I’ve had an incredible experience as an instructional design (ID) intern but my time is up. I’ve had a chance to see both the micro and macro workings of ID, and this experience will have an indelible impact on my professional career. Since I graduate this month, I hope to put all this to good use very soon.
Summary
The key activities of my internship involved 1) working with a nursing professor who was designing two pharmacology related lessons that incorporated branching logic (using WordPress with Formidable Forms plugin & SoftChalk) and 2) shadowing (in-person and via video chat) the instructional design assistance given to another professor by the instructional design department and 3) blogging about my internship experience.
I also had the unique opportunity to shadow Joni as she assisted various professors on an ‘as needed’ basis. This experience was a particularly insightful and valuable since supporting others with technical assistance is so key to being a successful ID.
Throughout the internship, I was faced with many new technical issues and was relied upon to learn and then immediately use that software to create learning experiences. In order to accomplish all my tasks, the new technologies I learned were WordPress with various add-ons, SoftChalk Cloud and Create, TopHat, CarmenConnect and BuckeyeBox. Additionally, I used Google apps, Word, Outlook Web Access and Mind Meister (mind mapping) which I have quite a bit of experience using.
Space and parking challenges
I spent about 75% of my 150 hours remotely since there was not a good location for me to work oftentimes. Also, I had to pay for parking which turned out was not cheap. These were issues that discouraged me from staying on campus any longer than necessary. Thankfully, I was able to communicate via video chat meetings and email so my work was not overly impacted. If these obstacles had not existed, perhaps I would have preferred to spend even more time on campus though.
I want to thank…
I’ve got to give a shout out to a few people who helped make my internship so fruitful. Again, I can’t thank you to Joni Tornwall enough. She was so generous with her guidance and time and I don’t think I could have asked for a better mentor! I want to thank Professor Mary Alice Momeyer for the excellent collaboration experience working on the pharmacology lessons. I want to thank Tim Lombardo, from the Office of Distance Education and eLearning, for teaching me about OSU’s ID processes. And, a final thanks to Dr. Connie Wanstreet for recommending me for this wonderful internship experience.
I couldn’t be happier with my experience at OSU.
Go Bucks!!