I've always learnt best by doing, and the TLL practicum is the perfect chance to connect theory to practice on a real, ongoing project. Before HGSE, I worked as a teacher and then as a learning designer in teacher education. Designing learning experiences was central to both roles, but my approach was fairly unstructured: the theories, frameworks, tools, and processes I used were mostly improvised.
I've always learnt best by doing.
After HGSE, I want to work as a learning experience designer, in higher ed, teacher education, or a corporate setting, creating engaging and relevant learning for adults. Given my background, my goal for this course is to build a deep understanding of the core learning design process and to get fluent in the frameworks and tools good designers actually use.
Mapping skills to courses
To get there, I broke down the skills I need to build as a learning designer and mapped them to the courses and experiences at HGSE that would help. The exercise was genuinely clarifying, and it's what helped me choose which TLL projects I most wanted to work on.
I ranked the projects by preference through conversations with Bill, Mary, and my faculty advisor. That said, I'd be happy on any of them. I'm sure each would be meaningful and enriching, and I'm genuinely looking forward to working with the TLL team.