Artifacts

1. Motivation and Advising Learning Experience Plan (Fall 2017- EDIT 6400e) and
2. Storyboarding Fundamentals and More (Spring 2023 - EDIT 6190e)

Foundations form the base of every designer’s practice, isn't it? The theories, habits of mind, and ways of seeing that influence how we approach learning and design. Looking back, two courses stand out as cornerstones of that foundation: EDIT 6400E - Foundations of Learning for Instructional Design and Technology (Fall 2017) and EDIT 6190E - Design Thinking and Development Tools (Spring 2023). Together, they represent both ends of my professional journey, from first discovering learning theories to later applying creative and human-centered design processes with confidence.

When I enrolled in EDIT 6400E, I was still new to instructional design and only beginning to connect my teaching experience in mathematics with the broader landscape of learning theory. The course introduced me to how people actually process, construct, and transfer knowledge. I remember vividly how our early discussions around the Information Processing Model completely reshaped my perspective as an educator. I began to understand why so many students entered my math classes carrying negative associations with the subject. If emotion and prior experience interfere with information moving from working to long-term memory, then learning math was not just about logic anymore! It was about perception, motivation, and confidence. That realization changed how I framed my lessons. I began each semester by addressing students’ beliefs about math and incorporating small reflective activities that encouraged them to see the subject differently.

Our project in this course, the Motivation and Academic Advising Workshop, was my first attempt to put theory into structured design. Working collaboratively, we created a professional development workshop for academic advisors, focusing on how motivational theory could inform their advising practices. My contribution involved designing the initial interview questions for the client and planning the sequence of activities that would guide participants from self-reflection to application. We chose the Expectancy-Value Model of Motivation as our framework and built the experience around Problem-Based Learning, so that advisors could connect theory directly to realistic advising situations.

Each week’s discussion pushed my thinking further. When we compared Piaget’s stages of development with Vygotsky’s idea of the zone of proximal development, I realized how both independent exploration and guided social interaction are essential for learning. That duality became part of our workshop design as well where participants worked in small groups with varying levels of experience so that peer mentoring could occur naturally. In fact, that is how our courses in the IDD program are designed as well.  Later, when we explored Design Thinking, I connected those ideas to the collaborative, empathic process of designing for real learners. By the time we reached Universal Design for Learning (UDL), I was thinking far beyond lesson planning. I started considering how accessibility, learner choice, and engagement intersect in higher-education classrooms.

This course gave me a language for practices I had instinctively used as a teacher and grounded them in theory which was extremely valuable for me. It showed me that learning is not a single event but a dynamic process of attention, connection, and reflection. The final project demonstrated how cognitive, motivational, and social theories come together in practice and helped me see instructional design as both science and empathy in action.

Several years later, in EDIT 6190E – Design Thinking and Development Tools, those theoretical foundations found new expression through creative experimentation. This course asked us to adopt a designer’s mindset, to brainstorm freely, visualize ideas, and iterate through feedback. It was my first real immersion in design thinking, and it felt liberating. The process began with open-ended brainstorming, where no idea was too big or too rough. I remember filling my mind map with themes that reflected my interests, mathematics, culture, art, and wellness. From that exploration emerged an idea that felt both personal and universal: an e-learning module on Yoga: A System for Holistic Well-Being.

Creating the Yoga Storyboard Project was my introduction to connecting design thinking with digital development tools. Using the ADDIE framework, I outlined learning goals, curated multimedia content, and designed interactive assessments. Storyboarding became my favorite phase as it helped me visualize how learners would experience the module moment by moment, how navigation and visuals could sustain focus, and how interactivity could support understanding. For the first time, I saw how visual design, narrative flow, and instructional strategy could merge into a single cohesive product.

During this course, I also earned my Articulate Storyline certification, which was my first professional credential in authoring tools. Learning Storyline expanded my creative toolkit as it allowed me to prototype interactions quickly and see how even small design decisions could shape learner experience. Building that first prototype and seeing it come alive on screen was a warm defining moment. I understood how technology could turn design intent into dynamic learning experiences.

Another powerful component of this course was peer beta testing. Sharing my video with classmates and offering feedback on theirs introduced me to the value of critique as a design habit. It was less about evaluation and more about dialogue and seeing how real users experience your design and using that feedback to refine and improve. That process of testing, revising, and reflecting captured the essence of design thinking: empathy, iteration, and learning through doing.

Where EDIT 6400E taught me to ground design decisions in theory, EDIT 6190E taught me to bring those decisions to life through creativity and prototyping. The first course built the intellectual foundation; the second built the creative confidence. Together, they transformed how I define design; it is not simply about producing instruction but about crafting experiences that engage, include, and inspire.

These two artifacts, one rooted in theory and one in creative practice, represent how my foundation as an instructional designer has evolved. I now approach every project with a balance of analytical reasoning, empathy, and experimentation. From understanding how people think and learn to designing environments that help them do so effectively, these experiences shaped not just what I design, but how I think as a designer.

This work reflects the ibstpi® competencies for Foundations, particularly in applying learning theory, creative problem-solving, and systematic design thinking to develop purposeful, learner-centered instruction.

The final video product on Yoga for holistic wellbeing can be found here. 

My articulate storyline certification can be found here.