This past August, Suprita earned the Instructional Design MasterTrack™ Certificate from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Prior to completing the program, she was a self-taught instructional designer in India who created content for corporate training programs on subjects like time management and organizational skills.
Honing my expertise
As a self-taught instructional designer, I was fortunate to have met excellent mentors who guided me in the field. I was “learning by doing” and building a fulfilling career.
While I enjoyed the process of creating training modules that were well-received, I never really felt fully confident about the art and science of instructional design. I knew I wanted to delve deeper than my trial-and-error methods and formally learn the instructional design process. That’s when I found the Instructional Design MasterTrack Certificate! My main goal was to find practical and applicable solutions for designing quality learning experiences.
Connecting with learners
This isn’t my first time using the Coursera platform to gain new skills. I’ve taken several courses before. The Coursera platform makes online learning social and engaging. I love that we get to interact with very diverse groups of learners. This is especially true in the MasterTrack Certificate program, where we get even more opportunities for live interaction.
I want to give credit to the instructional designers and instructors of the program that made all 16 weeks excellent and enjoyable. I loved the opportunities for real engagement between peers and faculty. Discussions in the forums were insightful. The program built my self-confidence to the point where I could hold a good conversation about a relevant instructional design topic.
Taking instructional design to the next level
My level of confidence about the subject has increased tremendously. Previously, I was self-taught designer. Today I have a formal certification from a great university thanks to Coursera. I’m confident about my skills in analysis, developing learning objectives, and assessing learning outcomes with the right process and tools
I’m continuously looking to improve my eLearning skills, and I’ve had a blast experimenting with trial versions of course authoring tools over the last month or so. I look forward to using these skills as I freelance as an instructional designer and eLearning specialist.
Some words of advice
I’d like to share some advice for those considering an Instructional Design MasterTrack from the University of Illinois:
- Schedule a couple days early in the week to get your readings done. That way, you’ll have a lot of confidence when tackling written assignments and group discussions on the discussion board.
- Share something new (like a new learning technology for example) to steer and continue conversations with your peers.