Unlearning to reimagine: my journey to creative course design

Date

Aug 1, 2024

Author

Vi

Unlearning to reimagine: my journey to creative course design

I have realized that what I have trained and learned about instructional design stopped me from being creative. I need a new approach: relearn and retrain.

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When I started researching and creating courses for RainbowVI, I was very confident. With more than 9 years of experience in education and academic training as an educator, I thought I would ace the task.

I was wrong.

The first demo course I created was content-heavy and focused too much on flashy media. While creating that course, I became bored and burned out. I knew something wasn't right. Despite aiming for short, engaging, and highly interactive content, I failed myself as a learning designer. I decided to relearn everything.

I now see clearly how relearning unlocks transformative opportunities. By setting aside conventional frameworks, I'm discovering fresh perspectives that truly work. My research into successful online courses and content creators has revealed something essential: creating exceptional learning experiences consistently outperforms following theoretical models. This understanding guides me to develop content that actively engages learners and ignites genuine curiosity, instead of just checking boxes on an instructional design checklist.

This exciting progress brings its own worries. I fear being wrong, that other educators might judge me, that I'm deceiving myself.

But these fears are precisely why relearning is so crucial. By acknowledging my doubts and pushing through them, I'm not just growing as a learning designer, I'm modeling the vulnerability and growth mindset I want to inspire in others. This journey of unlearning and relearning may be uncomfortable, but it's already leading to more authentic and impactful content creation.

I am very hopeful about my journey!

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