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Designing for Decisions: A Call Center Simulation Built in Twine
In this interactive prototype, I explored how simple scenario-based learning can support customer service reps in handling high-stakes conversations. Built in Twine as a low-fidelity simulation, the project focuses on decision-making, tone management, and de-escalation—critical skills in any frontline service role. Learners are dropped into a realistic escalation call and must make choices that impact the outcome. The goal is to offer learners opportunities to practice how to respond empathetically, gather details quickly, and guide the customer toward resolution—all in a safe, replayable environment. This prototype was part of my…
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Best AI Video Generators for Instructional Design: How I Use Them as an LXD
Dear readers, As a learning experience designer, I’m frequently asked what design tools I’m using. “What software should I learn to use, Yin?” or “What’s your AI toolkit?” Honestly, we live in an era where we’re spoiled for choice, or to put it bluntly, we’re drowning in AI tools. It seems that everyday, something new pops up in my feed. But how many actually help us design better learning? I’m always testing: avatar makers, 360 video backdrop generators, text-to-video platforms. Prototyping and creating graphics and videos is a large part…
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Degrees of Separation: Why the ID Job Market is Failing Its Most Qualified Candidates
The instructional design/learning experience design job market is oversaturated. This, on top of a field already misunderstood and cluttered by the confusion over titles (read my decade-old post about the misperceptions of ID). There’s a clear disconnect between what hiring teams think instructional designers (IDs) do and how we’re actually trained to do it. The following are a few key factors impacting the field and the hiring of IDs. The Legacy of Graduate-Level ID Training Instructional Design began as a specialization within graduate programs in Education, Educational Technology, and Educational…
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When XR Isn’t the Right Hook: A Design Reflection on AR for Email Phishing
As an instructional designer exploring the potential of XR, I recently set out to prototype an augmented reality (AR) learning experience to teach users how to spot phishing emails. The goal? Make email security training more immersive—less “click next,” more curiosity-driven exploration. Spoiler alert: It didn’t quite land. 🎯 The Learning Goal I wanted learners to examine a simulated inbox and interact with individual emails to decide which ones were legitimate or suspicious. Each email had visual cues: dodgy sender domains, urgent tone, suspicious links, etc. Tapping on each subject…
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Why Adobe Captivate Isn’t Enough: A Modern Take on Learning Design
So, you’re looking for an Adobe Captivate specialist? You’re not alone. Those searches dominate my site analytics. Captivate has long been a go-to for interactive eLearning. But here’s the thing: tools are just ingredients. A useful and meaningful course takes more than clicking through slides or dragging and dropping widgets. It requires thoughtful design, storytelling, and an understanding of how people actually learn. Captivate can be useful, but it’s not a magic wand. And if you’ve ever sat through a dull, forgettable training developed with Captivate, you know what I…
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From Quad Axel to Surgery: What Figure Skating Teaches Us about Psychomotor Skill Development
[First published in LinkedIn. This is a backup copy.] Ilia Malinin, the reigning world champion and American figure skating sensation, also the self-proclaimed “quadgod,” can spin 1620° in midair. That is four and a half full rotations off the ground. He made history by landing the first-ever quadruple axel in competition. “How does he do that?” is a question both fans and competitors ask with awe. Of course, Ilia is an elite athlete. But I am not here to dissect world-class athleticism. What I’m after is the learning and instruction…
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Project XR: 2022 Sanditon Escape Room
It has taken me quite a while to build this 2022 digital escape room because of the 3D planning and programming. Those of you who are aware of the 2021 Sanditon Escape room may have read this explanation of how to plan for and design a digital escape room (DER). In this 3D 360 VR DER, there are several scenes. Once again, the scenario for the DER is provided in the initial scenes: Joy Jambalaya (JJ) is a top sleuth who had been captured because she found out who the…
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Adobe Aero: #30DaysXR #Day5
I do like Adobe Aero. The app is still in beta version and so is still buggy. Here’s an AR card I made by following James Zachary’s tutorial. AR Interactive Card
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#ProjectXR Update: 3D Generalist (Jan 22, 2022)
To date, I’ve been learning to use apps in Column 2 from multiple classes (Column 1) — and I found a name for what I’m becoming professionally, as an enlargement of my skillset; a 3D generalist. My knowledge about these tools keep growing as I read and get to know more people in the field. Table 1: XR development apps (Last Update: Jan 24, 2022).
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Simple AR Layering with Halo AR App (#30DaysXR, #Day3)
Today, I finally completed a halo using the Halo AR app. It took me a while to figure out how to use it from start to finish (sharing the finished product). There was little or no documentation, but there was a Discord channel for Halo creators, so that helped me a bit. There was one YouTube video on how to create a halo, but it was still rather unclear. If you need some info, contact me. Essentially, here are some instructions that have been left out: You must create the…
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360VR Brief Intro (#30DaysXR, #Day 2)
Alright, another introduction, but this time using 360VR. The software I’m learning to use is CoSpaces. I love it. It has a supportive user community made of educators. [Updated: Jan 20, 2022] My first inroad to CoSpaces was through a friend, Micah, who taught me to build my first Jenga game for a MIT xPRO course I designed. My next project in CoSpaces is to build an escape room. Watch this space!
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Interactive Augmented Reality (AR) Business Card (#30DaysXR, Day 1)
YouTube is a treasure trove of learning possibilities. My latest and first 2022 learning adventure involved learning to build an AR-enhanced business card. Voila! Here it is. To play in AR mode, scan the QR code. You can download a QR code scanner from your mobile phone’s store (Apple App store or Google Play). Acknowledgements: Much appreciation to Monica of Academic Phoenix Plus for the tutorials. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with the world. Create an Interactive Augmented Reality (AR) Business Card (1/2) Create an Interactive Augmented…