Bryan Jones over at eLearning Art has posted an interview with me...AND he is giving away ten copies of my book to a few lucky winners who share their own Accidental ID story.
So many of us landed in this field completely by accident? What's your story? Head over to Bryan's blog and share your story there for a chance to win!
6 comments:
Hello everyone. My name is Harshad and I am from India. After completing my MBA in Finance and Banking, I joined a private company who were working into Equity Analysis. They hired me as an Equity Analyst. My role was primarily to assess companies' stock reports and evaluate their performance. We also had a subscriber base where we used to provide valuable information and forecasts to our registered users. We once had to create snippets (small videos) for our subscribers, explaining them the basics of investing. We outsourced the work to an agency who were into graphics and animation. I was given the responsibility to make a screenplay-like document mentioning the script and key pointers. That was my first experience with 'Story-boarding'. In our first attempt, all we had were text-heavy screens and the first video turned out to be really garbage! It's then that we started exploring 'story-boarding'. I started referring to various ID principles, theories etc. Online tutorials were also of great help. This slowly took us to the concept of e-learning. Then after a lot of research and trial-n-errors, we finally started building our own team to build these videos. We researched the field of animation, sound designing, sketching etc. These were now visually enhanced with character-animation and various illustrations. I was now completely into building these videos. I myself was the SME, so it helped to write the script while storyboarding. After 1 year into this, our company got the required confidence and expertise. We took a lot of online training ourselves to understand it better. We explored LMS, FLASH, and Articulate. And finally, we started a separate E-learning business Unit, accepting projects from various companies, mainly into training and development. We started building WBTs, TTTs, and are now into full-fledged learning solutions! This was my story. From an Equity Analyst to an Accidental designer to now an official Instructional Designer!!
Cheers.
Hi Cammy,
It was a delight to attend your webinar today. I too am an accidental designer. It came about when I returned at the beginning of 2012 from several years of teacher training and teacher trainer training in Asia. I was permanently relocating to the US and not sure what was ahead so decided to take some online courses and signed up for a course about online learning through Coursera. There were well over 1000 other students in the same class and I was so amazed that I contacted my supervisor and said "Why can't we do this with our training materials? We can't meet our demand in person, but this could sure help?" I was told..."Go ahead, do it." Wow! Talk about a change in direction. Having spent so many years in out of the way places in Asia and outside of mainstream technology I was "blown away" and soooo excited that I would be able to tackle this. Now I am trying desperately to catch up on technology and learn how to create excellent eLearning. I really appreciated the seminar today and am loving the learning and am currently working on our first course with several more ahead. This field is a perfect fit for me. I just have to catch up :). Thanks again.
Sylvia
As a biochemical engineer, I ended up in clinical research. From being an SME, moving into mentoring new employees on our systems, I moved into a full time trainer role, which later evolved in to an e-learning designer and ID role. I sometimes miss being the SME for the training I need to be an ID/devloper for, but as a quick learner, I try to make information as simple as possible to the trainee.
In 2006 I gave up on my lifelong dream of teaching. In between the crappy economy, an unplanned pregnancy and general dissatisfaction in the University and their program provided I choose I stop going. I found myself with a useless Associate degree, a beautiful child and feeling like I was trapped in a never ending tunnel of employment and schooling options. I went back and forth from being a stay at home mom and working jobs that I found unsatisfying.
After three years, a job assignment ending and with another baby on the way, I decided that if I was going to back to college now was the time. I started a Business Administration Associates degree after loving an accounting position I took through a temporary employment agency. I used many of the credits I had previously received to complete nine courses in two semesters. I had to sign a waiver that said I was limited in time, money and the courses I could take. The whole time wondering if I made the right decision. I struggled with the idea of going back reminding myself how it felt to leave education behind. I would have to remind myself every so often that Business Administration is stable, there are so many avenues to choose and the success latter is pretty straight forward. I was almost done when I found out that my financial aid ran out and I was forced to walk away with only one course remaining.
