Over the years, I have taken part in various voluntary organisations and projects, e.g. LearnAppeal, xAPI cohort, Ignite Hubs, Keelworks Foundation, and the ELCP.
On this page, I am sharing three samples of voluntary work that I really enjoyed. Even though they are all in draft form, they illustrate how instructional design can make a difference in one’s learning experience, even with a very small budget.
So let me share a few words about these projects…
Mosaik Training on Instructional Design
While working for Omniplex, I was approached by the team from Mosaik, an NGO which helps refugees reach university. They had a training program in place for their volunteers, but during Covid-19 they needed to turn their existing material to an online format. They had limited access to technology and no instructional design expertise, so I was asked to coach them and help them structure their learning online. After a few consultations, I put together a workshop for them and modelled a template that they could use for their programme. I particularly enjoyed this project because it was a real opportunity to use learning design to make a difference. As a result of that, refugees could learn English and get offered a position in a university, which would really transform their lives.
Click the image below to view the template that they used to structure their learning content and train their volunteers.
eLCP: The eLearning Community Project
The eLearning Community Project was an LinkedIn initiative, started by Dana Kocalis. The idea was that a group of volunteers of all learning design levels, and even other sectors (e.g. graphic design and VO) would get together to create an eLearning course about e-learning. There were different teams and a project timeline which we were to follow, while collaborating and learning from each other. The end result was the work of many different people, with all the challenges this might involve. What I enjoyed the most about this project was the networking and the social learning aspect of it. Working with a diverse, international team, I made great connections along the way, worked with experienced designers and mentored new starters in e-learning.
An eLearning Module with no budget and tools!
There are times when we are faced with a lack of development tools, or budget. Back in 2016 I was approached by a BioMed student who was faced with both. As part of an assignment he had to create an e-learning intervention, but the only tool that the university would offer was a simplified version of iSpring. I volunteered to help from an instructional point of view and advise on how he can structure the learning experience.
We put in place an e-learning intervention; the students took a pre-test and post-test before and after they saw some e-learning content about how stomach ulcers are formed. This followed a behaviourist model of learning and it was purposefully kept simple due to time/budget constraints. Fun fact about this work: all the animations and visuals were hand-drawn in paint and PowerPoint!
Note: This project was made to run in Flash. I have used the html version here, but depending on your connection speed, this might appear glitchy. Apologies for that!
What would you like to view next?
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