Instructional Designer (English, BA)

Phaedra Dolson, Manulife

By: Jasmine Kent, Career Centre Peer

Embarking on a journey with a Bachelor of Arts, English degree from Laurier, Phaedra Dolson set her sights on a career in elementary teaching. In pursuit of this goal, Phaedra obtained her Bachelor of Education at Nipissing University where she ultimately ended up teaching grades two and five in London, England for 2 years. Phaedra greatly enjoyed living abroad but felt disenchanted with actual classroom teaching. Feeling confused about where to go next in her career path, Phaedra returned to Canada where she secured a role as a Lifestyle Consultant with Aspire Lifestyles, a contact centre that provides travel and hospitality services to elite clientele. Phaedra participated in a six-week onboarding program of classroom instruction and on the job training. During this training program, she discovered the field of learning and development and its importance to corporate operations.

Armed with her passion for education, Phaedra secured a Learning and Development Specialist role with Aspire Lifestyles following a year of employment at the firm. Phaedra’s role focused primarily on onboarding new hires, however, when the pandemic hit, she switched to focusing more on instructional design tasks as the company was not taking new hires at the time. This new instructional design role consisted of creating eLearning modules and maintaining learning management systems, which is where Phaedra truly started to find her rhythm. Phaedra began aggressively pursuing instructional design jobs, which led her to her current position as an Instructional Designer and eLearning Developer at Manulife.

As an Instructional Designer (ID), Phaedra is responsible for creating learning assets for insurance advisors across Canada. She develops content for Manulife’s Continuing Education Centre, where advisors come to earn credits through various educational mediums including eLearning, podcasts, webinars and video series. Insurance advisors and financial planners must earn Continuing Education credits throughout their career as part of a requirement for their licensing. Each province has a different governing body that has specific requirements for the number of hours and types of learning that financial and insurance professionals must abide by. Phaedra typically has 5-6 projects on the go, and everything created must be sent to the governing bodies to evaluate the content and issue the Continuing Education credit, which can take 8-10 weeks.

Phaedra oversees multiple projects that are typically at various stages at any given time. Some examples of specific projects Phaedra works on are recording and developing webinars presented by a Subject Matter Expert, creating a 1-hour eLearning course from job aids and PDFs on a subject of interest, and evaluating content produced by the business to determine the best way it can be used as a learning asset. When launching a new project, Phaedra first conducts a Needs Assessment Meeting with the Subject Matter Expert from the industry. This meeting helps the ID to comprehend why the learning is required, who the learners will be, and the framework needed to map out the learning objectives. Once the framework is made, Phaedra then begins developing the course using an authoring tool called Articulate Rise 360. The content then gets published to the learning management system and is made available for the advisors. Phaedra noted the emphasis Manulife places on employee’s own learning and development and she will often enroll in different eLearning courses to further develop her own career and skillset.

If interested in entering the ID field, employers are mainly looking for education related experience, whether that be adult education, training and development, and/or business marketing communication experiences. There are some ID programs offered at the post-secondary level, however, it is usually more common to begin your career with classroom teaching and then transition into this role, which Phaedra’s career is proof of. Phaedra highlights that many recruiters are looking for a strong portfolio of ID demonstrations and hands on experience using eLearning authoring tools (e.g., Articulate Rise 360, Articulate Storyline & Adobe Captivate). You can often get familiar with these tools through free trials. Phaedra recommends creating a portfolio to demonstrate to employers you can create learning content, even if the content you create is as simple as teaching one how to wash dishes! Lastly, she recommends looking for examples of training in everyday life (e.g., how were you trained in your last part-time job?) and asking people about their experiences in their jobs as this will help deepen appreciation for diverse learning styles and gain insight into effective and ineffective job training experiences.

In terms of important skills needed for this position, Phaedra believes one must have a passion for learning and education and feel motivated to help people succeed. Creativity is important in terms of designing the training, and being adaptable and flexible is a key quality for success as projects do not always go as planned. Phaedra notes that sometimes you may not always be on the same page when working with Subject Matter Experts.

In terms of trends impacting the field, Phaedra cited participation in the TechLearn Conference where the focus was on learning design and AI. It was noted that AI will not replace the entire field, but rather IDs are finding innovative ways to leverage AI to enhance their job experience. Another trend occurring is many teachers are transitioning into the field, as ID is adjacent to an education career and requires many of the same skills. An ID role can have the benefit of removing some of the stress that comes with classroom teaching, such as behavioural management and report cards. A career in ID can lead you to working in higher education to create courses and maintain records through learning management systems, or it can take you to private sector corporations designing job training and onboarding processes.

To procure more information on this career path, Phaedra recommends subscribing to Training Magazine. This resource provides free access to over 1,000 webinars with topics such as learning design, tools, trends, etc. It provides a deeper exploration into ID resources, insights from industry leaders and can facilitate connections in the field. Students can also look at the Institute for Performing and Learning, which provides information on how individuals can acquire professional designations such as the Certified Training and Development Professional (CTDP).