About Me

Who I am: 

Hi, I'm Susan! I am an Instructional Designer and E-learning Developer. I have a beautiful family with 2 wonderful young children. Having them made me re-evaluate my priorities and how I wanted to spend my time which led to a career change. After 15 years in Education as a classroom teacher, and an English as a second language teacher I knew I enjoyed helping people learn. As I had more and more opportunities to teach adults through different Instructor-led trainings, I started to research other career paths. Then I found Instructional Design and I fell in love! I am able to use my years of experience in analyzing strengths and weaknesses to determine the learning gaps, and then find fun and creative ways to close those gaps. I am able to use my excellent interpersonal skills and my psychology background to help when I am collaborating with stakeholders and conducting a needs analysis. 

My Process:

My process starts with getting to know the organization for whom I am developing and designing. I like to find out how each company's process works so I can adapt to it. I start by gathering source content and meeting and collaborating with the SME. This helps me determine learning objectives, target audience, where the knowledge gap is, and what delivery mode the company is interested in. From there, I pull out all the relevant information and place it into a flow map that I turn into a Design document. Once that is approved, I design the storyboard and submit that for approval. After making any revisions needed on those documents, then I begin developing the course, using the authoring tool that had been agreed upon, and I would take this through an Alpha, Beta, and Gold stage of Revisions. 

Software Skills: Articulate 360 Storyline | Articulate 360 Rise | Canva | Storyboards | Design Documents | WellSaid Labs |PowerPoint | |Microsoft | Google docs | Google Drive | Google Slides | Google Forms | Microsoft Word | | Kahoot

Professional Skills: | Adult learning principles| ADDIE and SAM models | e-learning | Instructor-led training |Virtual Instructor- led training | Microlearning | Design Documents | Job Aids

Education: I enrolled in the Applied Instructional Design Academy to help me close my knowledge gaps in adult learning and e-learning. I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Education. I also have a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. 

What else: I love being outside. Whenever possible my family and I are outside, hiking, walking, riding bikes, and playing in water. I love to travel and look forward to being able to share that love with my children as they get older.  Reading is one of my favorite pastimes. Sitting on the porch with a good book is one of the best places to be. 

Thank you for visiting my portfolio and taking the time to learn about me!