The year 2035 may seem distant, but time moves quickly, and the future of online and blended learning will take many different forms. Its evolution will depend on several key factors, including the specific learning environment—whether K-12 education, higher education, or the corporate sector. Each setting presents unique challenges and opportunities that will shape the future of digital learning. From a global perspective, as seen in the challenges faced by Makerere University in Uganda (NTVUganda, 2022), the adoption of online and blended learning varies based on technological accessibility and government support. Additionally, the readiness of an organization or institution plays a crucial role. At its core, online and blended learning require a financial investment, which must be carefully considered when determining if it is the right direction (Simonson & Zvacek, 2019). Given my experience in the financial industry within the corporate sector, I will focus on how online and b...

  If we look back in time—specifically to February 2020—it might not seem that long ago, but it feels like a lifetime has passed since then. At that time, many people didn’t fully understand what online learning was, and terms like 'blended learning' were unfamiliar to most. Then March 2020 arrived, and the world changed drastically. The pandemic placed a spotlight on online learning as much of the world transitioned to working from home. Schools closed, sending children home, and suddenly, we faced the challenge of teaching our children, training new employees, and helping existing employees adapt to an entirely new work environment. While teachers and companies did their best to provide the necessary training, the experience revealed significant flaws in the current system of online learning. One of my own learning experiences with online education—both from a parent's perspective with my children and as an employee—was that while the topics often sounded interesting, the...

As I reviewed the various case scenarios to develop my eLearning module, I was excited about the unknown that lay ahead. I decided to choose a topic familiar to me—working with teenagers and my love for cooking, especially pizza. From the start, I knew I wanted the learner, whom I referred to as the 'Chef' throughout the training, not only to learn about making pizza but to have an interactive experience as well.  As I mentioned earlier in this course, I lived by the motto 'create and design as you go.' Being introduced to the concept of storyboard writing and creating a wireframe for the entire training module using Twine was both challenging and rewarding. It helped bring structure to my design. Based on the wireframe I developed, I knew what I wanted the 'chef' to learn and how I wanted the training to flow. I think the most difficult part of developing the training module was bringing it to life, especially since this was my first time using Storyline. While...

I think within my organization one of the most dreaded emails we get every year is the subject line  “Colleagues Essential Training is now Available". Along with this email it advises us the links to the training as well as a timeframes when all our annual training has to be done and consequence of not doing it (i.e. loss of pay and up to termination) This type of Elearning is the most common I have been exposed to in my life sure I have taken the occasional Linkedin courses. We cannot forget what happened with COVID my teenage kids were forced into an unprepared online learning situation. I don’t blame the teachers as they were not prepared or trained for such a situation, so I know they tried their best but some teachers adapted quicker than others.  So after a few weeks of ignoring that email, I clicked the link to access the training LMS system to see how many training modules and I saw the number 28. I think to myself well this is the 24th year I have done these types of ...

In 2024 when I think of my own personal  definition of learning design I have to go back to 1996 when I learned about the 7 Laws of the Learner by Dr Bruce Wilkson in my undergraduate class Philosophy and Foundations of Education. The 1st law says “Teachers are responsible for causing students to learn” (Wilkinson, B. (1992) this had a huge impact on how I teach teenagers or adults.  So when planning, creating, and organizing materials I have to start with the tasks that the key stakeholders and decision makers who requested this training and what they require the colleague to learn and skills they must leave with in order to facilitate the role they are doing within the organization. Then I take a step back and think about my audience and ask myself what is their “why” for being part of this training class and how do I make sure they are successful.My Learning Design is about taking both of these groups and crafting a training experience that thinks about the colleagues bac...

The overall project of this assignment was a great journey for me as I did some personal reflections on how I would develop training material for my organization.. Within my organization we have to take a lot of compliance training that is super rigid and at times very time consuming and boring. At the same time  throughout the year I am tasked to teach my peers with less tenure about certain tools and processes as the SME. So as I progressed throughout the class and assignments I kept coming back to what I am learning and applying in this project will get me to my ultimate goal of becoming a Training Manager within my Organization. The outstanding thoughts are what do I still need to learn to achieve the goal and will I need to seek additional training outside of this program to obtain all the skills I need.  As I reflect on the final product of the “mock up” that we Team Kannapolis created I am very proud of the outcome. So starting with the Needs Assessment I found a lot of...

  On April 19th 2023, I jumped on a call with a Hiring Director for a Training Manager position I had interviewed for 2months prior hoping to hear the words we would like to offer you the job. Unfortunately, it was we have decided to go with someone else (the most dreaded words to hear) and proceed to let me know that the skill set I was missing was experience around Instructional Design. I had thought that all the work I had done until that point was enough. After the initial disappointment settled in, I asked myself what’s next. After a more in depth conversation with the hiring director his feedback made it clear that this was my next career path within my organization.   So as I am embark on this journey I see my short term goal is to determine what my current knowledge and understanding of Learning Designer based off my current working experience and skills. Start to assess those skills against the framework of this course, listening to my professors and peers as they t...