Let’s check our work! Whether you created something from scratch, or you are revising an existing project, it’s helpful to have a way to analyze a project for accessibility. Fortunately there is a very handy tool available from WebAIM that … Continued
My doctoral program is speeding right along! I’ve officially completed three courses and I’m currently enrolled in two for summer session. Depending on how you count, there are about 21 total “courses” in the program, including dissertation work, so let’s … Continued
All of the opportunities I’ve received have come through networking. My first library internship at UC Riverside came through a classmate in my library masters program, giving me my first professional experience. A mentor at that internship got me another … Continued
Nothing beats the energy and excitement of thousands of people descending on the same site to learn together. Conferences are a wonderful opportunity to not only do some networking but to learn new things and extend your knowledge. I’ll happily … Continued
So many instructional designers fall into this profession accidentally that there’s a book written about it. I pretty much fell into instructional design myself. I was working as library staff at Arizona State, freshly graduated with a library degree and yearning … Continued
Color is beautiful! It’s fun to use color to add meaning to your text and images. Your visual styling can add bold drama or soft emotion. Just pay attention when you are combining colors to ensure that everyone experiences the … Continued
When I was in college I took a class on eastern religions (I loved it and still have the textbook!). Something that always stuck with me from that course (who knows why) was that that atheist religions tend to make … Continued
Struggling to find good examples of interactive Storyline courses? You’re not alone! Most amazing projects are proprietary – they’re built out for a client, so instructional designers aren’t able to put them onto their portfolios. Or, they may only be … Continued
Having a strong portfolio is critical for any job hunt to be successful. Potential employers want to see what you can do, not just read about it on your resume! Read on to learn more about building a winning portfolio. … Continued
Just launched: Enroll now in my FREE course: Introduction to Instructional Design! This course will introduce instructional design models and how people learn. You’ll learn how memory and information processing works in the brain, how to conduct systematic design, and how … Continued
Closed captions are for EVERYONE, not just people with hearing disabilities. Are you someplace loud? Closed captions. Are you someplace where you have to be quiet? Closed captions. Have trouble understanding the speaker (maybe they talk too fast like me)? … Continued
I’m only 8 weeks into my very first semester as a doctoral student but I’ve finished my first class! This semester has an interesting model for courses: I’m taking one course the entire 16-week semester, but I’m also taking two … Continued
What does freelancing in instructional design look like? Is it the same as elearning development? What do I charge? Where do I find work? Tune in to get these questions answered and to get started, TODAY! I got started as … Continued
Instructional design can be lucrative: positions often start at 60k and go up over 100k. Freelancers can easily start at $50 an hour and go up to $100, $150, $200 an hour depending on specialization. Find out what instructional designers … Continued
Here’s how to add video, YouTube video, and closed captions to video in Adobe Captivate. Spoiler: it’s best to add your video as a web object in Captivate from YouTube – that will give you ALL the bells and whistles … Continued
Get started today using augmented and virtual reality in your teaching! My ebook, Get Started with Augmented and Virtual Reality for Learning, is now available as a Kindle ebook on Amazon. This guide is intended for newcomers to augmented and … Continued
Learn why flowcharts and storyboards are helpful in instructional design and get some tips. Whether you are a solo designer, or part of a team, storyboards and flowcharts can help you be more effective! What Is a Storyboard? A storyboard, … Continued
Without headings, your documents and web content is inaccessible! But not only is it easy to format with headings, it can save you a lot of design time! In this video, I show instructional designers and elearning developers how to … Continued
Recording videos of yourself to post to your online courses or resources is a wonderful way to establish teaching presence, that you are a real person that wants to help. My goal this semester is to post a video at … Continued
Think of your experiences in online courses or as a remote worker – do you (or did you) feel part of a community? Do you feel a social connection to your peers, to your instructor or your boss? Now think … Continued
