Hi everyone! I recently migrated my design portfolio from a Wix platform to this Squarespace platform and my blog posts didn’t transfer over, so I’m starting fresh and not too unhappy about it—who doesn’t like a fresh start and a clean slate?

A fresh start is something I am intimately familiar with. For those of you who don’t know, I moved from Georgia to Arizona in October (2019) after accepting my dream job at Arizona State University as an instructional designer for the Future H2O initiative that’s part of the Global Futures category of the Knowledge Enterprise.

It sounds like I work for Star Trek, which is pretty cool. In reality, I design courses on the continuing education platform for water professionals and corporate companies who wish to streamline their education regarding innovative water sustainability practices. And it truly is as fun as it sounds.

For my first course (the first I ever created for an actual ID job and not as part of my Master’s program), I was tasked to design and develop a “Microbiology-based Technologies in Water and Wastewater Treatment” course. This is the first time I’d work with a SME, use a Macbook Pro, follow ASU branding guidelines, and so much more. There were so many firsts! It was more than applying the ADDIE or SAM model and then designing a prototype that would receive a grade. No, this course would be part of the ASU course catalog, available for purchase, and actually taken by students. The pressure of that was heavy, but I was also excited to have access to so many valuable resources that I didn’t have as an ID student.

The Content

Okay, so the first thing I needed to do was familiarize myself with the content. I had already acclimated myself to the Canvas LMS and was comfortable working with it, but I am not a water professional. I am not the SME when I first sit down to design my course, but I have access to the SME and the material, so it was time to get to work. This is where my research and English background came in handy. If there’s anything I can do well, it’s research and formulate main points and ideas.

For this course, the content was 5 different videos of the professor teaching his content in a traditional online format, roughly about 5-7 minutes long each.

Here’s my process:

Upload the videos to YouTube to get the transcripts of the text (pasted into a Google doc for easy access)
Watch the video and follow along with the transcript
Make notes or circle important ideas, examples, references, etc
Pause and Google search terminology I didn’t understand
Create a brief outline of content by noting the titles of the modules (or coming up with one if necessary)
Storyboard the main points, ideas for multimedia, and quiz questions

After I am comfortable with the content—I can rewatch, reread, and reach out to the SME as needed—it’s time to work a design plan into my storyboard.

The Design

With my content prepared, it’s time to pair the knowledge with Bloom’s Taxonomy. As the learner myself (remember that I have to learn this material first before I can teach it), the best way to continue developing and demonstrating my understanding of the material is to teach it and to create something from it. In that sense, I have to work my way up the Bloom’s Taxonomy levels myself before I can expect my learners to do so.

As part of a team, I had formatting rules to follow and instructions to try to remain consistent in the style of the course to what the team had already done, while also thinking outside of the box.

I consulted previous courses and created a template of what it looked like and where my material would fit in. You can view my video tour below to see what the end result looks like.

The Audience

Coming up with a design means I need to also know my audience and learning objectives. I determined that chunking the information at hand in the textual sections of the course would pair well with the video content without overloading the senses. A student would be able to read my lesson content and have enough information to successfully complete the activities and quizzes, but the video lectures provide the learner with a strong teacher presence and examples stated in a different way.

I also recognized that the course and module titles were a mouth full (and not something I could change), so I made the decision to incorporate infographics and visual aids into my lesson content.

Microbiology-based Technologies in Water and Wastewater Treatment.jpg

Instead of listing the titles, I created a visual representation of all 5 modules and included it in the review section at the end of the course as well. This is a quick and easy version of what I could have done with more time in Storyline—making the graphic interactive with clicks, hovers, or other opportunities to bring the image to life. In this situation, I focused on simplicity and followed the model set before me.

Similarly, I created a visual aid of the main contaminants mentioned in the lessons for easy reference and access. This image can be saved to any device and referenced later as needed.

Lessons Learned

My takeaway from this first course was that I felt some of the information included could be condensed or removed altogether. Each module was structured in the same format:

Overview
Materials
Lessons
Activity
Quiz

The materials section is the same for each module, so that’s one area that can be condensed and added to the Course FAQs section (which I did for the next course). By reducing repetitive material, I reduced the amount of times a learner could potentially mindlessly click through to get to material. If the goal is to have engaging content, it’s important to design the structure of a course to reduce the amount of clicks that don’t engage the learner.

Up Next

My next course, Wastewater and Public Health, was an opportunity for me to break away from the format used here and experiment with microlearning, interactive elements, and less modules. A blog post on that is coming soon!

Check out these other blog posts!