The course EDID 6509: ‘Designing Learning and Performance Solutions’ was transformational for me. As I traversed through the course, assuming the role of an Instruction Designer who designed stints with my groupmates, many real-world lessons came to fruition, namely working within tight deadlines; thinking simply yet creatively; learning to rely on my own epistemological beliefs, prior knowledge and cognitive skills yet being respectful to peers’ ideas and contributions; how to avoid being stuck in the analysis stage; and designing with a balance of theory and client satisfaction in mind.

Moreover, this course has had near transfer to my work environment and has helped me to grow as an Instructional Designer. With its emphasis on activating prior knowledge, identifying tenets of theories and going through the process of designing and reflecting, I began to question many of my current ways of teaching, thinking and decision making. For instance, the Problem-based Learning environment has been one of the most influential environments that has confronted me and made me aware that I was limiting my students’ problem-solving skills. Whilst completing this stint, it was difficult to grasp its concept initially. However, by the end of the course and through discussions, its value became clear. I recognised then that I was very hands-on with what students learned and how they learned. Additionally, I seldom provided opportunities for learners to make mistakes, reflect and learn from those mistakes due to providing too much guidance and scaffolding. Since this course, I have repurposed learning opportunities for students that redress some of those areas. An example of this is demonstrated in the artefact that follows. Lastly, the knowledge and skills acquired in this course have helped me to be more analytical of my work environment. The course places emphasis on problem identification within contexts. As such, I have recognised that due to COVID-19 pandemic and limited resources at my workplace, several problems and opportunities have arisen that my knowledge, skills and competencies gained from the course, as well as from EDID 6511: Facilitating and Managing Learning, could lend assistance and help solve.

Select the first artefact that follows for an example of how I have applied knowledge from this course to my workplace environment. The second artefact is an example of cooperative learning where a combination of individual and collaborative work led to further iterations of my individual work. Select the links to find out more.