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About me

Innovative instructional design and training director with 15+ years of experience leading teams who design, create, and deliver effective and enjoyable learning experiences for humans.

All people have immense potential to develop and grow. But in order to fulfill that potential, learning must extend beyond the walls of the classroom and become a way of life. My passion is using everything we know about humans to design experiences that help them become something uniquely better than they were before. I accomplish this by understanding and applying the right technology for the purpose, building creative and resilient teams, and always seeking to understand the people who are meant to live the experiences we design.

My skills

  • Leadership, Strategy, Creativity, Team-Building
  • eLearning, Interaction Design, Visualization
  • HTML, CSS, Javascript, SCORM, xAPI, SQL
  • Captivate, Articulate Storyline, Adobe Creative Suite
  • Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel
  • Hmong, Chinese

Portfolio

Portolio links all open in another page.

Medical Coding Practice
Medical Coding Practice

Rather than try to code specific examples to practice, I wrote a script to parse out the entire ICD-10-CM code book so there are 70,000+ possible codes to use in practice. In addition, I wrote a script that would generate the entire book in HTML format and organized them in such a way that you could easily browse through it even on mobile devices.

Beginning Trading Principles and Practice
Beginning Trading Principles and Practice

Our team built a series of activities that help individuals understand principles of trading by providing them a high level of inputs, much more than anything you're likely to see. This activity requires building candles to match a price chart.

Video
Video

We needed a video describing what personalized learning meant and a compelling analogy for our customers. The school bus converting to individual race cars worked really well for educators. I wrote the script and directed the animation.

Infographic
Infographic

I directed our team in creating this infographic contrasting the role of a teacher as a provider versus a facilitator.

Learner-Controlled Animation
Learner-Controlled Animation

Even though a learner can scrub a video to review, it isn't always the best experience. I designed this dial to control animation for when the learner truly needs to go at their own pace and review transitions.

Custom Drag and Drop Activity
Custom Drag and Drop Activity

Part of this learning experience involved letting the learner build an ideal classroom. Without logging in you won't get the full features of Save and Restore, but all of the interaction was custom built.

Interactive Conversation
Interactive Conversation

I designed a way for us to get learner input and then provide feedback in the context of an interactive conversation. In this case, the learner is providing information about their beliefs and their practice and then the activity shows where they are out of alignment with a short explanation and animation for each.

Categorization Activity
Categorization Activity

Categorizing is an important way we make sense of information that is presented. I led our team in designing a Venn diagram categorization activity.

Custom Activity Using Video
Custom Activity Using Video

Video can be used in many more ways than just passively watching. In this activity, the learner watches the video and then uses the video cues to inform how the information should line up.

Data Visualization
Data Visualization

Given a large amount of very dry, but crucial, material to for learners to consume, I developed this data visualization. This allows the learner to discover important connections in the data rather than have to be told.

Custom Activity with Video
Custom Activity with Video

This video shows hand signals law enforcement officers might use in an active shooter scenario. The learner, having previously learned the hand signals, constructs the correct message.

Integration with Google Maps
Integration with Google Maps

One activity called for drawing a map of the learner's borders. I developed the activity in a way that we could pull in Google Maps as the base and then generate an image for uploading to the instructor.

Game
Game

I developed this game that integrated learning about trans-border threats and showing the impact they have on a country.

Visual Feedback
Visual Feedback

Feedback is critical for leaners. For this activity, showing as well as telling was important so the learner could see the results.

Delayed Feedback with Video
Delayed Feedback with Video

Sometimes feedback needs to be delayed so the learner has time to formulate their own ideas and then compare with an another answer. This activity gives the learner time to write a response before they can view what one possible answer might be.

Matching Activity with Audio
Matching Activity with Audio

In this matching activity, the learner listens to the voice component and matches the audio to the word.

Multiple Choice with Feedback
Multiple Choice with Feedback

The first activity on the page is a short example of providing feedback for both correct and incorrect responses.

Drag and Drop with Visual Feedback
Drag and Drop with Visual Feedback

Another example of letting the learner see the concepts being taught and receiving feedback immediately, based on where they position the camera and lighting in a room for recording video.

Practice Activity
Practice Activity

Rather than explain all the steps up front before letting the learner try, this style of practice activity was built to let learning happen while trying from the very beginning. Showing where to click doesn't really help the learner remember, so the steps are given and the learner can determine if they need help by using the Show Me button or keep trying to click the right spot to advance.

Visual Feedback
Visual Feedback

In this activity, learners can see the placement of the protective equipment as they determine which ones are best suited for the situation.

Matching and Categorization Activity
Matching and Categorization Activity

An example of a matching activity that also involves categorizing for a critical but dull process.

Interactive Conversation
Interactive Conversation

Another example of an interactive conversation with a light-hearted tone for a serious subject. After talking with teachers I learned all of them had dealt with multiple accidents of all kinds in the classroom and it wasn't helping to talk around it. So I just went for the straightforward approach.

Categorization with Reflection
Categorization with Reflection

As a follow up to the interactive conversation, this categorizing activity helps the learner formulate a hypothesis, see patterns as they correctly categorize substances, and then reformulate after.

