Well, last night we held our last meeting of the year for Summer Break Room, a free place for teachers transitioning to instructional design to connect, learn, and grow together. If you missed any (or all) of the meetings but would like to look over the resource documents, they can all be found below.
You can also access the documents and join the GLDC online community here. The community has numerous programs that are uplifting and informative for current and aspiring Learning and Development professionals, including a book study, weekly social/networking meetups, a Storyline Project Club, Accessibility Co-Lab, and a soon-to-be revamped mentoring program (all free).
June 6th: People to Follow and Tools to Know
In our first meeting, we spent a little time talking about what instructional design is and its similarities and differences with classroom teaching. Our resource document for the evening featured content creators on LinkedIn who provide helpful content and standard tools in the industry.
June 13th: Learning Pathways
For our second meeting, we were joined by Ashley Long, an instructional designer at the University of Kentucky. We discussed learning pathways to attain the skills needed to learn about the theory and application of instructional design.
June 20th: Making the Transition
In our third meeting, we were joined by Russell Sweep, an instructional designer and OD Content Development Manager for Goodwill Industries International, to discuss what it was like making the transition from academia to corporate instructional design. The resource document from that meeting contains advice for job-hunting and ways to stand out as an applicant.
June 27th: A Day in the Life
In our fourth meeting, we were joined by two former educators, Niki Anderson and Ricky Fisher, who transitioned to instructional design to discuss what "a day in the life" looked like. The resource document from this meeting is a high-level overview of things that occur in the various stages of instructional design projects.
July 11th: The Other Side of the Application
For this meeting, we wanted to give attendees a look from the other side of the application. We were joined by former-teachers-turned-recruiters Shawna Berger and Matthew Muehleisen to discuss how candidates could stand out as job applicants and job-searching strategies. No resource document was created for this meeting due to its Q&A nature, but a list of questions and answers can be found here.
July 18th and 25th: Portfolios
Our final two meetings focused on portfolios: what they are, why you need them, things to consider, and what should be included. The resource document from this meeting covers that information and provides examples of portfolios to look at.
Have any ideas on improving the content or topics for future sessions? Let me know in the comments so we can continue making this program better for future cohorts.