Ashley Chiasson, M.Ed

Instructional Designer & Consultant

Freelance

Holiday Gift Guide for Instructional Designers and E-Learning Developers (2021)

It’s been a few years since I came out with a holiday gift guide, but if you have Instructional Designers, E-Learning Developers, or anyone else who might enjoy these bits in your life – I’ve got you covered!

Tech Gifts

  • Bose QuietComfort 35 II – These were in my 2018 gift guide, and they’re too good not to include in this year’s! I’ve had my QC’s for about 5 years now, and I love them so much! They’re perfect noise cancelling headphones for working, for traveling, and even sleeping! My set has held up surprisingly well, even after wearing them nightly since pretty well the beginning of the pandemic. I have had to replace the ear pads once, but they’re reasonably priced and easy to install…and once in 5 years, I’m not going to argue about that!
  • Apple AirPods – I didn’t think I’d enjoy these as much as I do. I have the Second Generation AirPods and got them as a free gift with my last iPhone upgrade. They’re my go-to dog walking headphones, they’re super portable, they charge quickly and hold a charge for an extended period of time, and they don’t hurt my ears like the old corded Apple headphones did.
  • Sonos Speakers – Our household has a few of these speakers now. The quality is great, and as someone who receives frequent unscheduled work calls, being able to use the voice controls to tell it to pause is great! They also facilitate my mid-workday dance parties, and I’m not mad at that.
  • Blue Light Over-Monitor Screen Filters – I suffer from migraines, and I also stare at screens for many hours per day. I invested in these screen protectors for my work monitors and they have been a total game changer. Initially I was worried that they would impact colour and become problematic for design, but they don’t! The big caveat here is that these ones sit over top of your existing monitor instead of being a film that you peel and stick. I had heard that the peel and stick ones were a bit of a pain and didn’t want to deal with that.
  • Microphone with Arm – I’ve used the Blue Yeti microphone for years, but coupled with a compatible microphone arm, it’s even better. The YetiCaster bundle is totally worth it – for $100 more, you get both the mic and the arm that goes with it. The quality is great and the allows for various settings.
  • External Monitor – These monitors are really handy for anyone who travels regularly for work and needs a second monitor. They make work life a whole lot easier than straining to use one monitor when you’re used to a minimum of two, and they’re very reasonably priced nowadays.
  • Dongles – For the Apple user, dongles are a necessary evil. Ridding MacBook Pros of their USB drives will have me shaking my fist at Apple to the point of carpal tunnel. Dongles in my possession include a multi-USB hub, USB-C to Ethernet, USB-C to HDMI, and USB-C to SD Card reader.

Software

  • Articulate 360 – Articulate Storyline is one of the leading E-Learning software development tools, and the 360 license allows use of all other Articulate tools, making you a one-stop E-Learning development shop!
  • Adobe Creative Cloud – With so much software provided within the Creative Cloud license, this product suite is sure to enhance the development capabilities for any Instructional Designer or E-Learning Developer.
  • TechSmith SnagIt and Camtasia – I can’t remember a time when I didn’t use SnagIt or Camtasia. I use SnagIt daily for quick screenshots and basic image editing, and I use Camtasia for all of my screencast recordings and video editing. TechSmith has great resources and tutorials for all of their tools, and their products definitely help me streamline my development.

Workspaces

  • A Good Office Chair – I’m a big proponent of investing in the things that you spend most of your time doing. For me, that means investing in my work and sleep setups. After years of waffling, I picked up a Herman Miller Aeron chair, and it was hands down one of the best decisions I could have made. Are they expensive? Yes. But the quality is bar none, the chair comes fully assembled (I may have squealed with delight), and as someone who is 5’1″, I struggle getting a chair to go low enough in height. This one goes even lower than I need! It allows me to sit properly without having to scootch forward to get my feet on the ground.
  • A Large Enough Desk – My husband picked up one of these Need desks years ago, so when I was upgrading my office setup, I ordered one. I use 3 monitors, so I appreciate a spacious desk that also doesn’t take up the entire office. These desks are collapsible, but extremely sturdy and provide me with all of the space I need.
  • Gaming Mouse Pad – These come in all sorts of designs, colours, and sizes. When I picked up the Need desk, I wanted to grab a really large mouse pad to go with it. It’s seamless on my desk surface and I can sit my keyboard on it while still being able to use my mouse. It’s the simple things.

