Transcript: Women Who Code — Silicon Valley Full Interview with Sam Taylor
Day in the Life of an Instructional Designer
Sam Taylor M. Ed is an Instructional Designer working in tech in the Bay Area. She started off her career as a middle school STEM teacher, and throughout her five years in the classroom, she also taught herself to build out websites for her students. Sam then created a web development blog where she posted simple HTML & CSS tutorials, and all of these experiences combined blossomed into The Coding Workbook. Sam is passionate about making computer science curriculum available to all students, regardless of access to computers or technology!
Dianne Jardinez of Women Who Code had the pleasure of interviewing Sam Taylor, Instructional Designer and author of “The Coding Workbook: Build a Website with HTML and CSS”; on “Day in the Life of an Instructional Designer” where we took a glimpse of what an Instructional Designer does and advice for those who want to switch into Instructional Design. The main content of the interview is below. On behalf of Women Who Code — Silicon Valley, we thank Sam Taylor and appreciate her time being a part of our #ShoutoutSaturday series.
Dianne: Tell us about your career pathway leading up to your current position as an Instructional designer?
Sam: I was starting off as a sixth-grade science teacher. So I taught for three years in Las Vegas. I taught biology and I loved it. After my third year teaching, I decided to move back to the Bay Area and continued working in the classroom. So I was teaching again but while I was teaching my fourth year, I kind of decided that maybe I wanted to switch into something new and possibly the tech industry. So while I was teaching, I actually decided to teach myself to code just as a way to kind of get some technical skills in case I ever wanted to make the transition. While I was teaching and taught myself to code, I started a blog where I wrote tutorials, and I kind of archived and wrote about my experiences as I was learning to code and it really blossomed into this nice blog of tutorials. I was recording videos, I would screen record myself building websites. I was doing that while I was teaching. And as my fourth year of teaching kind of came to an end, I applied to work part-time as a curriculum developer for an ed-tech company called Albert.io. So that was kind of my first step into the tech world where I was working part-time developing curriculum, still science curriculum, but for a tech company. So I got to kind of learn a little bit about how different processes work.
After my fourth year, I really felt confident because I had a portfolio where I would build courses and tutorials. I decided to start applying as an instructional designer because I felt like it was the perfect marriage of teaching and creating curriculum, but also working in tech. I think having that blog and having my portfolio ready when I was applying for instructional design jobs really helped propel me into that career. I’ve been loving it ever since.
Now that you are an instructional designer, what does your typical day look like?
I can start by giving a brief overview of what an instructional designer is. Because sometimes people don’t quite know that this is a role that you can have in the tech industry. So basically, what I do is build out customer-facing training for the software company. As an instructional designer, I can also build out certification programs. So some of the common ones that you might have experienced are an AWS certification or Salesforce certification. So if you’re taking these certifications, different classes, and take an exam; all of that is typically built by an instructional designer. Anytime you are trying to learn a new piece of software, and you take a class from that company, that’s usually built by an instructional designer. So that’s kind of an overview of what an instructional designer is.
Now we look at kind of a day in my life, I can kind of walk you through how I work. I work from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM. In the mornings, I start my morning pretty early, I wake up and check Slack. My team is international so I like to get on slack pretty early, just to kind of make sure that we can all interact. I’m also more creative and productive in the morning. So I start my morning at 8:15 AM until about 8:30 AM. Then I have morning stand-up. We have a standup once a week with my team. And we kind of just talk about what we want to accomplish for the week, what projects we’re working on, what courses we’re building, or maybe anything that we’re having an issue with, like maybe having some video recording issues, and we can kind of prevent that.
Then around 9:15 AM, I spend the next 45 minutes to an hour reviewing the content that I wrote the day before because it’s always nice to have fresh eyes on a course that you’ve been working on the day before. It could be anything from reviewing old writing or a video that I recorded the day before, just to kind of give myself a new perspective, and tweak it if I need to.
Then 10:00 AM I take a breakfast break because I’m staring at the screen all day and then at 10:45 AM, I really get into building my course content. So this is really where I could be writing courses, I can be creating an outline for a small course, I can be taking screenshots of the software, take screen recording, maybe mess around with some settings, break things and then you know, figure out the best way to teach that and teach people how to do it properly.
