Skillz

After a couple weeks of having people who should otherwise be my advocates question whether my team and I know how to do our jobs, I’ve been reflecting on the skills and abilities that make me good at what I do professionally, and the people & experiences which helped make that happen. Two recent scenarios make me realize I am so in love with my elearning development skills.

First: I had to figure out how to develop a product for my Instructional Media Tools class based off of very poor instructions from the professor and even worse “clarifications” from him to my and others’ questions. After researching various applications and vacillating and stressing, I decided to go back to what I know: elearning authoring tools, my favorite of which is Adobe Captivate. It worked out better than the other options I was considering, and I moved through the project relatively swiftly because I already have the necessary knowledge of both the application and the process. Despite the professor’s poor communication of project expectations, I received highest marks from him and “oohs & aahs” over the professional caliber of my work.

Second: I had the opportunity to teach a lesson as part of a church assignment. The learner population (yes, I’m using instructional design speak here) consisted of three young recent converts to my church, ages 9, 11, and 13. As I read through the material assigned to be taught, I realized that it needed some spicing up in order to hold my attention, let alone that of a couple of pre-teens. Again, after some thought and prayer, I reverted to what is familiar: developing an interactive multimedia learning module. The lesson went well, the learners were engaged, and it once again validated that maybe, just maybe, I know what I’m doing.

The answers to these two “problems” seem so simple, but that’s just it: God has given me the skills, talents, and intelligence to figure out solutions. He’s given me the opportunity to obtain an education, and I’ve captured that opportunity to make it worthwhile. He’s given me a professional life where I can use and develop these skills and talents, and I’ve taken advantage of that to learn even more.

I’m not the best elearning instructional designer out there, but I know I’ve got what it takes to generate quality work. And more importantly, I’ve got what it takes to identify appropriate application of those skills.

I’m especially appreciative to:

Krista Brown…for letting me purchase my first Captivate license and giving me the latitude to figure out how to use it.

Pascale Headley…for insisting that we purchase licenses for my whole team and paying for them to get formal training to use this tool to effectively develop multimedia instructional modules.

Chuck Atkins…for learning how to develop elearning modules better than me and giving me a reason to try harder.

That unnamed professor…for being such a poor communicator that I was forced to go with what I know and knock it out of the park with my skillz!