Becoming an Instructional Designer


It’s been a busy three months. With repairing a head gasket, attending a bachelor party, running a marathon, and traveling to a wedding in the rearview mirror, I’m finally ready to start my transition into instructional design (ID) in earnest. I’ve been dabbling with ID for the past four months. I’ve learned through LinkedIn courses and identified that I have transferable skills for the role. For the past couple of months, I have been thinking about making a portfolio and showing that I could use the software. This week I have taken concrete steps to make my first portfolio.

The purpose of my blog is to share what I have learned with others. I plan to take my readers along with me as I learn. I hope that these blog posts help someone in a similar place as me. I write for the average person who might be repairing or making something at home or work. I write for the shade tree mechanic who might need the inspiration to tackle a project. I write for the amateur runner trying to get one percent better each day. Now, I write for principals, teachers, and adjunct professors (or anyone) switching to ID.

Today I learned that Articulate 360 Storyline is only PC based. I am a Macintosh-based computer user these days. I spent my day upgrading Parallels. The last time I used Parallels, it was version 9. I also needed to install a fresh version of Windows. The last time I installed Windows, it was Windows 7. Today, I installed Parallels 18 and Windows 11. I plan to spend the next few days learning more about Storyline as I prepare an action map and storyboard. I’ll keep you posted as I learn.

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