Instructional Design

The following work samples are artifacts I created or co-created during my time in the Instructional Design and Technology graduate program at UC from 2018-2019.

Animation & Design

Educational Game Design (Revised)
Color Harmony (2018) is an animated learning object created to be used as part of a larger lesson about art, color theory, or a similar topic. However, this learning object can stand on its own as a mini-lesson or microlearning experience. The intent of this learning object was to teach learners the basics of color harmony. Upon learning more about learning objectives, I see now that video lessons like this are only part of the equation of learning - you must also assess learning somehow, which a video alone cannot do. I ran into this realization as well with my educational game "Wake" as it must be "assessed" with self-reported expansion of empathy in a group discussion setting and is not assessed within the game itself. I've since learned that programs like Articulate Storyline and LMS's like Canvas can insert quizzes in the middle of videos so that learners can't continue with the video until they answer the intermediate questions correctly. It would increase this video's ability to become a standalone lesson if a feature like that were added.

​​Software: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Audition
Wake: A Balance of Energy & Hope is an educational game designed by a group (Gu, Guy, Riedy [Neely], Rietta, & Zhang) in 2018 and heavily revised as a solo project for the IDT Master's Project in 2019. This text-based, role-playing game seeks to teach players empathy toward people living with depression. This game has been through rigorous evaluation, user testing, playtesting, and revision. It became evident to me during the creation, testing, and revision of this game that it would be best used as part of a larger lesson about mental health instead of a standalone lesson or experience delivered without learning context. Learning context and learner expectation takes a much larger role in the process of learning than I thought prior to my time in the IDT Master's program.
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Software: Twine
Language: Sugarcube 2.0
Picture

Educational App Design

Pocket SOM is an educational app prototype designed and created with J. Avila and R. Zhang in 2019. This educational app was designed for adults learning in an informal context using their phone or mobile device as a learning tool in the situation where they would be drinking wine.

The problem we sought to solve was as follows: Due to a lack of understanding of the nuances of wine tasting, the average wine drinker is unable to fully appreciate wine and communicate their tastes when selecting wine. This is because, we (the designers of the app), like many wine drinkers, would like to make educated decisions about the wines we choose to drink and better appreciate wine. Our goal with the app was to emulate the experience of having an in-person wine tasting expert guide you through taste notes and other facts while drinking wine.

Software: Adobe Illustrator, Marvel App

Edu. App Design & Development*

eACT is an award-winning, mobile-first, online intervention strategy developed in the Studio for Advanced Learning Technologies at UC, 2019, for Children's Hospital by Dr. M. Schmidt, N. Glaser, C. Rietta, and T. Riedy (Neely). The goal of the app was to teach parents who have children with epilepsy intervention strategies that would help the parents help their children take their medicine. This app was designed with mobile devices in mind first but can also be accessed on a traditional computer. We used a learner-centered approach to designing the intervention, meaning we designed this app to accommodate busy parents with busy lives who would be accessing this information on the go or in a less-than-peaceful environment. This project was a perfect example of how designing educational material for a specific audience can drastically increase its effectiveness in teaching the desired content.

Award: AECT Crystal Award, 2019
​Software: Adobe Illustrator, WordPress, Google Docs

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