Ordering Activity
Ordering Activity

In this activity, the learner orders the elements of a regular expression to create a pattern matching a zip code.

School Project
School Project

The oldest content in my portfolio here was done for my Masters degree project showing how interaction could be built into a learning experience.


Resume

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Director of Partner Education
Pathful - Remote 2/2022 – 11/2022
Led team of 2 trainers, including 5 contract trainers, and instructional designers to create first company training catalog, training guides and instructional materials for ILT, VILT, and eLearning courses.
Taught trainers and instructional designers principled instructional design and training techniques monthly for professional development.
Built and delivered new asynchronous course delivery system using Jamstack architecture and 2 courses all in 6 months.
Supervised the delivery of 200+ product training sessions while simultaneously revising the training delivery process and expanded the training team capacity to include 3 new products.
Led the team responsible for developing and conducting user summit, including the creation of 6 new training sessions and workshops.
Director of Digital Learning Experience
Waterford.org - Remote 3/2020 – 2/2022
Led creative team of 3 game developers responsible for building digital learning activities for children’s literacy.
Coordinated with curriculum, development, and content development teams on a regular basis, resolving conflicts and meeting deadlines.
Released remediation program at a critical time after old program built in Flash expired, yet still resulting in a 7% increase in student phonics scores.
Built schemas for hundreds of skills and standards in a competency framework development tool, OpenSALT, and automated mapping for all 50 states.
Participated in diversity, equity, and inclusion task force dedicated to creating a better work environment and learning content that represents all learners.
Director of Learning Experience Design
Online Trading Academy 2/2019 – 2/2020
Designed asynchronous course on core strategy for trading.
Developed highly interactive learning components requiring productive effort from learners and sufficient support to achieve.
Created multi-player activities for practicing basic skills in reading and understanding charts.
Director of Instructional Design
Career Step – Lehi, UT 10/2018 – 2/2019
Generated skill maps for medical coding and billing careers.
Developed innovative medical coding learning exercise.
Successfully proposed competency-based, highly engaging learning model for revising current course structures.
Director of Distance Learning
Frontline Education – SLC, UT 11/2012 – 9/2018
Led team of 5 instructional designers, 2 developers, and 2 producers that created learning resources such as courses, video content, micro-credentials, and more.
Strategized approaches to curation and creation of learning content for K-12 teachers using a build, buy, or partner model.
Developed a system for delivery and production of distance learning materials resulting in training 2 times the number of participants at ½ the cost.
Developed poll interactions for gathering and displaying customer input.
Strategic Initiatives Program Manager
Pearson K-12 - Remote 4/2011 – 11/2012
Transitioned eLearning development from Flash to HTML5 using custom-designed template.
Developed visualization tools for student learning standards.
Wrote JavaScript curriculum and created interactions to help learners code.
Assessed workflow and created tools to speed up course development.
Followed trends in educational technology and prototyped solutions.
Manager of Distance Learning
THINQ Ed - Remote 5/2010 – 4/2011
Launched company’s first distance learning offerings and customer support portal.
Created HTML5 video template and subtitling tool.
Designed new rapid documentation system using HTML.
Presented 3 sessions at eLearning Guild’s Learning Solutions Conference 2011.
Manager of Distance Learning
Pearson School Systems
Supervised a team of distance learning developers and graphic designers.
Managed production of online learning content for users of student information systems.
Guided team in developing strategies for improving quality and speed of production.
Managed delivery system for courses and tutorials.
Developed foundational principles for designing distance learning content.
Awarded product innovation award.
Trainer/Consultant
Apple - PowerSchool Division
Conducted beginning and advanced trainings and workshops with customers in the education field.
Contributed to curriculum design and development.
Consulted with customers to arrive at the best solutions based on requirements and capabilities of software.
Maintained high rates of customer satisfaction with key accounts.
Developed unique ways to teach and explain technical subjects to end-users.
Awarded Employee of the Year for fiscal year 2004.
Awarded Employee of the Quarter for Quarter 1 of 2007.
Researched and resolved technical issues through written and spoken correspondence.
Trained and aided customers in obtaining needed knowledge to use programs productively.
Served in Level II position mentoring and assisting new support specialists.
Schoolhouse Language Center
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Managed multiple projects to organize, administer and expand business.
Designed bilingual parent/teacher communication books.
Applied staff and parent feedback in organizing systems and shaping methods.
Educated parents and students in principles of language learning.
Identified and obtained appropriate educational software for classroom use.
Implemented communicative, contextualized approach to language teaching.
Used classroom research to identify and promote productive activities.
Assessed student development and progress in spoken English.
Designed reading program to integrate all four skills in language learning.
Education/Adult Education and Training, M.A., University of Phoenix
Focused on instructional technology and game mechanics in learning.
Researched influence of neuroscience in education.
Anthropology, B.A., Music Minor, Brigham Young University
Specialized in linguistic anthropology, anthropological linguistics and sociolinguistics.
Awarded a scholarship from the Office of Creative Work and Research for researching Hmong folklore.
Researched Hmong and Chinese language and culture.