Random

  • Storage – If you’re still stumped for gifts, storage is a great option for any creative – from E-Learning Developers to Photography enthusiasts, to creators who produce videos. You can opt for some cloud storage from Google or Dropbox, or physical storage options, such as large external hard drives.
  • Audible Subscriptions – Audible subscriptions are great for anyone who wants to listen to books, podcasts, or get professional development via books without having to read a physical book. I enjoy listening to audible while working, because…multitasking.
  • Coffee or Tea – Brewing equipment, subscription services, or hand-picked coffee or tea is always a nice gift!
  • Membership Subscriptions – Instructional Designers and E-Learning Developers often purchase professional memberships. If you know someone who has an ATD or Learning Guild membership, paying for their membership renewal is a great option.
  • Gift Cards – Some folks think of gift cards as impersonal, but if you’re not entirely sure what to get someone, a gift card for them to choose their own gift is never a bad thing.

A Reflection on Freelancing and Some Advice

I will begin this post by saying: I no longer freelance full-time. For the past year, I have worked full-time with Traliant as their Senior eLearning Developer, and I love what I do. That being said, I do still freelance…just in a different way and for different reasons. 

Awhile ago, I wrote a post about my Freelance to Freedom, and because it’s been five years and a lot has changed, I thought that was as good a time as any to reflect on my freelance journey, my goals, and how I’ve transitioned my freelancing since then.

When I initially wrote that post, I had dabbled in freelancing, working various contracts, and considering making strategic moves, such as requesting reduced hours at my full-time job, securing contracts, and moving toward full-time freelance. Since then, my focus has shifted. I’ve learned:

  • First and foremost: SO MUCH
  • What level of freelance I’m comfortable with and uncomfortable with
  • What type of work I enjoy doing
  • What my overall goals are in relation to freelancing

Let’s break it down!

Levels of Freelancing Comfort

What initially began as me being unable to say no (to contracts) and winding up working both permanent full-time and full-time freelance gigs has allowed me to explore how I want to freelance. For me, I prefer to have a permanent full-time role, while being able to continue my side hustle with small projects.

  • It’s important to note that I have always been transparent with my full-time employers about my intentions and have sought approval before beginning employment. No one should be blindsided.
  • My proposition has always been ‘so long as the freelance role doesn’t impact my ability to get my regular work completed and is non-compete (working in similar subject matter lanes can feel icky, and you should go with your gut)’.

So for me, what was once ‘take every gig you can and just make time for it’ has turned into a much more strategic endeavour. This is because when I fast forward 5 years (and I’m sure 10/15/20 from now as well), I see that I have put a lot more value into my time and into my work-life balance.

I love freelance work because it keeps things fresh and ever-changing, but I also enjoy stability.

Another level of comfort I’ve found: working remotely. I do enjoy interacting with people on a daily basis, but for me that doesn’t mean it needs to occur within a traditional office space. I appreciate knowing that I can comfortably do my work from my home office, a cafe, a hospital, another country…wherever I want so long as there’s an internet connection. I love being location independent!

What Type of Work I Enjoy Doing

When I first started freelancing, I learned very quickly that I enjoyed working in an Instructional Design or Storyline Developer capacity. I am very good at both of those roles and I learned early on that I wanted to work smarter and not harder, so I chose freelance work that aligned with my skillset.

If you threw me into the full-time freelance pool again, I would still feel this way, and would still align the projects I worked on with my skillset. It makes sense. I fully recommend to anyone: promote the work that you would want to do again, because it’s what you will enjoy doing…and if you spend 40+ hours a week working, you should heed this one bit of advice, if only for your sanity. I’m a big supporter of investing in things that you will spend most of your time doing (work and sleep) – make those elements of your life as comfortable as you can.

What My Overall Goals Are in Relation to Freelancing

Initially my freelancing goal was ‘pay off my student debt’, then it was ‘make all of the money’, and now it is to foster relationships and invest in my professional development. How does that look for me now when it comes to freelancing?

As I mentioned before, I value my time and my work-life balance, so my freelancing is now focused less on more traditionally viewed ‘work’, such as Instructional Design or eLearning Development, and more on my own professional development and the professional development of others.

What I’ve really been passionate about for the last five or so years has been: Speaking. I love delivering sessions at conferences and providing training to others in the form of workshops and online courses (usually on topics of Instructional Design, eLearning, eLearning Development, etc.). I am very fortunate to have a career that allows me to do this, and the reason I see this as my preferred form of freelancing is because: 1 – it allows me to connect with colleagues and share what I’ve learned over the last 15 years of my professional life, and 2 – I have always been terrified of public speaking.

It’s a weird Catch-22 of ‘I like sharing’, but ‘I hate speaking’, and speaking at conferences and other events has allowed me to improve on a skillset of which I struggle. This is invaluable to me. So while I no longer freelance in the traditional sense of the word, this is my freelancing.

