elearningdesigners.org’s Hello, world!

Today we decided to do something a little differently, and formally introduce ourselves and our community of learning designers & enthusiasts to the world. Hello, world! We compiled some frequently asked questions (FAQs) that we encounter when meeting with potential collaborators and other folks. This is our backstory, the beginning. 

What is elearningdesigners.org?

elearningdesigners.org is a collaborative online community of learning designers & enthusiasts that can be accessed at https://elearningdesigners.org/. Our vision is to grow as a vibrant aficionado community and serve as a casual place to find valuable resources, socialize with peers, and stay current on the latest research and news in the learning and development field. 

How was the team formed?

I met the first two members Dana (who joined in February) and Liwei (who joined in June) during informational interviews about what it was like being an instructional designer. They were both very curious about the profession at the time and wanted to know more before considering a transition into the field. 

Meeting Dana

During the UCLA holiday break, I had a lot of time on my hands and so I asked my friend, Khiry Kemp, if his company, Oppti, needed any training materials that I could provide. We started working on a technical manual, but it sat unfinished until I met Dana.

In corporate instructional design (ID), you make a lot of job aids, often for new technology implementations (think Salesforce).  A job aid is essentially an excerpt of a manual that tells you how to do something and usually includes screenshots annotated with arrows, highlights, or other callouts diagramming the function of various user interface elements. 

I asked Dana if she wanted to finish the technical manual project to gain some experience in technical writing and in the creation of job aids, and luckily for me, she agreed! Without knowing it, this was the very first project that elearningdesigners.org would complete.

How did our community of learning designers & enthusiasts start?

elearningdesigners.org started as a passion project of mine (Cecil’s) and was originally intended to house a library of book summaries for primarily non-fiction, business best sellers,or research journal articles. However, like many startups, we pivoted during our problem-validation stage. For those in the non-startup/entrepreneurial world, problem validation is basically proving (i.e., finding evidence) that there is an unmet need or problem to be solved or “job-to-be-done” (Jobs-to-be-done is a reference to Anthony Ulwick’s book on innovation processes and startups). 

Meeting Liwei

When Liwei joined our team, she brought her previous edtech startup experience and asked the hard questions related to the problem validation of the startup. Why was this community needed? What unmet purpose could the community serve?

She helped me see that my book summaries weren’t fulfilling an unmet need (or one that I could readily prove). So I started thinking about my livelihood, working as an instructional designer, and began reflecting on how hard it was to break into the field. 

My First Formal ID Role

Unlike most instructional designers, I wasn’t a trainer and didn’t fall into the role due to functional expertise (e.g., a former customer service representative who is later promoted and then asked to create training for other customer service representatives). Instead, I came from a master’s program at the University of Southern California in Learning Design and Technology. All my previous work experience (except for my time at Edwards Lifesciences) were in administrative roles.

To say that it is very difficult to break into an ID role without any experience, would be a gross understatement. When I graduated from my program, I had a shiny new degree and almost perfect GPA (you need to know when to choose battles…but that’s another story). Like many new graduates, I naively thought that the golden gates to job heaven would just open for me thanks to my very expensive, hard-earned degree that usurped the last fleeting years of my twenties. 

But the gates didn’t open. In fact, I couldn’t find a single place or person anywhere who wanted the free labor of my ID skills. For two years, I was completely unmarketable and taking temporary administrative jobs between the tears and applications. I applied to SO MANY PLACES… and finally, I got hired at one, thanks to an amazing manager and human being that decided to give me a chance, Jeff Maholland, and the cast of wonderfully supportive people who would become my first Learning and Development (L&D) teammates: Katie Wood, Travis Fuente, Stacey Atwell, Christopher Carter, Jessica Mongovan, Ashley Stewart, and Warren Jones. It’s impossible to tell you how important this first formal ID role was to me, or how much I learned by working with each of these people. Thank you, indefinitely. 

I know how difficult, stressful, and at times, utterly despairing it can be when you are a fresh graduate or an aspiring instructional designer setting out to land your first role. That’s why we conceived the elearningdesigners.org community to serve as both a launchpad for early career and aspiring instructional designers to gain real-world experience, as well as a collaborative space for all learning designers & enthusiasts to share ideas, opportunities, and knowledge. 

Want to get involved with the elearningdesigners.org community?

If you have instructional design wisdom or insight that you want to share with our community… becoming a featured guest writer for elearningdesigners.org could be the right opportunity for you! Fill out elearningdesigners.org’s Write with Us form to get started!

Or volunteer with elearningdesigners.org and help us work on the projects that interest you!

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