#eLAPC ?? | Ep. 17 | #PodMentor | Advance Your Career as an eLearning Professional with RYAN VALLEY

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Enhanced Transcript

Clint Clarkson: Today we're doing something brand new. This is going to be our first ever session as a live mentoring call. There are a lot of questions in the learning and development space that get asked frequently, and we're going to dive into one of those today with our guest, Ryan Valley.

Ryan, thanks so much for being here. Why don't you introduce yourself and tell the folks a little bit about yourself. 

Ryan Valley: Yeah. Thanks for taking the time to do this, Clint. As you said, I'm someone new to learning and development and trying to get started in the industry. And so that's one of the reasons why I connected with Clint, just trying to pick his brain a little bit, so he invited me to do this.

I've been working in design and digital storytelling and doing some digital communications type of work for the last five years. I studied New Media Production Design at SAIT; Communication and Media Studies at the University of Calgary; and, I'm studying Educational Technology now at UBC. So my goal and my interest for the last few years has been specifically on using technology for aiding learning and education.

CC: That's fantastic. So you've taken a number of steps already to go into the direction that you'd like to go the Educational Technology at UBC...

Why did you make a decision to go that route of using university versus other options that are available?

RV: I think I wanted to get my finger on the pulse of some of the research and evidence and I wanted to immerse myself and that a little bit. It is online education learning to so it's like I get to experience and see what I personally liked doing and what I enjoy, and what helps me learn and live it a little bit. And at the same time, it gives me enough space and room to do other types of training or learning experiences or work experiences. It's flexible.

CC: Yeah, UBC has an excellent program. And I suspect that you will get a lot of value out of that, of course, the timeline of taking courses with universities that there are a lot more involved. They are certainly aren't the quick hitters that get you going right away.

What have you done so far in in terms of rapidly getting yourself up to speed so that you can start doing a bit of work in this space?

RV: I've been talking with some of the existing freelance clients that I've had doing communication stuff with and seeing if they will, let me turn some of their stuff into interactive learning tools, things like that. Different types of resources, so I can use some of these things that I am learning and that's kind of my approach to life and my work in general, if I'm learning something new, I want to be practicing it and applying it, and learning from other people's experiences too, which is why I reached out to you. I believe in finding mentors and finding people who can help you avoid making some of the mistakes that everyone makes right away, or at least things to look out for pitfalls, ways that you can approach things like finding work in industry.

Looking for a mentor? Check out this article from Forbes.

CC: Yeah, absolutely. Now, you've also taken the Advanced Storyline 360 course through Yukon Learning, is that correct?

RV: Yeah, I did that this summer.

CC: Alright, so this is sort of an interesting position for you to be in Ryan, because it's a little bit different than some of the other calls or discussions that I end up having with individuals looking to transition into eLearning or more broadly into the L&D space, because you're already doing a lot of the things that I would typically recommend that people pursue.

• Networking definitely being one of them; having the opportunity to chat with and discuss the eLearning space and avoid some of those pitfalls, or pick up on some best practices and ideas, things that are happening currently in the industry.
• You went out and took a course on Articulate Storyline; spent some dedicated time to understand how that tool works and what its capabilities are.
• And, now you're you're going even further than that with the Educational Technologies at UBC.

So you're already doing a lot in this space. What are you hoping to get out of today? What would be valuable for you at the end of this call? Another way to say that is what would success look like at the end of this 20 minutes or so?

RV: So we met and chatted one other time, and we talked about some of the books that have been influential and impactful that you'd recommend for someone starting to learn about this stuff.

Here are some of the books I recommended to Ryan:

• e-Learning and the Science of Instruction, R. Clark & R. Mayer
• Make it Stick: P. Brown, H. Roediger III, & M. McDaniel
• Millennials, Goldfish & Other Training Misconceptions, C. Quinn
• Beyond the Transfer of Learning, M. Broad
• Understanding By Design, G. Wiggins & J. McTighe

What I'm hoping to do with this is get a little bit more from you on what other resources have been impactful for you. ways of approaching mentors and people you can learn from and this field and learning a little bit more about different ways that a career path might look, because I think there probably are a lot of different ways that you could approach a career in this industry or related industries.

CC: So, we've got three categories - I don't know full time to get into all of them, we'll see how the time goes - but, we're talking about:

• Resources: What's out there? What's available for you as an individual as a self directed learner? What can you use?
• People: How do you approach people? Who are some of those people people worth worth connecting with?
• Career Paths: And then the career paths piece, that's probably the piece that will will maybe drop off at the end of this and we may even jump on another call and talk a bit more about that.

Two more framing up questions then because those all sound great.

Can you talk a little bit about the new media production? It's a certificate programme or diploma program at SAIT, is that right?

