Design for Nerds...My Stars are Frowning!

Ahem....for people who care, I create courses for software nerds at Redmond. That's my portfolio in the nuttiest shell possible. That's how I pay for grocery, my rent, a maid, a haircut, an occasional trip to the mountains, an even more occasional indulgence at a sushi bar ET AL.

Now things in the job front were quite hunky dory, and I was starting to believe that I understood spreadsheets, OLAP, and data mining (these are mere examples of technical content that I deal with...impressive huh?), like I know how many blackheads I have at the tip of my nose. Until recently...

The nimbus cloud loomed large, when I was asked by a surprisingly well-wishing management, to design a course for Business Intelligence developers. Giving out further details here would jeopardize my job much more than it already has, so I'll refrain.

I started designing the course. Any Instructional Designer (now that's my job) worth his salt would want the rest of the world to believe that 'Design' in Instructional Design is much bigger than the fall of Bastille, the World Wars, man going to the moon , the fall of the twin towers, the Bin Laden hunt, the nuclear deal and so on. But is it really? Note to Self: Drastic improvement in self-esteem desperately needed. We'll come back to this...or I'll use the favourite corporate joke...'We'll take it offline'...whatever that means.

So I started the design. For people who don't know what it involves, here is the list:

• Talk to the Subject Matter Expert (SME).



• Talk to him some more.



• And some more.



• Talk to the client.



• Talk to them again...until they are positively sick of your voice, and put you on mute to share a bad joke amongst themselves...about you of course.



• Talk endless over every kind of phone possible.



• Be submerged in absurd work.



• Become completely unsocial in the process.



• Go home at a time when the street dogs take heinous pleasure in ragging you.



• Go home at a time when in-laws feel it's unthinkable for the woman to stay out of the kitchen for so long.



• Get a design sign off.



• Receive flak anyway.

To top it all, I developed a cryptic eye infection, and my SME, an ear infection. As he rightly put it, hopefully without much malice, "We are a team!"

For people who are much more passionate about Instructional Design, and who feel that my post here is blasphemous, my sincere apologies to them. Disgracing Instructional Design has never been the objective of this post. However, I feel, severe improvements are required in the way we handle clients, and SMEs in the Indian Elearning context. Improvements are required in the way we listen to their demands and still say that thinking about the learning needs of the learner is important. Improvements are required in communicating the right thing to the right people, at the right time. Improvements are required in the way we keep the team spirit going at a time when the client screams and says 'I hate your work'.

Until then, I'll have these horrific experiences in doing the 'Design' part in Instructional Design, merely to pay for my grocery, my rent, a maid, a haircut, an occasional trip to the mountains, an even more occasional indulgence at a sushi bar ET AL.