New to Storyline or Captivate? My guide on what NOT do to for new elearning developers is now only 99 cents now through Monday, January 23! Create Storyline and Captivate courses that look and feel professional without the learning curve! … Continued
It’s always fun when you are experiencing a big transition in life to consider what brought you to that point. Yesterday marked the end of my first week as a student in the Doctor of Education in Leadership and Innovation … Continued
Say NO to asterisks, dashes, and DIY numbering! They may look nice, visually but they do not work for readers with disabilities or that use screen readers. Instead, use the tools provided in your document or WYSIWYG editor to create … Continued
Create Storyline and Captivate courses that look and feel professional without the learning curve! My new ebook, 10 Mistakes in Elearning Design, is available on Amazon now! I’m giving away 10 FREE copies! Get a free copy now if you … Continued
You found the perfect YouTube video to learn something you’ve been struggling with. But the background music is too damn loud for you to focus on the content! Your professor is brilliant, but their online tutorial has cluttered slides and … Continued
Short-term memory is just that: short! If you have ever forgotten what you were looking for between one room and the next, you can understand that information that resides only in short-term memory is worth nothing at all. Short-term memory … Continued
How do you learn best? By watching, listening, doing? You likely have a preference. You might even refer to that preference as your personal “learning style,” a concept that states each unique brain learns things in a unique way. The … Continued
Last time we talked about the horror of dead-end quiz questions. When left to the default setting “infinite tries,” quiz questions can be a trap with no escape. Drag and drops, in particular, are a nightmare when attempts are not … Continued
Navigation design, visual design, auditory design – these are all important! But I think my biggest frustrations as a learner have come from poorly designed quizzes. There’s nothing like encountering an overly difficult quiz question and then getting stuck there, … Continued
Last time we started talking about voiceover. Voiceover is a solid feature that can elevate a learning experience. Problems come when the narrator is reading a slide aloud and boring the learner, or when the voiceover narration is outsourced to…a … Continued
Today we are moving on to frequent mistakes I see in Auditory Design! Let’s talk about voiceover. Voiceover can add a human element to elearning, making it more engaging for the learner. Voiceover can be a wonderful strategy to better … Continued
Alignment! Alignment is often the sole difference between amateur and professional. Tiny misalignments quickly lend a feel of something being…off…about a design. Even if it’s only a pixel or two! But no worries, it’s an easy fix. PowerPoint, Storyline, and … Continued
Love fonts? Who doesn’t! Fonts are a wonderful way to add personality, or to zhush up a boring design! But there is an old rule in design: you have to know the rules in order to know when you can … Continued
This is the fourth post in my series, 10 Mistakes in Elearning Design. Here’s what we’ve already covered: Mistake #1: Redundant Navigation Mistake #2: Inconsistent Navigation Mistake #3: Is This Interactive? Now, let’s look at frequent problems with visual design. … Continued
Adobe Captivate’s Drag and Drop Wizard is intimidating! But I’ll walk you through creating a fun, color-coded drag and drop. I’ll also let you in on a secret: there are tons of backend settings to make your Drag and Drop … Continued
Don’t use “click here” – here’s what to do instead! We’ve covered why accessibility is important, we talked a little bit about the LAW, and we’ve even covered alt-text – let’s get into hyperlinks: CLICK HERE. Did you? Why or … Continued
“Captivate E-Learning Course” getting you down? Change the default name of your SCORM packages in Adobe Captivate 2019 so that you can differentiate them when they’re all in your LMS (Learning Management System). When you publish your Captivate projects as … Continued
Closed captions, alt text, keyboard navigation—where does one even get started when building in accessibility? It may seem daunting but accessibility is more important than ever. I can help! I’m presenting a “bring your own device” session at DevLearn where … Continued
This is the third post in my series, 10 Mistakes in Elearning Design. The first post focused on Redundant Navigation. The second focused on Inconsistent Navigation. Now, let’s look at frequent problems with the way developers build in interactivity. Beyond … Continued
Alt text (or alternate text) is just a text description of an image for users that cannot see the image. When you add alt text to an image, it actually goes into the html code back end of your content, … Continued
