Embracing “Failure” in the Creative Process of Course Building

Failing Forward: My First Creative Test in Instructional Design

First attempts in any creative endeavor… are… far from perfect. But, they are crucial stepping stones in the journey. My first experience in learning from failure was an essential part of the creative process of course building for me. I still embrace the stumbles because the final product is always better in the long run. “Failures” are expected, and I work around them in the end.

The Realities of Graduate Programs in Instructional Design

I wasn’t worried. The whole working full-time while being a full-time graduate student wasn’t new for me. Managing my time and getting ahead of things so they didn’t pile up was easy. But what I wasn’t prepared for was taking on the full responsibility of learning required software on my own. That’s right…my graduate program didn’t include teaching us on the tools of the trade in the curriculum (such as Articulate 360 Rise and Storyline), only theory and principle. Surprise! What a blast. Challenge accepted. Here’s to the first of many blows as I navigated the course building creative process.

Designing My First eLearning Lesson

During this semester, I was also teaching an introductory course for first-year college students. One of the challenges I faced was delivering an effective lesson on writing professional emails. Given the course’s time constraints, I aimed to transition an in-person lecture into a self-paced video lesson. The learning objectives were straightforward: students should be able to recall the main components of a professional email, determine which elements apply to specific scenarios, and construct an email that meets all key criteria. With asynchronous learning in mind, I set out to create a resource that students could revisit as needed.

The Wrong Tool, and the Right Lesson

The best thing that came out of this semester of working, teaching, and also being a student was that I received the gift of failure. I blundered my way through using Articulate 360 software in my first attempt at instructional design, which was meant to be an informational video, or approach to video-based eLearning, but I was focused on getting my feet wet before my tougher classes started in the spring. At the time, I was eager to explore industry-standard tools, and Articulate 360 seemed like a solid choice. However, I quickly realized it wasn’t designed for video editing. It was more complicated to use and took me a long time to complete (especially since I knew nothing about how to use it). But I poured through countless hours of online tutorials and read up on how to approach the project anyway. And despite knowing that it wasn’t “great,” I feel that it still did the job it was meant to do for the course I incorporated it into.

No one else in my class used Articulate. Honestly, I was a bit appalled that some never used it once during my program, especially as I read in my research that knowing it was the bare minimum an instructional designer needed in their toolbox to get basic work. How are they doing now? I hope as well as possible. Most of them were teachers hoping to go into the online space, so understanding the technical aspects of the creative process of course building was crucial. But, despite my encouragement, they went their own way. But this led me to my biggest challenge: choosing the right tool.

Project Plan and Final Piece

Below, you will find the project plan and a link to the final piece. The plan includes my very first jouney into the course building creative process:

• A full overview
• Context analysis
• Learner analysis
• The instructional problem
• Learning objectives
• My solution
• First stages of prototyping (storyboard and script)
• And finally, my evaluation reflections.

The final piece is just over six minutes in length.

Full Project: Viewable Google Document

Why I Share My Failures, and What They’ve Taught Me

I share this work to normalize how creativity should work. Overcoming design failure isn’t failure at all… we are not meant to create something brilliant in our first go! It’s a journey. As a creative director working with others on educational products, I have to remind that time is our most important asset. It’s crucial to make the most of it, as this work is entirely iterative in nature. My hope is to fully flesh out something that we can all be proud of in the end, and that makes the biggest impact on all who use the product. When I think of human-centered design, I am not just considering the learner; I am considering myself and my clients as well! Learning experience design (LX) and the creative process in course creation are my passions, and just as I was up for learning that initial software system on my own, I am up for the challenge presented by each of my clients.

I can’t wait to work alonside you!

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Until next time – keep shining for those who would otherwise remain in the dark.  Be the light!