My Instructional Design Goals for 2020

Author: Pascale Swanson
Date: January 4, 2020
Tools:
Categories: Instructional design

Unlike last year, I am aiming for quality over quantity when it comes to my instructional design goal setting. I also am choosing a new format. Rather than A-to-Z goals, I am splitting my goals into categories: Research, Design, Development, and Community. In each category, I will keep my goals to a minimum with the hope that this will give me the time to fully succeed in these areas.

Research

Lifelong learning is not just the basis of my career, it is also my passion. I hope to get my own learning back on track this year with some solid research.

  • Last year I struggled to keep up with the blogs of my most trusted sources. This year I will get back to using my blog aggregator (if I can remember my password!) and check out the new articles at least every other day.
  • For the entirety of 2019 the alumni library at the university where I got my most recent Master’s degree has been under construction. I had hoped to keep up with the accurate theories of and strategies in learning (based on scientific research). If the library doesn’t open up within the first quarter of 2020, I’ll look to getting my research elsewhere.

Design

I have many great ideas for ways to improve the instructional design at my job. Unfortunately, these ideas aren’t always implemented. However, this year I hope to have a greater influence in the design process. My goal is to have a greater focus in promising areas of design that I have been prototyping:

  • Inductive learning (aka concept attainment)
  • Microlearning
  • Simulations

Development

This year I whittled down my list of tools to just three:

  • Blender
  • Illustrator (the only Creative Cloud product that strikes fear into my heart)
  • AfterEffects (I already can do quite a bit, but I’m looking to reach a more advanced level)

Community

I believe that a strong professional learning community can help a learning experience designer flourish. Last year I lay the groundwork and this year I hope to build upon that.

  • I re-invented my Twitter account last year. This year I hope to check it at least every other day and to contribute at least once per week.
  • I’ve been mostly ignoring the ID community (particularly the Articulate community), except when I need to solve a problem. That is just terrible in my eyes. This year I’d like to be more active in helping other solve their problems. I will also aim to write a new blog post at least twice per month.

Conclusion

The year 2020 seems promising to me, and I’m hoping it will be my greatest year yet when it comes to achieving my L&D goals. Good luck to all of you with your own goals.

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