Then I’ll usually take a lunch break around 12:45 PM, where I go for a walk, and I try to get outside. Maybe at 1:30 PM, I’ll have a meeting, or I will edit my peer's work on Slack, conversations with the product team because one part of my job is always making sure that as product updates roll out. I’m also creating content that teaches these product updates, too. It’s nice that I get to be in the loop with product managers, anyone who’s working on a product because you know, in software things change quickly, and products update quickly. So we want to make sure that we’re always kind of tracking what people are building, so we can get it out the door.
But yeah, that’s pretty much my day, I get to create all day and basically get paid to learn and then create training for people. And it’s just so fun because there’s always something new. And, one course could be non-technical for maybe marketers, or designers, but some courses could be for developers, like, how do they get our software up and running? And making sure that we’re writing for the proper audience. If we’re writing more technical content, we write it a bit differently than if we were to write for marketers or designers.
Is there a particular course of curriculum that you have a preference for?
I really like creating a technical curriculum, but I do love that I can kind of bounce back and forth between the two. One course, will usually take two to three months. So after you spend two to three months creating something really technical, it’s nice to kind of take a break, and then work on something less technical, and then go back and forth. I really just get to learn part of the process. The timeline is all about learning. That’s built into our process. It gives me an opportunity to really learn a bunch of different things.
I want to shift and talk about “The Coding Workbook”, what motivated you, or was the main purpose for writing it?
I’ll start really quickly, just in a brief overview of the coding workbook. The coding workbook is really the first of its kind, fully offline workbook, which means that kids and teachers, and really anyone can learn to build a website fully by hand without a computer, so no computer is required.
My motivation for building this was really, when I was teaching, I was working at a school where we didn’t have the best access to computers, or if we did have computers, they weren’t working to the point where we could actually build or run different software. I wanted to make sure that my kids who really did want to learn how to code and who wanted to get this computer science education had a way to also learn to code. So I really set out to figure out how to create a resource for teachers, students, schools in general, who don’t have access to computers, or the internet, to give them what they need to teach and learn a computer science education.
In education, there’s something called the digital divide. And it’s the gap of learning between kids who have access to the internet and technology versus those who might not have access to the internet and technology. And I wanted to create a resource that schools, teachers, anyone could learn the basics of web development with or without access to computer science or to computers and computer labs. I just wanted to make sure that my kiddos weren’t falling behind. I mean, computer science, coding programming, it’s becoming so popular, so common, and there are kids that have access when they’re in fifth grade or sixth grade to computers, and they’re taking these after-school courses. But then there are students that don’t even have access to a computer or internet. How do we make sure that we create and support and help our students make sure that they’re just as successful as students who have access? There’s already such a lack of diversity in tech, and I believe working to close the digital divide, is one step towards helping bring more diversity into tech.
Were there any challenges that you faced, providing something like a workbook, as opposed to something online?
I think that was probably just in general, having a coding curriculum that’s fully offline was probably the hardest part. Because how do you take something that is inherently digital, and using technology, and make it offline? So that’s where I came up with this idea of this kind of grid system where our websites are really just basically a bunch of pixels, where you move things around. I realized, if kids know how to graph and you move things around based on coordinates, how do we take a similar concept and teach it in a way where we can have our kids be moving divs and images and text boxes around with a pen and paper and handwritten hardcopy of a website? So that does take some thought and really just iterating on how we would make this work. But eventually, it became possible to where we could give a student a margin of 80 pixels, top and bottom left and right, and they’re able to actually physically move it on the page, just like they were when they are graphing something, to really create a pen and paper version of a website.
Now going back to being an instructional design designer, do you have any advice for anyone who is thinking about switching to this career path? Some things that you’ve learned along your journey, or just anything additional that they should know?
I think the first thing is that, for me, personally, it was really helpful creating a portfolio of writing projects, screen recording, just general tutorials, I have that as my blog. But you could create a website, sample projects, if you know how to do something, you can create a simple tutorial, whether it’s writing an email, or how to cook something, or how to build this program. Anything. You can create your own sample tutorials and courses. And so I think that was helpful.
