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SheriBearden827's avatar
SheriBearden827
Community Member
7 months ago

Feedback Needed

I have been in Instructional Design/L&D for 18 years, and was laid off last year due to a RIF. I am not getting any traction with my current sample and was wondering if some of you could view it and give me some real feedback. Feel free to use the comments option in the class. Please be honest, brutal even. I take constructive criticism well and would rather have you tell me where it lacks then have a potential employer turn me down silently. Thank you!

https://360.articulate.com/review/content/4dd063a9-06ea-4ad8-8419-707170db9d21/review

  • Honestly? I saw that you wanted me to view an entire course, and I closed the browser window. 

    I suggest you put together an interesting "course" with info about you, plus some "best of" samples. That could link to full-course samples, but each needs an intro. For example, what were the objectives and parameters, what did you start with, and what did you do to meet and exceed expectations. 

  • Sheri, a portfolio course like this is sort of an extension of your resume, so a lot of the same issues that apply to resume writing apply to this kind of course. Like a resume, there can't be any typos or mistakes in the course. You do have a few:

    • In the Course Navigation section, the 3rd bullet has an unfinished sentence.
    • In the Determine Next Steps section, the role buttons (Co-WorkerCustomer, etc.) just open into blank web pages when I click them
    • In the Videos section, I don't recommend linking to other people's YouTube videos. This section should either include videos you've made yourself, or should be left to just the statement you put at the top (that this section could link to any relevant videos the client institution has access to).

    The above errors are easy to fix. A more difficult issue, though, is the instructional design of this sample course. It is very oriented toward telling (providing information). Tools like Rise make it so easy to develop this kind of course that I don't think it's a good approach for a portfolio piece. You want your sample course to stand out from the crowd, and this one probably doesn't.

    The course is ostensibly to help people manage disgruntled customers. Therefore, most of the course should have learners practice managing disgruntled customers. Simulate conversations with 3-4 customers, each with a different issue and different expectations and different levels of grievance. Make the learner choose how to respond at each point to each customer. Provide feedback along the way (maybe a customer "satisfaction meter" that shows whether the learner's responses are working or not) and a summary of how the learner can improve in the future. Basically, reconceive of the course as an opportunity for learners to practice skills in handling customer complaints, not as an informational brochure about it.

    If you look at your Objectives section, you'll see that nearly all of your objectives begin with unobservable verbs like "know" and "understand" (you can't observe someone knowing something or understanding something). Instead, choose observable "action" verbs for your objectives (e.g. "Respond" as in "Respond appropriately to customer complaints"). Then the verb in each objective will suggest the activity you need to design to let learners practice that skill (in this case, you need to create activities that let them "Respond" to customer complaints).

    Anyway, that's my take. I hope this helps and good luck with your job search. Just remember, it is MUCH harder to get a job, than to hold onto one you already have. For some reason, we tend to hold job applicants to absurdly higher standards than we hold employees to. So don't let the process get you down.