Hi all,
I’m really interested in seeing where people go in their elearning career when you’re an elearning developer. Like many of you, I fell into elearning by accident during a career change and really enjoy it. I was wondering if some stay as a developer throughout their career and become really specalised in their craft, or do you move into a management type role or even into a consulting area?
I want to move into consulting/freelance role eventually and am getting started with building my personal brand.
Am really curious to hear your stories/thoughts.
Luke
Nice to know you’re interested in going into consulting. Here’s an article that might be of help to you – 10 cardinal rules for elearning developers – http://bit.ly/2CG2n3T Good luck!
Hi Luke, I was a web designer but had experience in education and actively looked for web jobs at universities..Mind you.this was in 2001… I saw a job post for an instructional designer at a college and went for it. Now I manage a team of 4 instructional developers and have been through 3 different LMS implementations. I am in senior management 0verseeing online learning and educational technology with the same school – but granted it was an opportunity to start something from the ground up.
Were you looking to stick with ID but just on a freelance basis? If you want to stick with ID as a career, I would recommend that you work at a good school or company and take the time to learn the culture. Any content you create (assuming it is for professional development or actual school curriculum) has to be relevant to their experience. I think it would be tough trying to do instructional design on a freelance basis. In my experience, at least in schools, textbook publishers churn out enough content to choke a horse.. It would be hard to compete with publishers and companies that develop workplace training.
Your mileage may vary of course.
Hi David,
Thanks for your insight. It’s great to hear how you got involved in the field and progressed. I was just thinking about doing just elearning development with Captivate, but I totally see what you mean. I’ve been talking to a few recruitment agencies just to get an idea of what the market’s like. First thing I need to do more than anything is get a portfolio, even to get any work on the side of my day job, which might be a better route. I also guess it helps having contacts in the type of places I’d like to work as well.
Thanks 🙂
You must be logged in to post a comment.
