Ashley Chiasson, M.Ed

It’s that time of year where gift-giving is upon us, and if you have an Instructional Designer or E-Learning Developer in your life, I have a great list of prospective gifts that you can give!

Tech Gifts

Bose QuietComfort Noise Cancelling Headphones – These are my number one gift suggestion for any Instructional Designer or E-Learning Developer. Whether they work from home, from a cubicle farm, or just like zoning out to music/podcasts while they work, these are an amazing gift! I purchased a pair of these earlier in the year and I will never return to another type of headphone. NEVER. Bose, I’m a customer for life now. Yes; they are expensive, but are they worth it? 150%! As someone who travels frequently, these headphones have also saved my butt more than once when I’ve had to fall asleep on a noisy redeye after an excruciatingly long week of conference travel/participation, and work wonders for those who are anxious flyers.

Storage – You can never have enough Storage. I like my storage in the form of the Apple Time Capsule (which has been discontinued….wah!), external hard drives, and cloud based storage through Dropbox and Google Drive. There is no shortage of options, and there are some pretty good deals kicking around on Amazon this time of year.

Sonos Beam – The Sonos Beam is on my wishlist this year, and it’s mostly because I enjoy working from my sofa at times, and while doing so I like to have background noise. Then, when I actually want to watch TV, I’d like to feel like I’m in the show I’m watching. Basically, this is just something I would like to have in my life!

Things to Make Work Easier

Things that make my work-life easier include the following (outside of the headphones and storage previously mentioned):

• Articulate 360 Subscription
• Creative Market Credits
• Dongles for my Apple Devices – This one is great!
• An unlimited supply of lined post-it notes
• A spacious desk – I purchased this one earlier in the year after drooling over my husband’s, and it is amazing (AND, no allen keys required)
• Wireless Charging Pad
• A Good Microphone – this is necessary for anyone who records video or audio narration.

Coffee or Tea

Most Instructional Designers, E-Learning Developers, or humans I know consume some form of caffeine, and most often it’s in the form of tea or coffee.

Last year I sprung for the Nespresso Vertuoline with frother because I was spending way too much money on lattes at a local cafe (annually). I chose the Vertuoline because they have a fantastic recycling program for their pods (the entire pod gets recycled and coffee composted), are very fairly priced per cup, and their coffee is pretty tasty.

Before purchasing the Nespresso, I had a little Cuisinart that did the trick, and I would purchase coffee subscriptions so I could get a variety of beans. My favourite subscriptions were:

• Craft Coffee
• Blue Bottle Coffee

On the tea front, I am very firmly planted in the Davids Tea camp. Davids has an amazing selection of tea, and some of my favourites are: S’Mores Chai, and Movie Night. However, if you’re unsure what to choose, I would recommend the following gift packages:

• Fan Favourites Sachet Tea Wheel
• Gift of Wellness
• Gift of Sleep

I’ve been working as an Instructional Designer for over a decade now, and within that capacity, most of my roles have required e-learning development. It wasn’t until I took on my first role in higher education, where e-learning development was not a thing I got to do, that I began to really long for the days I once lamented…working on an e-learning project for hours, weeks, or months. It was then that I realized that while I love all of the other phases of Instructional Design, I have a particular fondness for the development phase. Here are a few reasons why:

1.Flexing My Creative Muscles

Until I discovered Instructional Design, I had never been a particularly creative or art-sy person. I always wanted to be, but it was just never in the cards. I did much better with written activities, or things that required my imagination…I always dreaded the ‘creative cat’ category in Cranium. But once I began developing e-learning and seeing how I could craft really cool learning experiences, and make learning suck less for the target audience, I became passionate about that element of Instructional Design.

2. Working with Cool Technology

Within my first Instructional Design role, we worked in a ton of different technologies. We created a lot of cool learning experiences, from traditional Instructor-Led Training (ILT) to gesture-based training to Augmented Reality (AR). In creating these learning experiences, I was able to work across a broad range of technologies. This is where my love affair with Articulate products began. I became especially excited about Articulate products after having worked in so many other products that were a lot more confusing to use. In working with Articulate products, I was able to discover the E-Learning Heroes Community.

3. The Community

As with the communities of Instructional Designers I’ve encountered, the communities of e-learning developers are a-plenty, and it makes me so happy and excited to see so many people doing such cool things. When I was first building out my portfolio, the Articulate E-Learning Heroes Community was my motivational launchpad. I truly appreciate a community of people who provide constructive feedback as it helps me grow as a Learning and Development Professional.

I have also learned so much from all of the people I have met through other communities on Reddit, LinkedIn, and Twitter. There is such a wealth of inspiration for e-learning development out there, and these communities have been instrumental in my growth within e-learning development.