After having my second child, I took a part time job as a receptionist at an Educational Center. During this time, I worked closely with HR to get teachers and therapists ready for the school year, maintaining safety for children and staff, creating documentation on processes and policies and setting up professional development opportunities. It was at that moment when I realized that Education and Business could intersect. That I could combine Education, which I loved the most with Business, the one that I felt stable.
I started seeking employment hoping to go from part time to full time when I came across a job opening from a local college. The title was listed as a Content Assembler and I was stumped. I tried googling the title and looking up information on what that meant or how it worked but came up with nothing. The posting was cryptic and had foreign words to me like course authoring, Lecotra and SCORM. Something on the page was screaming at me. Something felt right. I decided that this is where I needed to go next and submitted my resume hoping that I wasn’t packing boxing or stapling papers all day long.
After clarifying the tasks in the interviews, I was ecstatic. This is what I was looking for! The position ended up being an eLearning developer contract position for a Fortune 50 company. I learned course development software, techniques and theories, graphic design and honed my professional skills. I drove in deep learning anything and everything I could: self-teaching myself to teach others. I soon branched into the concept of translating material volunteering for a new service to be provided. I learned process life cycle and the importance of documentation while building relationships with other employees. Finally, through hard work and dedication I rose to a half time Instructional Designer position that opened up the opportunity for me to work with SMEs, review courses and implement Instructional Design best practices and theories into every day development and process.
I’ve since moved into new position that has taken me 900 miles away from everything I knew for a better chance. By accidentally stumbling into ID I have opened up opportunities, the globe and most importantly my confidence. I feel committed and ready; as if I finally have a professional purpose. Now I just need to talk myself into getting a Bachelor’s degree…
Well, when I was a kid, I wanted to be a teacher. My parents said "teachers don't make money. you need to be a doctor." So I went to school to be a doctor. Graduated with a degree in biology, but ended up not going to medical school as I had a part-time job as a DJ and I had a chance to (and did) meet Garth Brooks. Got married. Had a kid. Helped my husband run a business. Got hired on as a contract writer/editor. Got hired permanently as a writer/editor for a place that trained PA Domestic Relations Section workers (people who collect, enforce, and manage the child support process.) The material was like chewing wood. Additionally, they were trying to move courses online. I became involved making the material more engaging and moving it online. I pursued my masters in instructional systems. Moved to a couple of other colleges within the University I work and now am in charge of the Office of Digital Learning where we not only support online courses, but MOOCs, and residential instruction as well. Crazy stuff. :)
Hi,
Thanks for the webinar today. I was going to go into math or science when I left school but one thing led to another and eventually I ended up married with a small child and I moved my family across the country (Australia) to try and improve our family situation. I joinedd the local volunteer State Emergency Service to meet people and help out. A year or so later it became a pparent that we needed our own first aid instructor because we had trouble accessing the courses so I volunteered to get the necessary training qualifications and go through the mentoring process with the Ambulance Service to be approved as an instructor (if anyone had ever told me that I would voluntarily stand up in front of people and talk I'd have laughed at them). So I did that and it became a casual job because the ambo service actually hired me which was great because my marriage had broken down by then and I was a single mum. I started doing more and more freelance training and then a friend said that they were looking for someone to write a first aid training program for their volunteer service was I interested - so I said yes. No experience, no idea but I did it and the program actually ended up being adopted for use nationally across their service rather than just state wide. Not long after that a paid staff training position came up at SES regional HQ which I applied for and got (at the same time as I enrolled in uni and started a Bachelor Degree in Training which I successfully completed)and soon after that a technical writer position came up at SES State Training HQ which I got and then I became an Instructional Designer for SES State Training which is where I am today 5 years later. Combining my accidentally found passion for training and instructional design with my passion for emergency services and planning to do a Masters in Learning and Development (eLearning) hopefully in the next couple of years. I am so lucky.
Cheers
Sherri
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