Last Words of Advice

Work outside of your comfort zone if you’d like, but make sure that it’s sustainable for you, your goals, and your desired work-life balance. If you want to do freelance full-time, there are strategic ways of executing this goal, so don’t work yourself to death – no one needs that kind of pressure. If you’d like to hear more about my freelancing insights, I’ll be delivering sessions on this topic at both ATD TechKnowledge 2020 and Learning Solutions 2020 (as well as some sessions and workshops in between).

Freelance Advice: Pricing Yourself Appropriately

One of the freelance questions I get asked most frequently is: How do I price my services? 

When going freelance or taking on contract projects, pricing yourself appropriately is critical. Your. Time. Is. Valuable. I’ve been on both sides: freelancing myself and hiring freelancers, so I feel like I can offer some advice in this arena. You can even take some of this advice and apply it to the “a prospective employer asked me ‘what is your salary expectation?’ – how do I respond?”

But first, a story…

When I first began freelancing it held a very simple goal: pay off my student debt faster. Kthx. And I did. And I learned a lot from my very first freelance gig. I went on a bid site (freelancer.com), bid on any job I thought I was even remotely qualified for, and won several contracts. One such contract was transcribing 40 hours of interviews for someone’s PhD research. I did this job for ONE. HUNDRED. DOLLARS. WHAT?! Yeah. I had no idea what to price transcription services at. This was obviously a steal. This is a period of my life that was absolute agony for me. I’m not a quitter. I did the job. I hated the job. I learned that my time was valuable. #lifelessons. I now know that, and that will never transcribe anything ever again. Never.

Cool story. That was dumb. Now get on with the advice please.

Alright, so there are several things you want to consider when pricing your services:

  • What do you want to earn?
    • Be realistic; I initially based this annual value as what I was making at my first ID role
  • Consider the things you have to pay out, such as taxes, HST (if you’re Canadian), and health care
    • The biggest mistake I see people make is pricing their services too low and only finding out when they owe a bunch of $$$ to the CRA or IRS. It can be an expensive lesson to learn.
  • Do you want project based pricing? Hourly pricing? Salary?
    • Salary is self-explanatory, but you still need to factor in the things you’ll pay out to. Hourly pricing can be good if you’re unsure of how much time you spend doing each type of task you’ll be doing. Project-based pricing is typically higher, but if you do project-based pricing you may get into an underpaid pickle if it takes you longer to complete a project than what you had quoted.

For me, as I previously explained, I initially priced my services based on the hourly breakdown of my first ID salary. I then added to that. So, let’s do a simple example:

  • Starting rate: $20/hr
  • I set aside 35% of each project for taxes, and 15% for HST, so I would add those two things (50%) and then add that to my rate – so now I’m at $30/hr.
  • Then, I add 20% to that to put aside for healthcare – now we’re at $36/hr

Now, this takes a bit of research, but I recommend you start with your provincial/state/federal tax sites to identify how much you need to pay in to taxes based on certain tax brackets. It might suck to contribute more to your tax account than necessary, but at the end of the day, it’s always nice to not have to pay out all of your tax savings vs. owing more.

The other major things to consider is: What experience do you have? How long have you been doing certain types of jobs/roles? Where do you live? These factors all play a part in pricing yourself appropriately.

Pricing yourself can be incredibly intimidating, but I’ve learned that valuing myself accordingly and confidently negotiating my pricing has more often resulted in prospective employers not batting a lash versus balking at my pricing. And if you’re being fair with your prices and still encountering prospective employers balking at your pricing…are those the employers you want to work for? For me, it’s not. There will always be more contracts. I promise you.

Resources:

  1. The eLearning Guild has an incredibly helpful calculator: 2018 Salary Calculator, and you can use this as a starting point to base your annual value according to various elements (e.g., state in which you live, education, years of experience, etc.). Another thing the eLearning Guild does is an annual salary and compensation guide – aimed at recruiters, but also helpful to peruse if you’re looking into working for yourself.
  2. Estimating Costs and Time in Instructional Design by Donald Clark provides a great overview.
  3. The Chapman Alliance – How Long Does it Take to Create Learning is a resource I recommend OFTEN.

Top Blog Posts of 2018

First off, I cannot believe that it is mid-December already. I know everyone says this, but wowee! 2018 blew by!

I’m always asked for better categorization of my posts, and I really want to do that (honestly, I’ve wanted to overhaul my site for YEARS now), but I haven’t yet perfected cloning technology, found someone that I trust to overhaul the site for me, or discovered a way of increasing the amount of time in a day…I know. Excuses.

