Instructional Design - Portfolio

Jessica Grieves

Instructional Design & Technology

eLearning specialist building interactive online course materials for software companies, corporate sales teams, and other adult learning environments.  Currently an Adobe Certified Professional for Adobe Captivate 2019, used to author eLearning courseware.  A desire for learning and technical background allows me to maintain an in-depth knowledge of a large number of software products.   I’ve been involved with in-person and online training for 20 years of my career and am currently building up my formal education in Instructional Design.

I have a bachelor’s degree in English and am experienced with technical and communication and presentation skills.  My time as a programmer before moving into project management allows me to bridge the gap between the technical team and customer experience.  And this knowledge has been brought into my training design and development.

This portfolio has been design for the University of Maryland Instructional Design & Technology series available on edX.  A brief work history is available on my About Me page.

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Comparing Learning Theories

Personal Learning Experiences

A brief reflection on learning experiences I recall from different times in my life.
Personal Learning Experience

Elementary

I remember learning how to do a presentation in 3rd grade. Mrs. Kirby taught the class. We were to choose any topic we wanted on how to do something and share that with the class to learn how to complete "large" projects and speak in front of others (skills). We learned the steps to prepare a presentation. First, decide a topic and outline what to do. We had to make a posterboard on our subject. And then we had to give a presentation to the class.

My topic was on how to make Deviled Eggs. I labored over my posterboard to show the steps. I brought a dozen hard-boiled eggs and the other ingredients to class to demonstrate during my presentation. And so as a bonus, everyone in the class got to eat a deviled egg too. This was a hands-on learning project where our teacher prompted us each step of the way to help us achieve our finished product. The ability to break down a more extensive project into smaller parts and that introduction to public speaking proved to be useful in later courses and throughout my employment.
Personal Learning Experience

High School

I took an AP Biology class in high school. Our teacher was very young, fresh out of college, and filling in for the usual teacher for that class that was on leave that year. Because of the circumstances, we had a small class with only about six students. One of the teacher's methods was to work in small groups on topics and then present those topics to the group rather than just sitting there through the lecture. It was one of the more engaging and fun classes I remember from high school, and we were both well prepared for the AP exam and for continuing our science studies at an advanced level.
Personal Learning Experience

Corporate

After five years of working with the same software company, it was decided that I would move into a sales role so the director could take more time off to be with his family. After spending so much time on the customer success side, learning how to sell the solution was different. The training involved first reading the sales guide that explained the typical demonstration approach, observing demonstrations and finally demonstrating myself while recording to get sales feedback. This approach was entirely managed by the director to show me his approach to selling the solution.