RV: Yeah, it says diploma program.

CC: Okay, can you talk a bit about that, and if we can tie this in a little more specifically...

What were the things that you've learned or the skills that you've acquired? Which of those do you think is going to be most beneficial to you trying to transition into the L&D space?

RV: Oh, that's a great question. With that program, specifically, you spend a lot of time doing the technical work around rich media production. So video and audio, animation, that kind of thing. And, you also learn about web development, so basic, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP. And, so I found some of that stuff usable already. Because Storyline for example, uses variables and it's all very similar logically to things that you might do in JavaScript. I think knowing JavaScript, you can take that a step further, like if someone wanted to make a custom course player or they needed some sort of solution like; that's something that I could do now.

So it was useful from the multimedia development perspective on the business side of it. You learn how to manage projects and work with groups of people. It's all very practical group based work. So, you're constantly trying to generate new design solutions to problems and using a variety of software and techniques. So it's good, they keep you on your toes.

CC: I've met a few people that have gone through that program and have used it quite successfully to transition over into an eLearning role. One of the appeals of it, is that you learn about visual design, about graphic design, video development, all things that can be used inside an eLearning course.

What it doesn't do, however, is teach you how to be an instructional designer. So, you can make something look pretty with the content that you've learned through that course, but how do you build it in a way that is designed specifically to aid and help learning. You're doing now with UBC and with some of the books that we discussed, so you're probably going to find a really nice blend in between those two skillsets.

You've reached out to me, you've reached out to Shane Toevs who is a trainer for Yukon Learning - who trained the Storyline course that you took in Vancouver.

Who else have you connected with in the L&D space?

RV: I've also had a chance to talk to Ron Thiele from Xpan Interactive. I had a coffee with him and that was one of my first early exposures to someone really involved in the area. He guided me a little bit on some of the things I should be thinking about if you want to develop and to get involved in the industry. He was the first person actually introduced me to Storyline.

CC: Ron was a great choice. I worked with Ron for a couple of years and still do business with him today. He's a really, really solid guy.

Alright, let's jump into some of the specific topics that you have brought up, let's talk a little bit about resources.

RESOURCES

There are a lot of different resources available and they come in a lot of different forms. One of the one of the challenges for eLearning developers, whether you're a business or a contractor is having work samples. You don't buy a car unless you've test driven it, generally speaking, and work samples play that role for organizations.

Do you need to build your work samples? Check out Ashley Chiasson's portfolio for some inspiration!

What sort of plans do you have for building out work samples? Have you done any of that already? And, have you found any resources to help you decide what you should build as far as core samples are concerned?

RV: That's a really great question. Because I totally get that I need to develop a portfolio. There's lots of templates out there and there's eLearning heroes challenges, but at the same time, I don't want to just be making stuff as everyone else we wanted to stands out, making something meaningful is a little bit different. So, that's one of the challenges that I'm working on right now is approaching some people and finding some lower stakes jobs that they'd let me take a stab at.

CC: Is getting work that is paying a requirement for you right from the start? Could you approach some of your existing clients about doing work that was ridiculously low rate and even free? Is that is that something that you have considered or something that you would consider doing?

RV: Yeah, it is. I'm working on a couple of projects right now, where I approach clients and said: "I'll do this work for a low rate for you because I'm learning and need to practice these skills." So those are a couple of the projects that we're working on now. And, I'm planning to take that further in the New Year and take on a few more jobs like that.

Build courses about eLearning and L&D topics. It gets you work samples and helps you hone your skills and knowledge.

CC: Another consideration is to build courses about eLearning and L&D topics. It gets you work samples and helps you hone your skills and knowledge. Learning objectives is a really simple topic, or something around gamification, or microlearning - some of the more recent buzzwords that have that have been really hot - so you could develop something that teaches others about those. That's a piece of advice I give people fairly regularly, because if you want to become good at writing learning objectives - it's something that our industry does really bad a lot of the time, often because of outside influences, not even so much because of the people doing the work - but, if you want to learn about writing learning objectives... build something based on learning objectives and you'll learn how to write them effectively.

If you want to learn about writing learning objectives... build something based on learning objectives and you'll learn how to write them effectively.

RV: Yeah, that's a cool idea. I was thinking about that because a couple of the books you recommended I found really approachable. And, you can tell they're written by people who know what they're talking about because they're really easy to learn from. The way they break down the information and and chunk it out for you is awesome. Spending more time with some of those concepts and building content around them is a really great idea.

CC: Yeah, definitely. And, don't be afraid to use your existing skills. You and some of your friends started a small business where you're developing video for organizations, I took a look at some of your work, you guys do a really great job. Video is a fantastic tool to use in eLearning courses, so as you build those things out, especially if you want them as work samples, definitely highlight the skills that you've already developed, and that you're really good at you. You obviously want your work samples to be showcase pieces that are going to attract someone to doing business with you or hiring you as a consultant. So don't be afraid to lean heavily on that.

