Week 1 Welcome & Introductions

Hi! My name is Blanca, and I'm based in Chicago. I'm a Senior Instructional Designer at the American Academy of Dermatology, where I work with wonderful team in creating Continuing Medical Education (CME) learning experiences for dermatologists.

The organization just recently added the AI functionality to our Articulate subscription, and we're taking a very measured approach to see how we can incorporate AI-assisted workflows and/or assets without compromising trustworthiness, which is really important in our area. I'm the only eLearning developer in the team, so I'm interested in learning more about the AI features in Rise and Storyline.

We have three very sweet cats who like doing the conga!

Hello everyone! Bonjour à tous!
I am an Instructional Systems Designer in Montréal, Canada. 
I work for a software company where I design and develop e-learning for software and airline crew planning concepts.
I have been using Articulate for 14+ years and am always eager to get the most out of the tools. Looking forward to learning new skills. :D

Hi everyone! I'm Taylah, based near Sydney, Australia. 👋 I'm a Senior Instructional Designer, working in the early education and care sector. This is my assistant, and goofy pup, Cooper! Looking forward to getting started. 😊

My name is Patricia Peterson, and I work for Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans, Louisiana as an Instructional Designer. I create eLearnings that train staff on workflows that support patient care. My day-to-day work includes developing and maintaining eLearning content, assisting others with course development, and managing the LMS that hosts these training materials.

I joined the AI Assistant Certification Cohort to gain practical AI skills that will help me improve eLearning design, increase learner engagement, and enhance the overall learning experience.

My pet is Sandy, a miniature labradoodle.  She is a lot of fun and is always the first one in the car when we leave the house.

Hi everyone! 

My name is Carolyn and I work out of my home as a senior instructional designer for a major hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. My daily role varies between managing our department's project management system, creating training materials and elearnings, oversight for SharePoint sites/pages, as well as department communications. I support the front desk, scheduling and revenue cycle staff on a day-to-day basis. 

I am excited to get started with this AI cohort to learn more about effectively using AI in my course development to enhance training in order to keep up with this fast moving trend in learning and development. 

Meet Stormi! My 5 year old boxer shepherd mix who especially loves swimming, wearing clothes and her best friend Lacey. 🐶

Hi Everyone! 

I'm Kim Drummond. I am an Instructional Designer for Lakeview, a mortgage company. I work remotely from Lebanon, PA - right near Hershey - where they make the chocolate! I mainly create job aids and written materials, but occasionally create eLearnings for end-users in various roles.

I'm excited to learn more about how I can use AI to efficiently create engaging eLearning courses to support our written materials.

I live in an old 1868 stone iron-workers cottage with my cat, Fitz.

Hi everyone.  I'm Diane McCullough, a Learning Services Specialist at Cozen O'Connor, a large, international law firm. I live in southern New Jersey. Rise is relatively new to me and have used the AI assistant to only make some of my text better and shorter. Our team recently started using the built-in AI voice for audio.  I'm looking forward to seeing more capabilities that it can help me with my course design.  We do have some custom blocks and templates that we use.  Articulate Storyline is not being used. 

My pet cockatiel passed over the rainbow bridge at 24 years old two years ago.

Hi everyone! My name is Kelvin Lartey, and I'm based in Indianapolis, Indiana. I work for Cox Automotive as an Instructional Designer on the Learning & Performance Solutions team.

In my day-to-day role, I design and develop learning experiences that help employees build skills and perform at their best. That includes creating e-learning courses, videos, job aids, and other training resources, while partnering with subject matter experts and stakeholders to turn complex topics into engaging, learner-friendly content.

I joined this AI Assistant Certification Cohort because AI is rapidly changing the way we work, create, and learn. I'm excited to explore practical ways to use AI to improve productivity, enhance learning experiences, streamline content creation, and support better decision-making.

Looking forward to learning alongside everyone!

Hi everyone! I’m Susan Szaradics, and I’m based in Missouri in the United States. I work in services enablement and release readiness, helping customer-facing teams prepare for new features, process changes, and product releases.

In my day-to-day role, I partner with Product, Services, and Delivery teams to help prepare our customer-facing teams for new features, process changes, and product releases. Much of my work involves translating complex information into practical communications, training, resources, and enablement experiences that help teams feel confident and prepared.

I joined the AI Assistant Certification Cohort because AI is becoming an increasingly important part of how we work. I’m hoping to strengthen my skills, explore new ways to use AI responsibly and effectively, and learn how to create assistants that support real business needs. I’m especially interested in using AI to simplify information, improve consistency, and reduce the time spent on repetitive tasks so teams can focus more of their energy on customers and strategic work.

I've included a sunset photo of our 2 dogs outside of Dinosaur National Monument.

I’m looking forward to learning alongside everyone and hearing how others are applying AI in their roles!

Hi everyone! I'm Gunjan, based in Hyderabad, India.

I've been working in Learning & Development for nearly 12 years. After starting my career as a biology teacher, I transitioned into corporate L&D and currently lead the Instructional Design team for Commercial Academy at AVEVA, where I design sales enablement and technical learning solutions for a global audience.

My strengths are instructional design, learning experience design, AI-assisted content development, and creating engaging eLearning using tools like Articulate 360, Synthesia, and GenAI. I'm always happy to exchange ideas on learning strategy, storyboarding, localization, and making complex topics easier to learn.

I'm joining this cohort to deepen my knowledge of Articulate AI, discover practical ways to integrate AI into my workflow, and learn from the incredible experiences of this community.

Looking forward to connecting and learning with all of you!