Prior to completing ATD’s Essentials of Learning Design Methodologies: ADDIE, SAM, AGILE, and More course, the best way to describe me was excited. I was excited to be in my new role as a training content development specialist at Pepco, excited to take on new challenges, excited to meet new people, excited to learn, and excited to improve the current training curriculums to the best of my ability. 

However, all of my excitement could not compensate for my lack of formal training in instructional design or prior experience in the field. I was a new instructional designer, and as I began to settle into my role, my supervisor asked me to create goals to improve my performance as a content developer. The first idea that came to mind was to seek out professional development opportunities related to instructional design. My department offered me a membership to ATD and encouraged me to browse through the webinar and course offerings. The first course I found online was Essentials of Learning Design Methodologies. 

Before I began this course, I did not know the methodologies for developing learning programs for adult professionals. Nancy Mikkelson, my facilitator, not only thoroughly explained the design methodologies, but she also helped me realize that all learning programs must be created purposefully. I learned that the training event must be applicable to the learners’ daily jobs to expedite learning retention. 

A successfully designed training program will allow the end users to achieve the defined learning objectives and efficiently apply the new knowledge to their jobs. While the instructional media and the delivery platforms selected for training are important, it is crucial for the instructional designer to select the proper mix of activities and delivery methods for learners to experience an effective transfer of learning from the training event to their daily roles. 

This course helped me immensely as a new content development specialist; it explained the basics I need to be a high performer in my new role. ADDIE, SAM, and Agile offer many distinct benefits for designing learning. Because of this, I believe it is best to be flexible in choosing a design method for a project. This flexibility allows me to combine the best aspects of curriculum development from each design method and navigate fluidly within the methods. I discovered as a result of the course that a blended approach to training content development will positively affect my work projects. I can choose the best features from each method to meet my learners’ needs and deliver high-quality content. 

The best part of the Essentials of Learning Design Methodologies course is that it made an immediate positive impact on my job performance. Recently, I collaborated on a moves refresher training course for Pepco’s call center representatives. I prepared a lesson on unmetered service, designed simulations, and updated the existing moves courses. Unmetered service was not addressed in any existing training documentation, so my job also involved designing new training documentation. Nancy instilled confidence in me to select an appropriate design method for the lesson development. I chose to blend ADDIE and SAM. I met with subject matter experts (SMEs) to analyze the training needs and better understand what should be included in the lesson. After I had the information I needed, I created a lesson draft. 

We went through several iterations of the lesson so that the content was complete, accurate, and ready for presentation. The iterative process allowed me to be in frequent contact with SMEs, seek feedback, and improve my material for the end users. In the end, my lesson was a success. The customer service representatives who participated in the course are equipped with the knowledge to process moves with an unmetered service component. 

In this course, Nancy challenged us to create personal vision statements. My personal vision statement, "I strive to motivate, encourage, and foster learning in myself and others," empowers me to do even better in my role as a training content development specialist. Since joining my team in March, I have learned a great deal about my role, and I am beginning to feel confident designing training content using the instructional design models. 

This course afforded me the opportunity to learn about instructional design and apply what I am learning immediately to my work. I feel a strong sense of responsibility to the trainers presenting my material and to the end users learning from my content. I am now completing ATD’s Designing Learning Certificate. I am doing as much as possible to better my performance and continue learning about content development so that I can inspire learning in others and support them through my content development.