learning experience to make it relevant for your [00:15:00] learners. Because when it's relevant, it's going to stick a whole lot better.
[00:15:03] My advice to teachers if you are making the transition to instructional design or if you've landed that first ID role is don't be afraid to lean on your teaching experience. I know it's often you want to like push away from that identity of being an educator, you are now an instructional designer, but you have such great skills that you can really lean on and really bring in and help you be a strong instructional designer.
[00:15:27] These are just a few of the classroom skills that we still use as instructional designers. There are much, much more, like Evaluating the effectiveness of learning experiences, writing learning objectives, providing learners with feedback, writing assessments, virtual instruction engagement, instructional strategies, empathy and advocacy for learners, modifying instructional materials based on learner needs, collaboration and teamwork, developing innovative learning solutions, and so many more.
[00:15:58] Changing careers can [00:16:00] be scary, but it doesn't have to be. You're not starting all over. You have lots of transferable skills that you can bring with you to the field, and any skill gaps you have, you can identify and fill those to become a competent and effective instructional designer. If you are ready to start your journey to become an ID, make sure to download the free Become an ID checklist , and thank you again to Joanna, Scott, Kristin, and Shawn for sharing those skills that you use as IDs, and I will see you in the next one!
[00:16:28] Bye!