Learn | Make | Fix | Run

This is my 100th blog post. I have gone from a student who did not like to write in elementary school, middle school, high school, and undergraduate school, to a graduate student who tolerated writing a thesis, to a principal who needed to write at least once a week, to someone who writes when he has something to say for fun. I started this blog to share what I have learned and to demonstrate to a future employer that I know how to communicate. I guess it’s appropriate that my 100th article is job-related. I was offered a job! It was a remote job with flexible hours and a six-figure salary in instructional design. Unfortunately, it was a scam. Something felt off from the initial email, but given how AI is used these days, I chalked it up to someone using AI poorly to communicate with potential applicants. Below, I will share the red flags I saw and explain how the scam works so you can protect yourself and your friends and family. Something Was off ...

My portfolio is complete, and my LinkedIn profile has been updated to showcase my background in instructional design. I invite my blog readers and Instagram followers to take a sneak peek before I announce I am open to work on LinkedIn. Catholic school administrators are unsung heroes.  Quite often, they need to do the work of an entire district office. Not only are they responsible for ensuring students are learning. They are responsible for promoting the school’s Catholic identity, hiring teachers and staff, onboarding new employees, approving payroll, custodial work (when something needs to be cleaned up or repaired and no one else can help), fundraising, budget creation and monitoring, approving expenses, reporting to stakeholders, capital improvement projects, marketing, retention, staff evaluations, and the list goes on. The number of employees reporting directly to a Catholic elementary school principal is staggering. Throw in a pandemic that shut down all schools and forced...

Google Sites and I have spent a lot of time together this past week. I have decided to use Google Sites to host my portfolio. It’s been a week of amazement and frustration. What you can do these days without knowing how to code websites is impressive. Conversely, it’s so frustrating when you want to do something, and you don’t have access to the HTML or CSS. I learned how to make a website in 1996. I used Pico and coded line by line. No syntax coloring, no auto-close for tags, no responsive layouts, and no 12 or 16-column grids. In the late 90’s, I was using Microsoft FrontPage just as it was becoming mainstream. I also remember using Dreamweaver during that time as well. In the late 2000’s, I learned PHP and MySQL for creating web pages in Dreamweaver. I got my partner teachers on the web with WordPress classroom websites and eventually Google Sites. They were using TeacherWeb. I am used to more control when creating websites. However, I know the tradeoff for control is convenience. U...

This week, I spent time putting the finishing touches on my Articulate Rise 360 Food Scrap Recycling project and my Articulate 360 Storyline Marathon Heart Rate Training project. My 30-day trial is scheduled to end today, and I wanted to make sure all of the assets I needed were downloaded and functional before I’m cut off. The lead image for this post was borne from feedback on my flagship project. There is an option for the user to ask the coach for advice in many of the scenarios. However, with a busy background, the phone on the left became hard to find. This is just one example of my work this week. As I put on the finishing touches, I asked, “This or that?” This week, I learned how to use Google Cloud. Apparently, I have a bucket, and in the bucket, I have my portfolio files. I feel like a professional web developer when the files that I have stored start with https://storage.googleapis.com/  I continue to write descriptions about my two portfolio projects and am very excited...

  This week, I have finished creating my flagship Articulate Storyline 360 project. It’s based on using heart rate training to prepare for a marathon. I still need to create a write-up to include with my portfolio and clean up some loose items, but the hay is in the barn. I’ll share more once my portfolio website is ready for public consumption. I have learned a lot in creating the project, but I am most proud of the JavaScript I implemented. I took a required C programming class in college. I made webpages in the late 90’s, just as Microsoft FrontPage became mainstream. In the late 2000’s, I learned PHP and MySQL for creating web pages. I may have used JavaScript for a clock on a late 1990’s website. While I have been successful in these endeavors, I don’t consider myself a programmer. In creating my flagship project, I thought it would be nice to include a Karvonen target heart rate calculator based on the user’s maximum and resting heart rates. I knew that Storyline could execut...

In preparing to be an instructional designer, I have learned that there are a few ways to source graphics for your eLearning projects. Considering I lack the skill and time to make the graphics myself and don’t have a budget for a graphic artist, I am left with two options – image bank websites or AI-generated bots. Instructional designers can source vector graphics from an image bank website like Freepix. The upside to this approach is that the graphics are already created. You don’t need to wait for them to be created. Designers need to know the correct keywords to search for content successfully. The downside is that the artwork the instructional designer has in mind may not be in the image bank. Image generating AI tools like Midjourney and Blue Willow can also be used to create content. The advantage is that the tools can generate graphics not in the image repository websites. Like image bank sites, designers need to know how to prompt the bot to generate the content. The downside...

I have completed most of my Storyline training and am ready to start my first project. The best option for accessing images for use in the project is through subscription-based services. The monthly cost is modest, but to keep spending down and get all of my image needs addressed in one fell swoop, I decided to jump over to Articulate Rise 360 to create my first Rise project. I still need to finish my microlearning lesson about food scrap recycling for a local elementary school.  Once my portfolio site is available, I will share it with you, and you can experience it yourself. In the meantime, I have included a screenshot of my project. What have you learned this week? I would love to hear about it in the comments below.

This week I have taken the plunge and signed up for my 30-day trial of Articulate 360. I have spent the last six months learning the theory and terminology of instructional design. I have been learning Storyline and Rise by watching videos without having the software available. Articulate’s retail price is $1,099 per year. There is no monthly option. Knowing that the trial for the Articulate software is only 30 days, I have spent time planning some projects for my portfolio. Now that I have some ideas in mind, it’s time to learn the program. I am working through the online user guide on the Articulate website. I am making good progress, and I should be starting on my portfolio project next week. It’s exciting to put something together to show a future employer I have the skills to be an instructional designer. I hope to finish before the trial expires, but I have learned that I might be able to get an extension for the trial if I explain my current situation. What have you learned this...

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 pe...