In lieu of overhauling the site, I’ve opted to curate a list of my most popular blog posts of 2018, and I’ll attempt to categorize them as much as possible. Enjoy!

Screencasts:

E-Learning/Instructional Design/Freelance Advice:

Portfolio:

Conferences:

Random:

E-Learning Advice: How to Get Started

There are a lot of questions I get about Instructional Design, E-Learning, Development – they’re all over the place, but the questions I get the most are:

  1. How do I get started (in Instructional Design or E-Learning)?
  2. How do I find work?

So I thought I would take some time to discuss each of these questions, starting with “How do I get started?”

There are a lot of ways of answering this question, and I’ve written about my origin story before. However, I’ll give you the short version of my story here:

I didn’t know Instructional Design was a profession, and I studied Psychology and Linguistics in school, hoping to become a Speech-Language Pathologist. A friend I knew worked as an Instructional Designer, referred me to apply at the company for which she worked, and I fell in love with the role. My start was an unconventional start.

Some folks fall into Instructional Design with backgrounds in Human Resources or Training Coordination, some Instructional Designers are former teachers, or have teaching backgrounds, and some take a more direct approach (and those methods certainly don’t encompass all means of becoming an Instructional Designer).

First Things First – Research

Are you even interested in Instructional Design or E-Learning? My first piece of advice is to do your research. There are a ton of places to do this research, but my top two would be:

  1. Talking to someone who is already working within the role, and asking them questions about their day-to-day.
  2. The Instructional Design subreddit – there are tons of helpful nuggets in there.

Other places you might want to look:

Education (Paid)

I would say that the most direct approach would to complete higher education degrees or diplomas within the field of Instructional Design, E-Learning, or Education. While I don’t believe this education is 100% necessary to become an Instructional Designer, it certainly helps. Some great programs are offered through OLC and ATD, and there are many options available at universities and colleges. I did eventually obtain my Masters of Education (Post-Secondary Studies), and it has helped me acquire Instructional Designer roles in higher education. However, for corporate/private sector, I don’t believe such credentials will make or break your chances.

There are also some great MOOCs available that let you get a feel for the principles behind Instructional Design/E-Learning Development:

Education (Free or Low-Cost)

Lynda has a great Become an Instructional Designer learning path, and there are so many great Instructional Design/Education books available:

2017 Recap and 2018 Goals

2017 Recap

I hope everyone is having a great New Year’s Eve! Our little family has spent the last week in quarantine with the flu, but I can’t say I’m complaining to much about having a New Years Eve in. Overall, I feel like I hit the business goals hard, but definitely slacked on the personal goals.

This year, I maintained consistent relationships with my long-term clients and added a few other clients, I networked per usual, attended ATD ICE and DevLearn, spoke at DevLearn, and facilitated a week of Articulate Storyline 360 training. My husband and I traveled to Calgary and Toronto, and I traveled to Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Newfoundland. I would have run the Bluenose and participated in the relay race; however, the dates fell in line with when I was away for ATD ICE.

Personal goals:

  • Slow down and take more time to enjoy the present;
  • Maintain a consistent exercise schedule;
  • Register for run the Bluenose Half Marathon and a relay race; and
  • Travel to Calgary and Toronto with my husband and plan an anniversary vacation.

Business goals:

  • Maintain relationships with my long-term clients, and continue building a small network of clients.
  • Continuing networking with colleagues I respect;
  • Attend 2-3 conferences;
  • Speak at 1-2 e-learning events;
  • Get Sprout up and running;
  • Learn a new skill;
  • Participate regularly in the Articulate E-Learning Heroes Challenges; and
  • Blog regularly.

2018 Goals

For 2018, I really want to focus on some of the personal goals, and more maintenance when it comes to business goals.

Personal goals:

  • Slow down and enjoy the present;
  • Maintain a consistent exercise schedule;
  • Be more mindful of the food I’m putting into my body and make positive dietary changes;
  • Run the Bluenose Half Marathon and participate in a relay race (should be do-able since I won’t be attending ATD ICE this year); and
  • Travel to Toronto with my husband for the Blue Jays Home Opener and plan and execute an epic 5-year anniversary vacation.

Business Goals:

  • Increase business income by 25%;
  • Attend 2 conferences;
  • Speak at 1-2 e-learning conferences;
  • Participate in the e-learning heroes community challenges (period – not regularly, just participate);
  • Blog regularly;
  • Break 1,000,000 views on the blog; and
  • Get more courses up on Sprout.