This is the second post in my series, 10 Mistakes in Elearning Design. The first post focused on Redundant Navigation. Today we’re continuing our examination of effective navigation by considering what happens when navigation is inconsistent. Mistake #2: Inconsistent Navigation … Continued
Do you HAVE to make your elearning accessible? What if you work for a private corporation? I am not a lawyer, but I offer some general thoughts to consider, and I cover what the mysterious Section 508 is and how … Continued
Welcome to my new series, 10 Mistakes in Elearning Design! In each article, l will cover a particular mistake that I see new elearning developers make. We’ll cover navigation, interactivity, visual and auditory design, and quizzes. As an instructor, I … Continued
Check out my new YouTube short video series: Elearning Accessibility Tips and Tricks! Whether you are an elearning developer, an online educator, or someone just trying to make their online materials accessible and usable for everyone, this video series features bite-sized … Continued
Instructional design knowledge is just the start of being a good instructional designer – there are lots of other essential skills like usability, visual design, and more. It’s one of the things I love about this field, there’s always more … Continued
New to instructional design? Instructional designers are needed now more than ever! Check out my brand new six-part YouTube series Introduction to Instructional Design! This short series covers the basics of instructional design. This series covers: How instructional design is … Continued
As my day job I teach in an instructional design and technology graduate program. I have a LOT of students that are teachers looking to make a career change to instructional design. There’s a lot to like about instructional design! … Continued
New to instructional design? Want a quick-ish overview? This is a forty-minute video covering instructional design models, how people learn, learning theories, and memory, motivation, and feedback! Download the PowerPoint slide deck. Instructional design is the best field that no … Continued
*Updated 9/28/21* The easiest way to share your courses with your reviewers and with learners is via web hosting. Being able to just hand over a link is simply the best, especially for your learner. Whether you’re using Captivate, Storyline, … Continued
Today I’m going to share how you can capture 360 photos with the phone you already have, and then turn them into interactive tours, for FREE! Who doesn’t love an interactive virtual tour? 360 photos can bring a space to … Continued
This year is just flying by! I’ve been busy teaching and presenting and recording many of the webinars I’ve presented to share with you! I now have a sizable collection of free webinars, here are some of the highlights: Intro … Continued
Free stock photos. They can be pretty bleak. (Woman laughing alone with salad, anyone?). They are plentiful, but they also tend to depict people that are white, thin, heteronormative, and able-bodied. This is changing! Pexels, in particular, revised their search … Continued
My recommendations series continues on, focusing today on podcasts! Going for a walk? Pop your earbuds in and learn along the way. I really enjoy listening to podcasts episode by episode. I find that I learn so much more than … Continued
Today, I’m sharing my list of my favorite websites (most with an email subscription option) and my favorite listservs for instructional designers. There are so many wonderful instructional design and elearning websites, but there are just a handful I recommend … Continued
It’s wonderful to be able to connect with instructional designers across the world! Even better to be able to get useful feedback and job leads. So here’s a selection of my favorite social media groups for instructional designers and related … Continued
Interactivity is a crucial component in any elearning. Interactivity is what transforms a dull and passive training into an exciting, engaging, and, most of all, effective learning experience. Instructional designers are probably all guilty of creating the occasional page-turner – you know, … Continued
Online learning can easily feel like a very lonely and isolating experience, especially for students used to in-person learning. Students miss easy interaction with their instructor and classmates. They miss being able to ask questions on the spot and being … Continued
I’ve done a few versions of this presentation over the years and it’s always a good time! Here, I present a recorded webinar where I talk about all of my favorite apps (“apps” is used loosely) for anyone that teaches … Continued
Happy 4th! I made use of the time I saved by not going anywhere for the weekend (yay?) by creating a new video on Adobe Captivate. Learn how to force users to complete a tutorial’s modules before moving on to … Continued