The second thing is probably networking. I’ve found that a lot of instructional designers on LinkedIn have reached out to me if they provide a personal note about wanting to get into the industry, I’m more than happy to have a conversation with them. I think networking is really important because you can share your portfolios. And instructional design, especially digital learning, is becoming really popular these days, so teams are always looking for instructional designers.
This brings me to my third point, I think a tip that I’ve found in the past few companies that I’ve worked with is getting some sort of technical experience, whether it’s taking an introduction to HTML, a free introduction to CSS, or web development course, because every company that I worked at, the one thing we always search for is instructional designers that have some sort of technical experience. Like I said before, you never know what type of course, you’re going to build. It could be technical, it could be non-technical and really the unicorns that we’re looking for are people that have even a basic technical background.
Any last words of wisdom for those in Instructional Design positions? And any tips for success for women in this field?
For people that are instructional designers, I think the biggest thing that has helped me is being open to change, whether that’s a structure of the courses you’re building, the products that are changing constantly, and having to be able to just kind of go with the ebb and flow of product cycles.
Also being open to feedback, because feedback can be sometimes hard to hear. But if it’s from the right people, it’s only going to make you a better writer, and course creator.
For women in tech, just in general, I think you should always ask for what you’re worth when you’re negotiating a salary or a raise. I think it’s important that you have a conversation with your manager, about your career path, and kind of what you need to do to take the next step to the next level, even if you’ve only been there for five, six months, it’s never too early to kind of plant that seed, and know what you need to do to get ahead and increase your salary or title, etc.
The third thing, final thing, I think, for women in tech is that tech needs more women in general, with all sorts of interests. I think it’s so important to not make yourself small and try to fit in. We need women as they are with their diverse set of interests in tech. And so I think being authentic, being yourself is something that is just so powerful.
Do you come across any challenges as an instructional designer?
I think the biggest thing that we come across is, working with software, things are always constantly changing. And it’s really hard to stay on top of product launches, and making sure that you’re balancing and creating your courses with the fast iterations or the updates that kind of come with the means of being in tech.
If you had to pick any soft skills or technical skills that someone should have in this position to be successful, what would you choose?
Besides keeping up with product stuff, I think just being a good learner in general, because there’s always new things that you can be learned, for example, people can use Google Slides. But there’s a next level of people who are really good with Google Slides and creating beautiful presentations, or there’s new software that your team might want to try.
Being open and willing to learn new things is always important because we’re always either learning new software, best teaching practices, or maybe someone’s discovered a new way to teach or present a concept. Always learning and being open to learning is super important.
What’s your design process?
Oftentimes, my manager will come and be like, ‘we have this new product coming out, and we want to create something for this audience.’ And then it’s up to me to start kind of investigating where I talk with the product. From a customer success view, some questions would be about, ‘What are we trying to teach about this product to our customers? What are some pain points that they might be experiencing?’ So we talk and we ask questions to anyone who’s really involved with the product, and figure out what do we want the end-user or the customer to learn? And once we find out what the learning outcomes are and what we want to teach, then it’s up to me to kind of figure out, ‘Okay, how are we going to teach these? And how do we make sure our end users are successful?’
So then I create an outline. I’ll create maybe a few lessons that cover big learning objectives, which are, for example, what do we want our end-users to learn? So I’ll come up with the big, maybe five key topics that I want to teach or the big learnings. Then I’ll work backward. What are the terms that people need to know? What are the different skills that people need to know? How do I demonstrate what these things are? And how do I test to make sure that people who are taking our courses are actually learning and how are they learning the things that they need to learn more about?
Then we start to fill in the gaps with information, video recording, definition, questions, really anything that we in the instructional design industry think we can do to create courses for our learners.
Attendee Questions
Do you have suggestions for how developers can become better at teaching in their core current role? Blogging sounds like one way, but I’m not sure if what I work on overlaps with what people want to learn about.
