Why did you select the MSIDT program at CSUF? I chose the MSIDT program at CSUF for a few reasons. First and foremost, I have felt the need to validate my career by having a graduate degree in instructional design. I was lucky and fell into this great profession but I didn’t have formal training. I’ve had a great group of designers to learn off of at work but wanted to have that degree and the training necessary to feel like I’m cognizant of all angles of being an Instructional Designer. Another reason for choosing this program specifically is I know two alumni. I worked closely with Jennifer Hudson (Shanahan) when I started at Advantage Solutions and now Chandler Ellman (Bondan) is my boss on the training team. Both are alumni of the program and recommended it. I looked at other programs and the CSUF program seemed to be a great mix of being local, well-regarded, and affordable. The last reason is between my two stints at Advantage, I worked at Hyundai Motor America a...
If you’ve been to any e-learning, instructional design or learning tech conference there’s no doubt you’ve probably heard of xAPI. xAPI stands for Experience Application Programming Interface and it is the future of the Learning Management System (LMS). So what is xAPI and how does it work? Well, first let’s talk about why we need a successor to the current standard: SCORM and AICC. SCORM and AICC only allow the capture of completions, time spent, scores and a few other minor things of interest. That means we are only capturing, essentially, if the course was completed or not, how long it took and if the knowledge check was passed. There is a lot of room for opportunity there. How, as designers, can we confirm understanding, changes in behavior, an increase in job performance, or the acquisition of new skills? Well, xAPI aims to fill that gap. It has the capability to assess learner performance on the job and will provide a slew of data on the learning programs we are deploying acro...