Recordings available online. SchoolsFirst Center for Creativity and Critical Thinking K12 Online Teaching Webinars: Backwards Design Strategies This session introduced backward design, also known as competency-based learning. We covered the basics of lesson design and writing measurable learning objectives. K12 … Continued
I am delighted to announce that Cal State Fullerton’s M.S. in Instructional Design and Technology program is sponsoring a summer webinar series on instructional design topics! I am presenting all four webinars via Zoom. Times are listed in Pacific. Eye-Catching … Continued
Occasionally I get asked by new instructional designers what websites they should check out, what podcasts I like, what conferences are good to attend. Here’s my official list of recommendations for instructional design and elearning websites, conferences, podcasts, professional organizations, … Continued
Instructional designers are critical in the face of the coronavirus. As K-12 schools and universities across the United States have shut down, many until summer at a minimum, tens of thousands of instructors have been forced to move their teaching … Continued
Thanks to a generous grant from my campus’ Faculty Development Center, last semester I was able to research and write a short ebook on Augmented and Virtual Reality for Learning! I’ve licensed it under Creative Commons so that it may … Continued
Personally, I get really excited about accessibility. As an online instructor and instructional designer I strive to make all of my digital content as accessible as possible. I’m of the philosophy that making your digital content accessible makes it more … Continued
I’m presenting at Realities360! My presentation is titled “Getting Started with Virtual Reality.” I talk about several free and open resources and methods to create immersive 360 virtual reality experiences. Have low or no budget? No problem! Below, find resources … Continued
I’ve written before about how Flash is pretty much dead, and HTML5 is where it’s at. But it’s a challenge in Adobe Captivate to figure out what features work in HTML5 and which don’t. Sure, Captivate has an HTML5 tracker, … Continued
I’m thrilled to have a digital poster in the Distance Library Instruction section’s spring virtual poster session! My poster is titled Create Interactive and Accessible Online Tutorials with H5P. Description: Learn to create accessible and interactive online tutorials that facilitate … Continued
In my first H5P Essentials post, I gave you an introduction and overview of H5P. In this post, we’re going to get our feet wet by diving into developing a Course Presentation using H5P. As I mentioned in Get Started … Continued
Last week I was extremely fortunate to attend the CSUN Assistive Technology Conference in Anaheim, California. This was a fantastic conference that showcased a wide variety of technology and techniques to make learning more accessible to everyone. As an instructional … Continued
When I was a new Instructional Design Librarian in 2014 I sought out examples of great online tutorials from other academic libraries to get ideas for what our own library should have. Our library at the time was seriously lacking … Continued
It’s not too late to sign up for a FREE online instructional design in libraries conference – only a week and a half away! It will be Wednesday, March 13, from 12 pm to 3 pm Pacific. I’m thrilled to … Continued
I’ve written previously about how intrigued I was by the newest version of Adobe Captivate, which now supports 360 images and facilitates creation of interactive virtual reality learning experiences, if they’re a bit limited yet in functionality. I’ve also written … Continued
Presentations in 2019: Keynote Panel (Recording available, requires sign-up) March 13, Library 2.019 Shaping the Future of Libraries with Instructional Design Create Interactive and Accessible Tutorials with H5P April 1-5, Distance Library Instruction Virtual Poster Session hosted by the ACRL … Continued
We are living a golden age of freely available and open content for you to reuse in your design projects. Photos, audio, PDFs, H5P, videos galore! But are you giving credit where credit is due? Are you reusing this content … Continued
What a year! This year, I started teaching instructional design full-time, and I left my full-time job as an Instructional Design Librarian. Of course, I remain library-adjacent. I train and consult with librarians in instructional design and elearning development, and … Continued
*Revised and Expanded 12/17/18* H5P is an elearning game-changer. Previously, interactive lessons were only possible with expensive and proprietary software, “freemium” online platforms that come and go like the wind, or advanced HTML and Javascript programming knowledge. Now, H5P … Continued
Watch the recording (32 min): Download the slide deck for my keynote at the ACRL Distance Learning Section Fall Forum on OER: Slide deck licensed CC BY 4.0.