RV: Yeah, that makes sense.

CC: What about time frame?

How long do you think it should take before you can confidently call yourself an eLearning developer and pursue roles/contracts as a developer?

RV: That's a great question too. I went through an NMPD and finished that over this last year, and finished my degree as well. So, now I am moving into some action of developing portfolio pieces, I've been trying to hone my skills and make them a more professional when it comes to video development . I'm thinking in the next three months, I should be getting there, to have some portfolio pieces ready and feel a little bit more confident and where I'm at.

CC: Based on what you've done already - and let's emphasize that you've done a lot of work already - to say in the next 90 days you want to round out your skill sets and build your portfolio, that sounds reasonable. You're already knocking at the door saying "I'm ready to come in."

You've done a lot of the work from a media perspective. You've done some work with an authoring tool in Storyline, and now it's about getting those work samples and developing your skills as an instructional designer.

Something that happens a lot right now, is a person says to themselves: "Hey, I'm a trainer, why don't I become an eLearning Developer?" Then they go out and a Storyline licence, do the online tutorials, and they start building stuff. But, even if what they're building looks good, the quality of the actual learning tends to be lacking. You don't want to be in that position, so that's obviously going to be an area of focus for you.

SOCIAL MEDIA & PEOPLE

Let's talk a little bit about people. You've reached out to three of us, three good people, we've all worked together at different times that you've used your networking skills effectively.

What about social media? Have you reached out to connected with anyone online? Have you found any groups that you're a part of? How are you using the biggest network in the world to help you develop in this area?

RV: That's a spot I can improve on. I haven't really used use social media too much. So that is somewhere I could make more of a presence, sharing some of the stuff that I'm developing and trying to connect with some of the other people on there.

Can you give me any recommendations as to where I should focus my social media efforts?

CC: Absolutely. LinkedIn 100%. There's certainly value in other places, but LinkedIn is hot right now has, it's going through a resurgence, and has really exploded. There's actually not enough content on LinkedIn. It's part of the reason the standard for LinkedIn live is that you must produce at least one live video per week, because they need more content and they need more people.

One of the other big advantages to LinkedIn is that it gives you the opportunity to ask questions, to put up something as a sample and ask people for feedback. One of the challenges, especially when you're new or relatively new to the platform, is getting people to actually look at what you're doing and to offer you feedback. The technique I find most effective with LinkedIn, is to connect and build relationships with individuals.

The technique I find most effective with LinkedIn, is to connect and build relationships with individuals.

But that can't be random mass messaging. I get frequently get messages to the effect of: "Hi, I want to become an eLearning developer. Can you tell me everything you know about eLearning?" Yeah, no. I can't do that. Especially to someone that I've never seen on the platform, that's never interacted in the communities I participate in, that I've never talked with. I don't mind offering advice in that situation, but it's a bit like they're not interested in doing the work. They just want somebody to give them the the quick fix. And, part of the process of LinkedIn is engaging with people and content.

There are a lot of great people asking really good questions and creating conversations that would be easy for someone like you to jump in. Dana Kocalis, poses these really provocative questions each weekend and gets really good interaction on them.

Certainly with my comic series, we get a lot of interaction on those and people discussing the idiosyncrasies of working in L&D in a humorous way. And, there are dozens more. Even if you just go to those two places, and then start reaching out to people that have made comments that resonated with you, you'll be able to build up a really strong network of individuals to talk to and reach out to when you're having challenges when you have specific questions. That would be my recommendation, get into LinkedIn. Search, dig in, find a few people that are really active and then see who comments on their content.

That's the approach to LinkedIn: Find people in your space that are engaged. People who post, comment, share, and interact. They're your most valuable connections.

It's not just about how many followers or how many posts a person makes themselves, you're really looking, in your position, for people that are engaged with what's happening on LinkedIn. That's the approach to LinkedIn: Find people in your space that are engaged. People who post, comment, share, and interact. They're your most valuable connections.

You can follow Richard Branson all day long, but you're probably never going to get to have a conversation with them.

RV: Yeah, totally. And it's, it seems like the people you were talking about and yourself, you contribute something to that community, too. It's like you're adding value to it. It's not like you're just approaching people and asking for something without giving something.

CC: Yeah. And to be fair, Ryan, you will bring value to that conversation as well. Being new to this space doesn't mean that you're not going to bring a whole bunch of value. Obviously, your video experience is something that you could start to talk about right away.

Being new to this space doesn't mean that you're not going to bring a whole bunch of value.

