For seven years, I worked as an instructional designer with Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories in their corporate university SEL University (SELU). This was a formative time in the development of my career and I am proud of the work I have done. Though all of my work is intellectual property of the company, I wanted to detail some of my experiences with publicly available information.
My primary role was to collaborate with subject matter experts (SMEs) throughout the company to create and maintain customer training. Training was either based on fundamental knowledge and theories needed by our customers or for training on the actual products and software. All training was highly technical in nature: electrical and protection engineering, math, communications, and networking.
The development process followed an ADDIE approach:
- Analysis: Course concepts were proposed by SMEs and/or customers. A needs analysis was conducted, and the results were entered into SharePoint for stakeholder approval.
- Design: Upon approval, a course outline, goals, schedule, and overall direction for the course were developed and approved by the course team and stakeholders.
- Development: The SME would write the initial content in PowerPoint and send it for peer review by another SME. The approved technical content would be sent to me for an ID review. To review the technical content without a technical background, I needed to look for patterns: like material should be grouped together, new content should be introduced before it is discussed, section and course objectives must be met, content should be engaging and interactive, videos and animations may be developed to teach concepts that do not translate well to PowerPoint, and there must be some way to test the content learned. After working back and forth with the SME to finalize the content, the course was taught live through a dry run presentation (often virtually) to a small sample of the prospective target audience. This provided the opportunity to catch errors, issues with flow, and other problems with the material. Adjustments would be made to the material, slides sent for editing, and if an eLearning course, developed in Storyline 360.
- Implementation: A pilot would be performed with external students to test and evaluate the new course. If any problems were found, further development would follow. If successful, the course would be ready to publish or schedule for students.
- Evaluation: During the run of the course, evaluation feedback would be collected from both students and instructors (if applicable). The feedback would be reviewed by all IDs and stakeholders, and further action items would be assigned for maintenance as needed.
While the bulk of my time was spent maintaining the large catalog of existing courses and managing the learning management system, here are some of the courses I helped develop from scratch.
eLearning
Link: https://selinc.com/selu/courses/cbt/105/
Software: PowerPoint, Camtasia, Audacity, Captivate 8
Notable: This course is the only Captivate course available anymore as most courses have been redeveloped in Storyline. It was developed in 5 separate files (one per section) and published as a multiSCO package. I created many explainer videos to show students how to complete the math they were learning. This course is available for free from the link above, though you will have to create an account to register.
Link: https://selinc.com/selu/courses/ecom/201/
Software: PowerPoint, Camtasia, Audacity, Storyline 360
Notable: This course uses advanced drag and drop activities for several of the major interactions. Students develop networking plans using a bank of draggable items that can go in multiple locations or not be used at all. Because Storyline only allows for a 1:1 drag and drop interaction out of the box, a great deal of trigger conditions and variables were used to make this happen.
Link: https://selinc.com/selu/courses/ecom/202/
Software: PowerPoint, Camtasia, Audition, Storyline 360
Notable: This course was animated around the recorded lecture to make the content more engaging. Interactions follow a tell/show/do method, ending with the student working directly within the software being taught.
Link: https://selinc.com/selu/courses/eprot/401/
Software: PowerPoint, Camtasia, Audition, Storyline 360
Notable: This 51-hour course is a collection of 13 protection engineering topics consisting of lecture recordings, downloadable exercises, and quiz questions. It is an example of a situation where stakeholders opt not to follow suggestions for sound instructional design practices. The timeline did not allow for engaging activities and the course is far too long. However, sometimes you must make the best out of what you are required to work with.
Blended Learning
Link: https://selinc.com/selu/courses/eapp/3530/
Software: PowerPoint, Camtasia, Audition, Storyline 360, Premiere, WebEx
Notable: This course is the only fully blended learning course available at SELU and was developed as a means to teach equipment during the pandemic. The course is self-paced but includes equipment and four WebEx meetings. Students register for and receive a case of equipment the week before class starts. An introductory WebEx session is held to welcome students and explain the format of the class. For the three following weeks, students are expected to complete the assigned eLearning and exercises on their own time. At the end of each week, the instructor holds a virtual class to review what was learned, provide the opportunity to ask questions, and prepare for the week ahead. The course has many moving pieces with the coordination of shipping equipment but is so well received by the students that the course will continue to be held after pandemic protocols are unnecessary.
Instructor-Led Training
Link: https://selinc.com/selu/courses/app/ICON/
Software: PowerPoint, Visio
Notable: This course was developed with a standard course outline and a tailored outline that includes additional optional sections that allow customers to mix and match sections for their specific needs. Each section is able to stand on its own without being repetitive. This is the only cafeteria-style course developed for SELU.
Link: https://selinc.com/selu/courses/com/401/
Software: PowerPoint, Camtasia, Audacity, Premiere
Notable: Several live instructor demos were hard for students to observe from the back of the room, were difficult to make repeatable between instructors, and inevitably ran into glitches that took away from the content. I collaborated with the SME to record the video, screen recordings, narration, and compile them into videos that students were able to access in and out of class. Also, during the pandemic I suggested that this course be broken apart into modules for the creation of eLearning. eCOM 202 and eCOM 203 were the first series of eLearning courses to be born from this course.
Link: https://selinc.com/selu/courses/sys/407/
Software: Camtasia, Premiere, Audacity, PowerPoint
Notable: This three-day equipment course is built around the tell/show/do method. On the first two days, students learn the theory, observe through class demos, and follow step-by-step exercises to learn the basics of the equipment and software. On the final day, students are provided a sample engineering work order and specifications for a network that they must set up. Students work in a group of four at their own pace and instructors provide assistance throughout the day