Most of the successful people I know struggle with perfectionism. They are brilliant, they produce great work, but sometimes they fall short of getting their work done at all because they fell into a perfectionist sinkhole. I’m here to tell … Continued
By now, I hope you’ve heard of H5P, and that you’ve had time to give it a go. Its name belies how fantastic it is. H5P is an open source platform for developing interactive elearning. Haven’t tried it yet? Give … Continued
In today’s post, I’ll show you how you can embed your published Storyline and Captivate courses into any webpage using iframes, which is a very simple HTML code. If you can copy and paste, you can do this, I promise! … Continued
So you’ve developed a fabulous course using Adobe Captivate or Articulate Storyline. Now, you want to show it off. Maybe you want to feature it in your elearning portfolio, or send it to your subject matter expert for review. It’s … Continued
I day-hiked Mt. Whitney the other day. Sure, it was pretty cool. Incredible alpine landscapes, sapphire blue lakes sparkling in the sun. Twenty-two miles round-trip, 6,000 feet of elevation gain, took me 16 hours. But really I was just there … Continued
In my last post, I declared my intentions to make a wilderness survival game using Captivate 2019’s 360 and VR features. Well, my 360 camera came in the mail yesterday, and I ended up making a proof-of-concept using the camera … Continued
I’m generally not a fan of Captivate, but I will admit that I am intrigued and even, dare we say, excited by Captivate 2019’s new 360 and Virtual Reality capabilities. Jump to the bottom to try out a Virtual Reality … Continued
I’ve got an idea for a new elearning game about surviving in the wilderness. Prompted by the looming deadline to apply to DevLearn’s DemoFest and by Captivate 2019’s new 360/VR features, I’m imagining an Oregon Trail-type of game where you … Continued
I’ve just updated my academic library’s library orientation tutorials, the Spark Tutorials, for the 2018-19 school year! These are the third iteration of the Spark Tutorials as they exist today. And I just realized – I’ve been developing elearning for … Continued
There are instructional designers in every field! But their population may be growing the most quickly in higher education. Traditionally, academic culture has valued subject matter knowledge over teaching expertise, so that even at teaching universities, professors are hired for … Continued
Closed Captions. You know that they’re a necessity for your video and audio. Creating closed captions for your video and audio can be very time-consuming if you do it yourself, or very expensive if you want to pay someone else … Continued
If you know anything about me, you know that I love H5P! This is a free and open software for easily crafting interactive tutorials and learning objects. Create an account instantly over at H5P.org. You can incorporate both standard and … Continued
Try H5P for Yourself Download Poster JPG Version PDF Version Listen to Poster Narration Get Infographics Fun Facts H5P stands for HTML5 Package Flash-free! H5P Is HTML5-based, making it mobile-friendly. H5P is financially supported by governments, … Continued
I would love to chat about elearning development and accessibility at ALA Annual in New Orleans! I’ve got three presentations/events lined up: Tutorials that are interactive, accessible, AND open? It’s possible with H5P! Poster presenter, The Educators Poster Session Saturday, June … Continued
I would love to chat about how you’re using H5P at ALA Annual in New Orleans! I’ve got three presentations/events lined up: Tutorials that are interactive, accessible, AND open? It’s possible with H5P! Poster presenter, The Educators Poster Session Saturday, June … Continued
I would love to chat about accessibility at ALA Annual in New Orleans! I’ve got three presentations/events lined up: Tutorials that are interactive, accessible, AND open? It’s possible with H5P! Poster presenter, The Educators Poster Session Saturday, June 23, 1:30 pm-3:00 … Continued
I’m a fan of Twitter bots. Not the Russian propaganda ones, but rather the musings of unstaffed Twitter accounts that randomly generate surrealist content. I enjoy the abstract renderings of Soft Landscapes, which offers automated and surreal yet soothing landscape … Continued
I’m presenting at TCC Online Conference 2018! Digital Badges Exposed is a 45-minute session at 4 pm Hawaii/7 pm Pacific/10 pm Eastern. Program Description Our academic library’s tutorials program has dramatically scaled up the number of students that receive basic … Continued
In my last post, I talked about how I created a single-session leaderboard from scratch in Storyline. I just couldn’t help myself and I decided to keep working on it. The single-session version of the leaderboard was pre-populated with names … Continued
As the Instructional Design Librarian at CSUF, I often work with other departments on elearning projects. Last month I was asked by the director of Online Education and Training to partner with her on an online digital display recognizing CSUF … Continued
Download slides and see resources below. Recording Summary Just because it’s on the internet doesn’t mean it’s free! In this interactive webinar, you’ll learn where you can find graphics, audio, and video for your teaching that you can reuse … Continued
This is a list of list of resources for you to explore tools for creating content, for finding and reusing free multimedia, and for creating and editing media. Enjoy! Digital Media Be sure to respect the copyright of these works’ … Continued
Presentations in 2018: Online Webinar: 20 Apps in 60 Minutes (For Educators) January 31st, hosted by ACRL University Libraries Section. Get slides and view the recording. Online Webinar: Free Graphics, Audio, and Video for Education March 7th, hosted by ACRL University … Continued
This webinar featured 20 amazing applications for educators. We covered apps that increase student engagement, apps for you (and your students!) to create your own instructional media, and productivity apps to keep you focused and organized. All of the featured … Continued
Sign up for my free webinar January 31st at 10 am (Pacific), hosted by ACRL’s University Libraries Section! This webinar will feature 20 amazing applications for educators. We will cover apps that increase student engagement, apps for you (and your … Continued
One of the best ways to make your training videos much more effective is to add voice overs. Lots of novice video creators are reluctant to record their own voice, which usually results in videos that have WAY too much … Continued
What goes into a blog post? Helpful, industry-specific content that: 1) gives readers a useful takeaway, and 2) shows you’re an industry expert. Use your company’s blog posts to opine on current industry topics, humanize your company, and show how … Continued
Faculty on any given college or university campus are neck deep in their local learning management system (LMS). Even if they only meet with their students face-to-face, they’re likely still using the LMS to store the syllabus, course readings, or … Continued
I am a solo instructional designer at my library. I love instructional design and elearning development, but I don’t have as much time for it as I would like! I love using Storyline to build tutorials and courses, but it’s become … Continued
If you’re new to elearning development, or using Storyline or Captivate for the first time, you may have struggled to learn the software only to experience new issues when trying to view your first published course. Viewing your courses locally (i.e. … Continued
I design a lot of learning experiences, but usually they’re accessed directly by users with the web address, or via our LMS. But what if you were asked to design a learning experience that would live on a computer kiosk, … Continued
Delighted to present at DevLearn 2017 with Dr. Cynthia Gautreau and Dr. Barbara Glaeser, two of my colleages from Cal State Fullerton’s Instructional Design graduate program. Slides Badges and Microlearning: The Perfect Match from Lindsay O’Neill Kahoot Game Play the … Continued
Open Access Week is almost here! To celebrate, another librarian asked me to update our existing Open Access Jeopardy game with additional questions and another round. (Note: I’m not responsible for the questions [some of them are crazy], only for … Continued
I’m not only presenting on badges and microlearning at DevLearn, I get to show off one of my favorite projects! I’ll be spending two hours at DevLearn’s DemoFest showing off my APA Citation Tutorial, which is a non-linear scenario-based learning … Continued
I’m very excited to attend and present at DevLearn next week in Las Vegas, but there are lots of very good online learning/edtech conferences to attend across the country! I got these recommendations from my own experience and the WCET Discussions … Continued
Slides from my Open Ed Conference 2017 presentation, The perfect opportunity: Transforming a graduate instructional design degree with affordable and open educational resources. The perfect opportunity: Transforming a graduate instructional design degree with affordable and open educational resources from Lindsay O’Neill
Notes and resources for my round table at the Open Education Conference 2017 on the role of the ID librarian in campus OER initiatives: Connector, Adviser, Creator. Handout Download handout from Dropbox More Resources Things I’ve Developed as an ID Librarian … Continued
Just because it’s on the internet doesn’t mean it’s free! In this hour-long webinar, you’ll learn where to find media while respecting creators’ copyright. We’ll go over the basics of “Creative Commons” licenses and what it means when something is … Continued
I’ve been working on an APA citations tutorial for almost two years now. Yes, two years. I started an APA citations tutorial in Storyline in November 2015. There was a long hiatus in there somewhere, and then a complete change-of-course altogether. … Continued
I regularly submit my tutorials to ACRL Instruction Section’s PRIMO Database, which peer-reviews instructional materials created by librarians. I’ve been very fortunate to have several accepted! My Spark Tutorial “Finding Articles and Databases” scored high enough on the reviewer rubric … Continued
My colleague Ann Roll and I are presenting today as part of an ALCTS panel at ALA on working with faculty to adopt library ebooks as course textbooks. View our slides.
I love developing eLearning! Even more than that, I love teaching people to design effective online learning experiences. Here are my slides and handouts from a workshop I did recently on designing tutorials (and aligning assessment with objectives!). Download my … Continued
Here at Cal State Fullerton, we’ve been hard at work lowering the cost of education for students by promoting the adoption of OER and A(ffordable)ER instructional materials. That means we’ve been persuading instructors to give up their cherished traditional textbooks in … Continued
One of my projects got a shout-out in American Libraries! My Pollak Library eLearning site, a local learning object repository for information literacy, was included as an example of a WordPress-based info literacy toolkit. Read the article on American Libraries … Continued
I presented recently at ACRL and Electronic Resources & Libraries on my digital badges/tutorials program, on digital badge technology, and on effective learning object design. These are now available as a three-part recording via YouTube! Get more information and download … Continued
Instructional design-related librarianship is a growing field, just like instructional design is. I get asked periodically about what it is exactly that I do, and while I love sharing my own experience, someone with the exact same job title as … Continued
I’m presenting at ACRL and ER&L 2017! My presentations are about my Spark Tutorials project and the technology needed to make digital badges happen. Both my slides and my handouts are licensed as CC-BY-4.0. You are welcome to download them, … Continued
Head to ACRL next week? I am! I’m excited to be presenting both a webcast and a TechConnect presentation. This will be my first ACRL presentations! Interested in scaling up your instruction by going online? Thinking about launching your own … Continued
It’s not often that I get awards, so I hope you’ll forgive me for being super excited to share that I was recognized at my campus’ recent Honor an Educator event! It’s an annual fundraiser put on by the California … Continued
I’ve added a Free Downloads page to my website – previously visitors had to hunt for my free templates in my Portfolio. Use and reuse these files for free under the terms of the Creative Commons license assigned to each. … Continued
New to eLearning Development? Read this first! I love Camtasia! I use it regularly at work for anything from simple screen recordings to long informational videos. Everything I’ve published to Pollak Library eLearning on YouTube was made with Camtasia. Camtasia … Continued
New to eLearning Development? Read this first! Adobe Captivate 9 is very powerful authoring software. It’s also very challenging to learn. Sure, you can easily pick up how to do screen recordings, but to create interactive tutorials you’re going to … Continued
New to eLearning Development? Read this first! I love Storyline 2! It’s the authoring software I use most often. I used it for creating the Spark Tutorials and for several of the items in my Portfolio. Storyline is fairly easy … Continued
So you’ve built an eLearning course – congratulations! Now, you want to give your learners access via the open web. (If you want to host it on an LMS, that’s a whole ‘nother topic!). Maybe you’re building your portfolio, maybe … Continued
I love developing eLearning! It’s one of my favorite parts of my job. I developed my first Camtasia video as a library intern, and then dove deep into Camtasia, Storyline, and Adobe Captivate as a student in my master of … Continued
As an Instructional Design Librarian I get asked periodically for my job description. (I’m trendy!) Since I started this job, I’ve been curious what other ID Librarians do, so I collect job postings as I see them, and I also … Continued
I’m now halfway through my third year as an Instructional Design Librarian! This is officially the longest I’ve ever held a single job. This is also the first time I think of my stay here in terms of which year … Continued
Presentations in 2017: Blended Librarian: Conversations with Blended Librarians Panel Panelist. Online webinar March 2, 3 pm Eastern (recording is available) California State University, Fullerton, College of Education Webinar Series Online webinar March 6, 6 pm Pacific (recording is available on YouTube) Association … Continued
Halfway through last year, a directive from the Cal State Fullerton Provost filtered down the ranks to me, the Instructional Design Librarian: Develop a 10-minute library tutorial that all freshmen will be required to complete. For such a short sentence, … Continued
I attended Library Instruction West last week: June 8-10, 2016 in Salt Lake City! It was a fantastic conference, I had lots of interesting conversations with awesome people. Here are my biggest takeaways by day and session: Thursday, June 8 … Continued
Last year LinkedIn purchased Lynda.com, the go-to subscription video service that teaches software, design, and more. Since the purchase, LinkedIn has been doing a lot to increase the value to users of both companies by integrating their best features. Now, LinkedIn users … Continued
I attended Library Technology Conference last week: March 16-17, 2016 in Saint Paul, Minnesota! The TL;DR: it was SO WORTH flying out from California. I Tweeted (#LTC2016), and talked, and discussed, and I even presented. The company was good, the food … Continued
Learn about our eLearning efforts at Pollak Library, and how we can scale up our instruction and impact without using more librarian time. I originally prepared this presentation for a library meeting.
So – since 2014 I’ve been the Instructional Design Librarian and now Instruction Coordinator at Cal State Fullerton. I’ve been interested in badges and scaling up library instruction with eLearning for a while. I pitched badges last year to our interim university librarian, and he’s … Continued
I really, really like instructional design (aka ID). It is a growing field whether in libraries or without. I often get asked about what I do and I like to peruse/collect instructional design-related librarian job postings. So here goes! What does … Continued
I have a B.A. in English and a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS). Later on I earned a Master of Education in EduTech/Instructional Design. Every now and then I get asked why I got this second masters, and here’s … Continued
It’s been exactly one year since I wrote The Making of an Instructional Design Librarian for ACRLog. At the time, I was six months in to my new position. Now I’m a year and a half in! Time flies. That post seems … Continued
This post was originally published at ACRLog on January 20, 2015. I’m now in my sixth month and second semester as a tenure-track Instructional Design Librarian, which is a new position at my library. In December I completed my second master’s … Continued
Four presentations in 2016, including three full-length presentations and a poster: SCIL Works, Cal State Fullerton, February 19 [Slides] Dance into the FIRe: Engaging with the framework to develop an information literacy curriculum for freshmen Co-presenting with Terrones, L., Lambert, J., Prieto, … Continued
Five major presentations in 2015, including four posters and a webinar panel. ALA Annual Conference “Transforming library information literacy instruction to support high impact practices: A model redesign” (poster session), with Lettycia Terrones, California State University, Fullerton. Poster session presented at the American … Continued
I used to live and work in Yosemite National Park, very close to Happy Isles, which is the northern terminus of the John Muir Trail. I long wanted to do the JMT, but couldn’t (or wouldn’t) get the time off. … Continued
I did it! I finished and turned in my 2nd year full Retention-Tenure-Promotion portfolio. Next year I will turn in an Abbreviated Review (just a CV), and then my 4th year I’ll do another full portfolio. I am SO GLAD … Continued
It’s my second fall! I’ve been working here a whole year. As CSUF’s first ever Instructional Design Librarian, I’ve had my work cut out for me. Work that I’ve assigned myself, and work that is now being assigned to me! … Continued
The idea of digital badges is that you offload lower level library instruction (what’s a database?) onto a website, then motivate and reward students for doing some online learning by awarding them colorful badges that they can show off on LinkedIn … Continued
Our interim UL came into my office last week and said that while the individual colleges on campus would only ever impact the lives of their respective students, the university library has the opportunity to impact each and every of our … Continued
At this moment, I am preparing to teach three one-shot sessions back-to-back (all for one instructor, how does she handle this workload twice a week??). I’m also meaning to finish up a proposal for ACRL’s Assessment in Action, I need … Continued
Having to explain what I do is difficult and helpful, in equal measures. Difficult because I’m still figuring it out but I also feel compelled to justify my existence to random colleagues, in the library and out. Helpful because it forces … Continued
My projects are piling up as my schedule is booking up with one-shot sessions for the semester, so I was thrilled to take my first release day last week to finally have some quiet time at home to catch up … Continued
I enjoyed the heck out of my winter break! I had 12 whole days off from work. I spent it beach camping, hiking, running, swimming, strength-training, reading, and binge-watching TV. I brought home work-related educational books to read, but didn’t … Continued
One lightning presentation in 2014: SALAD: My experience collecting and providing access to electronic Arizona government documents from Lindsay O’Neill “SALAD: My experience collecting and providing access to Arizona government documents” (blitz presentation). Arizona Library Association Annual Conference, Fort McDowell, … Continued
Now that I’ve been an Instructional Design Librarian for almost five months, it’s time I started blogging more about what I’m up to. I’m a brand new academic librarian in a brand new position at my library, so I’ve spent … Continued
One poster presentation in 2013: “Removing the mystery: Promoting your unique collection with Twitter” (poster session). Joint Arizona Library Association-Mountain Plains Library Association Annual Conference, Fort McDowell, Arizona, November 2013 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 … Continued
The Articulate e-Learning blog had a great post about the difference between teaching and informing, and the value of an instructional design degree in the real world. The blog post opens with a brief discussion of what educators are using instructional … Continued
I tell people that I teach library skills to college students. So I thought that I had a good prior knowledge base from which to approach my graduate courses in education. In one of them, we’re assigned to plan a … Continued