How do we use video more effectively in eLearning? How do we apply video in eLearning in a meaningful way. Start searching on that topic and then participate in the conversations. So again, leveraging one of your strengths. You could even write some of your own articles and share your own thoughts. You can take all kinds of ideas from video and start discussing how does that fit into eLearning? By doing this you'll start to build your reputation and you'll become more knowledgeable and capable.

One of the things that I've certainly noticed when I'm working with potential employers, is that people look you up on LinkedIn, and look at how involved you are, how engaged you are, or they're just looking for a sense of who you are. If they stumble across a whole bunch of great content that you've produced, it really positions you as a thought leader, and a person who's engaged, who wants to learn, and who wants to get better. So, LinkedIN becomes this whole ecosystem that you can use to pull a lot of value from.

RV: Yeah, totally. That makes sense.

Beyond LinkedIn, are there any other kind of things that you would say with with social media or communities to get involved in?

CC: Yeah, absolutely. BUT! You want to be careful about your bandwidth and where you can stay engaged. When it comes to social media, it's better to be heavily engaged in one place, than it is to be barely engaged in a lot of places.

When it comes to social media, it's better to be heavily engaged in one place, than it is to be barely engaged in a lot of places.

Twitter is number two on my list. As far as the learning community is concerned, you can get into Facebook and Instagram, I don't see as much value there as far as your ultimate goal to get better at eLearning development.

VIDEO CASTS

There are some great podcasts and video casts. The one that comes to mind right away is the TLDCast. It's a video series that runs daily and have some of the top L&D minds from around the world and share their thoughts, what they're working on, and the challenges they're having. And it's got a pretty good community of people that sign into that on a daily basis, people that you'd be able to connect with on LinkedIn and and other social media platforms.

Focus on Performance Outcomes - Not Training Requests

With Guest, John Temples and Host, Kristen Hayden Safdie | TLDCast | Nov. 17, 2019

PODCASTS

From a podcast perspective, specific to eLearning, the eLearning coach, Connie Malamed.

ELC 059: How Chatbots Can Support and Enhance Learning

A Conversation with Vince Han | The eLearning Coach Podcast | Dec. 30, 2019

And of course, if you search you "elearning," "learning," or "training" you're going to come across a number of other podcasts that are out there and available as well.

RV: Yeah, okay. That's awesome. I love that. I love that you have a podcast too. I think that was one of the that's one of the first things that I came across actually, when I was looking into "Who is this person that Shane said I should chat with in Calgary?"

The podcast is such an approachable way to start thinking about things in this kind of conversational tone. I think that's one of the hardest parts about starting doing something new, is just learning the language and how people talk about it.

Do you have any recommendations on where to learn the language of L&D?

Publications

CC: You'll definitely gain some of that from participating online. And then, there are some great publications available.

• Learning Solutions Magazine is free online and has some of the best contributors in our industry.
• It's managed by The eLearning Guild which is an excellent industry association you might consider joining. They have a lot of other great content for members.

There are a number of print publications that are fantastic as well.

• If you register for a membership with a ATD, TD magazine is fantastic.
• As is Training Mag.
• And, Chief Learning Officer Magazine.

Those are the "Big Three" that come to mind for me and there's a few other online ones, like Training Industry, which are great as well.

One of the hardest parts about starting doing something new, is just learning the language and how people talk about it.

WRAP UP

All right, Ryan, let's wrap this up. Based on what we've talked about so far today:

What are the big ideas that you can take away to develop yourself as an Elearning developer? And, if possible, can you structure those as action items? Because that's what works best.

RV: Sure. The things that really stood out to me were:

1. Doing more work in the area and developing the portfolio pieces,
2. Leveraging some of my strengths and focus on the experience I have with video production, and
3. Getting on LinkedIn, and connecting with some other people, adding some value to that community and ecosystem.

CC: One last thought on the idea of connecting with other people. Something you might consider doing because you've got this video skill set is actually reach out to eLearning development companies, and introduce yourself as an learning video developer. You may not come across eLearning development work right away, but you can start positioning yourself in the industry by building videos for eLearning projects. You can essentially start marketing yourself to eLearning development companies and, as you start building relationships and showing people how good your work is, that's going to create additional opportunities for you with the people that you're already working with.

RV: Awesome. Thanks so much, Clint. It was great talking to you again, and really appreciate you taking the time to chat with me.

Clint Clarkson, CTDP is just another victim who accidentally stumbled down the rabbit hole of corporate learning and development. He is the Founder & Managing Partner of eLearning Alchemy, a custom eLearning development firm. While he’s known for being upbeat, positive, and enthusiastic, Clint is still easily offended by comic-sans, bullet points, and the excessive use of buzzwords. Connect with Clint on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter.