8/25/2020
Reflection
My portfolio reflection for EDU6225:Capstone was inspired by the NNG/Kate Moran (2020) video about the three most important questions when writing for the web: Who is this for? What do they want? What do you want?
Who is this for?
Because I very much know what lies ahead for me professionally (working at CrossTrainer, the family corporate training development firm) I struggled to define my audience for this portfolio. I eventually decided that I would like to use this website to present my own identity, outside of CrossTrainer, but also intertwined with it. Viewers will likely be prospective clients or professional contacts. This website demonstrates how I am not at CrossTrainer because it was the obvious choice, but because my mission, my purpose and my skills have aligned to make it the very best choice. I articulated my goal in my ePortfolio at the beginning of graduate school as, “To add value to the products and services CrossTrainer provides.” I have remained steadfast in that goal and yet… in reviewing my professional portfolio, I see how much I have grown in my understanding of who I am, the depth of my commitment, how I can best reach my goal and exactly what that statement means. This shows that I am a systems thinker, and can “see how parts relate to the whole, including the implications of systems and organizational change.”
What do they want?
My audience will be professional contacts, perhaps those considering partnering with CrossTrainer for their eLearning needs. I approached my professional portfolio as I have learned to approach a learning design -- only in this case, I'm the content and viewers want to learn more about me. Due to my eLID training, I couldn’t help but create learning objectives.
After viewing my professional portfolio, viewers will be able to:
define who I am
describe what motivates me to partner with L&D clients
evaluate what makes me qualified to do so
I believe this demonstrates the eLID competency of “professional expertise”! This also ties in to my philosophy which is in essence, making the knowledge sale.
I labeled my philosophy “About me” on the portfolio, and I labeled my strengths as “skills” which I felt better aligned with my message. Both labels also feel more specific to my career in corporate training. Additionally, I included photography and a video of myself and my city of Providence, RI, where CrossTrainer is based for a more personal touch.
What do I want?
I took a hard look at my competencies and what best aligns with the needs at CrossTrainer and within the corporate training space to highlight how I can best meet those needs with my skill set. I want to provide viewers with evidence to evaluate whether I could help them or the interest and curiosity to learn more. I used the phrase “Let’s chat” to direct viewers to the contact page throughout the website and it’s something I say often in personal and professional life.
My eLID education has instilled in me the importance of iterative design-testing links and edits to ensure that the portfolio looks good on desktop and mobile, and implementing peer feedback to improve my design. I think my attention to the portfolio’s functionality and appearance on mobile devices demonstrates the eLID competency of “helping to shape the future of learning and development, particularly next generation in mobile and online environments.” Additionally, the skills and samples that I highlighted: where I embedded a video of me demonstrating CrossTrainer’s mixed reality cube in addition to my presentation on AR and VR and the Rise module I created further demonstrate this competency.
For the third skill I chose to highlight, “L&D Communication strategy” I included a work sample from eLID as a Collaborative Profession. It sort of just hit me how much my undergraduate education in organizational communication prepared me to do well on this assignment and I wanted to highlight this area where I feel strong in my ability. The sample I chose demonstrates my competency as a communicator with contextual cognizance.
I want my website to appear professional and although I received peer feedback to include screen shots of the Rise project and the PowerPoint samples, I couldn’t embed them in a way that looked attractive. The content is there-viewers can simply click the “sample” buttons to view and ultimately, the appearance of the web page and simple navigability were more important to me. I tried to balance the use of stock photography with my own images that were high enough quality to include. In the end, I want viewers of this portfolio to want to partner with me to design, develop and communicate their learning initiatives and to contact me through the website so we can get started.
Finally, I want to be grateful for this experience. Although sporadically working at CrossTrainer over the years, I’ve mostly been at home raising my two young daughters since 2014. I’ve often felt that I lost my identity outside of being a wife and a mother. My professional portfolio feels like a part of me that I’m proud to present to the world. I knew that girl was in there but wow, it sure feels good to see her again.
Moran, K. (2020, April 24). The biggest mistake in writing for the web [YouTube Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=dHX8RRYPHJI&feature=emb_logo
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