All In All, A Worthwhile Experience

The Shadowing experience was an excellent window into one of the specialties I want to explore in the working world - eLearning. Most of what I was exposed to was THE PROCESS of creating, producing and delivering an eLearning project; the actual writing of this particular eLearning program was already done by the time I arrived on the scene. I'm as interested as ever in pursuing this specialty and have at least one solid internship possibility with a Training and Development department of a major banking institution. With any luck, I'll get to spend 10 weeks there this summer.

A Great 4 Days of Shadowing!

I spent well over 40 hours of shadowing time with DLC on a Blended Learning project they were creating for global use by a high profile multinational corporation. Here's a video clip that summarizes my experiences during those four days.

Shadowing In Earnest During Reading Week

Reading Week has begun at Centennial College and I'm using the time to work on my class assignments. Last week I met face-to-face for the first time with Christine Link and Dan Cully at DLC. My shadowing work with them will fit nicely into Reading Week since the project I'm shadowing is having its main video shoot this week. I'll help Dan onsite in any way possible, including making still photographs (for later use within the Blended Solution structure of their project). I should point out that I signed a confidentiality agreement with DLC and will not be referencing details of the project or the name of the client, just generally describing my duties and what I'm learning as I shadow.

The video shoot starts tomorrow and goes for about three days. I'll liase with Christine and Dan today by phone to finalize all details. I'll have accumulated much more than the required 20 hours when this week is done, but the main thing is to do a good job for DLC, since they've been so generous towards me.

I have not heard lately from Stephan Lalonde at Infinite Media about my other shadowing possibility. I think he's dealing with more immediate issues. I'll not contact him until my main work at DLC is completed. then perhaps I'll see if spending time shadowing there is still viable. Perhaps I'll volunteer a day or two to them after this semester ends. I'd worked for them as a freelance writer last spring and I certainly want to maintain my relationship with them.

Planning Is Almost Complete; Soon The Shadowing Will Begin

Well it's one week later and much has transpired since I last posted. I've had further phone discussions with both Stephan at Infinite Media and Christine at DLC. In both cases we've discussed possible times for me starting to shadow at their company and they've asked me more specifically exactly how much I wanted to be involved in the projects they'll make available to me.

I'm not yet sure which Infinite Media eLearning project I'll be assigned to. What we've determined is the my immediate availabilities: Monday morning, Wednesday morning and Thursday afternoon of the weeks of March 1st and March 15th, and possibly March 22nd as well.

For DLC, I've relayed the same general blocks of available time, with one big exception. I'm making myself available to them for the entire week of March 8th. That's Reading Week at Centennial College, so I'll be able to work fluidly and continuously on a single project which is having its video component shot that week. (I'll easily be able to accumulate 10 hours or more - probably more of shadowing time during this week alone.) Prior to March 8th - next Monday in fact - I'll get a phone briefing from Christine on that particular project. She'll also send me some strategy documents and the video script to look over. The following Thursday (March 4th) I'll have a working lunch with Christine in her office in the east end of the city (Queen & Carlaw) more or less just south of where I live - very convenient. She'll give me a tour of the office, introduce me to some of her key people and, overall, give me a clearer idea of how DLC works.

Right now the DLC connection looms largest. It's a very specific project with a fairly specific timeframe. I will get a lot out of this particular shadowing experience. I have high hopes for the time I'll spend at Infinite Media as well, but things still appear a little vague there. Once I get there that should change. Stephan will call me towards the end of this with some specific times to start shadowing. I can't wait.

Shadowing eLearning Companies via IDM 424

I'll be involved in three major Interactive Digital Media projects during the 2010 Winter Semester at Centennial College. Two of them are in Andrew Lane's Studio Mentorship class (IDM 424). Of those two, the most meaningful to me is the shadowing assignment, aka "Industry Engagement". That's because this assignment will give me broad exposure to the field and probably help me get an internship in this area for the summer.

One of my goals in this course is to learn more about eLearning, and this particular assignment is my best opportunity to do so. eLearning is a specialty that really interests me, as I discovered three years ago when I was asked to write product knowledge training modules for Ford of Canada dealership sales staff. I was working at Maritz Inc. at the time and my job was to be the Lead Writer in their Automotive Learning area. I found I enjoyed writing educational modules and, indeed, the entire process of creating eLearning products. However, Ford's financial difficulties in 2005 and beyond caught up to me and everyone else at Maritz. The eLearning budget was slashed and I lost my job. What little work was left to be done in that area was now to be performed by another writer with long-standing ties to Maritz.

I tried to attach myself to various eLearning companies as a writer but got nowhere. The recession was throwing one roadblock after another at me and I decided to attend Centennial College's post-graduate Interactive Digital Media program to gain a better footing in the new digital workplace.

Real progress has been made in the short time I've been at Centennial. One of the best opportunities has been this one - shadowing eLearning companies.

In preparing for this assignment, my first order of business was to contact eLearning specialists at large corporations as well as eLearning companies. (A number of these contacts were known to me through a Toronto educational networking group I belong to called eLATED.) E;ated members work at a wide variety of biI'g and small organizations, including such companies as Canadian Tire Corporation and the TTC. I also contacted Sunnybrook Health Centre, which has a large Nurse Education department, and Infinite Media, a company I'd done some freelance work for this past spring. As I attended more eLATED events my contact list grew. I also spoke with a number of my instructors. One of them had been the creative director for an eLearning company and he offered me a solid lead as well.

It took time to get responses and commitments from this large group of people. But, eventually, I got more positive responses than I could handle. I'm now in the process of selecting two companies to do most of my shadowing with. I will visit a third company and stay in touch with all the others in the coming months, especially after graduation.

The two companies I'll shadow at are DLC Inc, of Toronto, a company started by Christine Link. Christine was given my name by Spence Saunders, one of my instructors at Centennial, and she's been very accommodating.

I'll also be shadowing at Infinite Media, under the tutelage of Stephan Lalonde. I did some high-pressure, last minute writing work for Stephan last May and they were very appreciative of the quality of the work - their client was quite pleased. In fact it was the second time I pulled off an overnight writing assignment for them last Spring. They've welcomed my shadowing request as well. I'll be balancing assignments between these two companies and, I hope, learning a lot about how eLearning projects are put together from beginning to end.

I'll continue writing about my progress and the process I'm being exposed to. I'll add video to this blog from time to time as well.