Portfolio: Instructional Designer

Naming a Course

2008-01-24T17:44:00.000-08:00

What's in a name? That which we call a rose.

Shakespeare

I wish it was true for course names too; but am afraid not. Coming up with relevant and striking names for courses has been one of the challenging tasks.

One of the common ways to get to a name is to make it content and level specific, like a course on business communication for trainees could be Communication 101.

But there are times when we struggle to name a course. For example, a course on tips for all people on where to go in the city they are visiting; would you name it Travel 101 or Destination or relate the name to the reason behind the course like 10 Best Places in or just a very jazzy name which gives no clue to whats being taught but is jazzy enough to get the learners go and take the course like DeTraBest (short form of Delhi Travel Best) ... see what I mean, I could build another course on the meaning of DeTraBest :)

Well the search goes on... but as per my experience, the basic is to have a name that the learner can relate to and understand what he/she will learn when going through it.

2007 Recap

2008-01-08T16:05:00.000-08:00

I know, I know its a bit late to do the recap, which I should have done in December; but better late than never. So here we go!

Started the year designing and managing information and task oriented one pagers, known as job aids in the industry. I was a bit apprehensive about getting into an area that was totally new to me. However, after an extensive research on Internet, e-learning guild and other learning sites, I got a little hang of what they are, types of job aids, and how they are supposed to be designed. I got to know when to use scenario based job aids and when to use question based ones. I could go on and on about job aids , but that would make this post a long one... so I will cover the details in future posts.

Next came the course, which would be part of my Hall of Fame for courses that I have worked on, a real-time online process-oriented course. What does this mean? Well, I would say that the course design is in such a way that learners not only get to know but also apply the steps while going through the course. I was amazed to see the affect of this course not only on the learners, but also on the client, as it was the first time we had designed keeping in mind the impact on client logistics.

Another area which I must mention is managing the reviews of our courses. The best thing about this, apart from the fact that I re-designed the process, was to read the comments and feedback from the learners. It really helped me gain insight into how effective our courses were in terms of design, content, and interactivity.

All in all, 2007 was the year I ventured onto different aspects of being an instructional designer. I moved from being a traditional ID, only catering to designing and creating courses, to actually design other learning approaches that give a wholesome learning experience.

Looking forward to whats in store for me in 2008. Happy New Year!

Wikinomics in Learning

2007-08-14T04:46:00.000-07:00

I saw Don Tapscot's video on wikinomics last month and got really curios to know how we could implement in learning. In case you are not able to go through the video, just a quick summary on what wikinomics is about:

Wikinomics is a book written by Don Tapscot which is now becoming a concept. It involves the use of mass collaboration and web 2.0 to create and share information. Some examples of successful wikinomics ventures are: Wikipedia , Wikipractice, or Movie database.

Now that we are done with the summary, what I have started is the talk and discussion around what and how we can implement it in training or learning. Keeping in mind the copyright, plagrism and confidential content that we use for our trainings, is it possible to have mass collaboration?

Adaptability

2007-06-06T02:05:00.000-07:00

One of the most challenging projects I did was for a client in Aviation industry on Adaptability. The audience for the learning solution were employees of the client moving to a new environment.

Looking at the number of and the accessibility options available to the audience, I used the PBL strategy to script the course. Some of the objectives were:

Define adaptability.
Identify the need for adapting to a new environment.
Identify the advantages of adaptability.
Describe scenarios for adapting to a new environment.

Selling Essentials

2007-06-05T19:52:00.000-07:00

I joined GECIS (now Genpact) at their Gurgaon office as an instructional designer. My first project, Selling Essentials, was to create a learning solution for the sales representatives of a client in the Healthcare industry. The purpose of the learning solution was to train the sales representatives spread across North America on selling strategies. Some of the objectives were to:

Provide an overview of the Healthcare industry.
Identify the advantages and disadvantages of client's products.
Describe the selling strategies.

As the sales representatives needed on-the-go training and were spread across various geographies, I used the example, non-example approach to script the learning.

Technical and Functional Bootcamp

2007-06-05T01:42:00.000-07:00

My first job was at SSI as a Software Engineer (Trainer) at their Regional head office at Delhi. Some of the clients I delivered technical training in Oracle 8, C, C++, and Java were GE Capital and NIIT.

I was the First Trainer from SSI to deliver software trainings at California. I delivered technical and functional training on the client's E-Business Platform based on Java and XML at their Belmont office. The training was successful and I was asked to create user guides and product overview documents - this was my transition from being a trainer to a technical writer.

After creating all the technical documents, I was given the responsibility of creating training material for their applications. This was the first step towards instructional design and I developed Instructor Led Training (ILT) for the Technical and Functional bootcamp. Some of the objectives were:

Provide an overview of the client and its products. (Common)

Identify the features of Appbuilder. (Functional)

Describe the architecture of AppBuilder. (Technical)

Build and release a module using AppBuilder. (Technical)

Create templates using AppBuilder. (Functional)

Customize AppBuilder according to user specifications. (Technical)

Resume Blog Supplement: Purpose

2007-06-05T01:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Shweta Kapoor's blog!

The purpose of this blog is to showcase Shweta's capabilities and experiences as an Instructional Designer in the elearning and training industry.

Every post in this blog will have detail about one project done during her six years of experience; starting with the first one done as a trainer and her move to being an instructional designer.