Whenever I interview candidates for a position in our content development group, whether it’s for a position working on the products we create or for the custom eLearning services we offer, I like to ask them the question, “What is it exactly that you think we do here at SolidProfessor?” I get some interesting responses:
Videos Some say, “Well, you create videos.” That’s true, we do. But although videos are the way we deliver a lot of the information in our courses, they’re only one aspect of the content we create. A follow up question to that response is, “How are the videos we create any different than the thousands of tutorials and how-to videos people upload onto YouTube every day?”
Information Others answer with, “You create information.” That’s also true to some extent, but I would argue that we process information more than we actually create information. As a follow up, I like to ask, “How is the information we include in our courses different than a resource like Wikipedia or Google that has all of the information you could ever need?”
Experiences The answer I am looking for, in some form or another, is that what we create at SolidProfessor are experiences. What is a learning experience? Think back to one of your favorite high school or college instructors and remember the experience of learning from them and the environment they created in the class. Now, contrast that by imagining getting dropped off at a public library that has thousands of books which have all the same information that was taught in the class, but no one to guide you through the experience of learning it. How do those different experiences affect how you learn?
With every piece of content we create, whether it’s a video, hands-on activity, workshop, case study, or an assessment, the experience someone has when they use it is the most important thing we think about as instructional designers and as producers of the media in which the experience is delivered. With each experience, we want our learners to feel as engaged and inspired as they did with their favorite school teachers.
Thinking back to that favorite instructor you had in school, it is probably safe to say that they had a natural ability to understand your perspective and had a vested interest in you having a positive learning experience. The mindset of that instructor is exactly what we aim to achieve at SolidProfessor, using the technology and mediums we have available to do so over the web.
 Jason heads up the SolidProfessor Content Development team, which creates the videos and learning experiences that have helped hundreds of thousands of engineers, students, and teams improve their skills. With a background in mechanical design, Jason uses his passion for instructional design to develop the methodology behind the SolidProfessor learning experience.Connect with Jason on LinkedIn. |