I think one thing that has really helped me is coming at it from a perspective of, ‘you need to remember to put yourself in your learner's shoes.’ And as a developer, or as someone who’s worked with the product for years, you really know the ins and outs. But if you come at it from a fresh perspective of a user who hasn’t ever worked with it, then you can kind of start to break down the basics of what you want them to know. So if you start with the basics, and then you kind of build backward of what you want them to learn. And while blogging is one way, there’s definitely, if you’re a developer, I know people often document what they’re writing. I’ve actually found a few technical writing courses, I think Google has a free one that really helps to teach you how to write in a technical way that’s both informative and really clear for the learners. So finding different courses that you can take to kind of teach technical content has been really helpful because there is a difference between teaching technical content and teaching non-technical content.
I would definitely recommend taking a course or two on how to create technical tutorials. There are a lot more people that need your information than you realize. So if you think that maybe a topic is overdone, or how to build a website is overdone, you probably have a unique perspective, a unique voice, and a unique way of teaching something that will help at least a few people. And I think that’s something else to keep in mind.
Are there any tools or apps that help you with your design process? Or even just getting organized? Is there something in particular for you, especially in your career pathway that you’d like to share?
Yeah, I think it’s definitely my Google Calendar. But I am also making sure that I keep everything organized. And Google Drive is really important. Some of our products or courses are built with Google Slides. We keep track of things. We just moved to Asana. So I’m kind of getting a feel for that. Storyline is a really good important tool for people to learn. If you’re an instructional designer, it’s kind of like the course building software. So that’s really important. And also, video editing software and having skills in video editing is really important. I use Camtasia. But there’s a bunch of different video editing software because if you’re doing a screen recording, or you’re recording yourself teaching, you’re going to want to edit it, and you’re going to want to tweak it and create callouts. And so even for the simplest walkthroughs, you’re going to need some sort of video editing software. Being able to function with those is really important. Then other tools, I use Adobe Illustrator for creating graphics, and we use Figma for wireframing.
Are there any certifications that you know of that people could complete?
I think there are different extension programs like UCS where you can get an instructional design certificate. I know ATD is like a curriculum development instructional design community where you can get certified and can get resources.
If you could give yourself advice to your past self that would have guided you in the direction you wanted to go, what would it be?
I think the first would be to seek out people who are experienced and take the time to learn from them. It is kind of a jump when you move from education to tech. There are a lot of terms, just even the basics like terminology, processes, and all that which is totally new to someone who doesn’t start off in tech. It’s a whole new ballgame when you get into tech. So I think finding someone that you can ask for help.
And being totally open and honest, when I first started, there was like a few months where there was an abbreviation or like an acronym, for a few things that I just pretended that I knew what they meant. And so it was kind of hard for me to do different parts in that role because I didn’t know what everyone was talking about. And I was too scared to ask. But if I had just asked right away, I think life would have been much easier getting started.
Another is I think spending more time just being creative. In terms of digital art. I think that one of the things I really wish I had spent more time doing when I was getting started is taking some illustrative classes or taking some design and art classes because you can create so many cool graphics for your courses. If you don’t have those skills going in you have to spend time learning, which is fine. But if I had come in with all these skills, it would have been really great.
What are your thoughts on finding a mentor in this field? And also, an additional question to this, what if you’re just starting out, how would you search for a mentor?
If you’re just starting out, finding someone who’s maybe been in the industry a bit longer than you even if it’s not someone that’s been in it for like 10 years, even if someone’s been an instructional designer for a year or two, really taking the time to build a relationship with them and ask ‘Hey, are you open to maybe connecting once a week for 15 minutes to answer any questions?’, then coming to those meetings prepared with questions for them to answer is something that is really important. Because it shows that you’re curious, you’re willing to learn and you’re respectful of their time.
Just looking throughout your team. I mean, probably if you’re an instructional designer, you’re going to be part of some sort of team that there might be someone you can talk to, if not, I know there’s a big community on LinkedIn. Like I said, just reaching out with a genuine message. You know, ‘hey, I want to start out in this career. Can I ask you two or three questions?’ And then following up with, ‘hey, you know, can we have a short zoom call?’ is another way to do it. Yeah, I mean, I think if you’re willing to be a little bit uncomfortable, and reach out and ask, then it pays off big time.
You can purchase Sam Taylor’s “The Coding Workbook: Build a Website with HTML and CSS” on the No Starch Press Website.
This blog is the transcript of an event run by the Women Who Code Silicon Valley on May 22, 2021. You can view the recording of the event below.
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