I started my journey as an educator in 2008 after a false start as an engineering major. I had recently switched my major to English and learned it was flexible enough that I could unite my interests in the humanities, communications, and technical disciplines into something fulfilling. So I tutored in undergrad, lectured in grad school, and then obtained my teaching credential. Throughout this odyssey, people told me teaching seemed to come naturally to me, but honestly it took a ton of effort and a lot of failure, too.

In my teaching program we had to develop an educational philosophy as one of our first assignments. Mine evolved as I learned to be a more effective educator over the next eight years into the following: I believe that teaching means designing, implementing, and assessing material that is relevant and engaging to most of the students most of the time. What does that look like in real life? I always ask myself one question: Will anyone ask, “Why am I learning this?” If they do, I know it’s back to square one.

What does this look like for an instructional designer for adult learners? To me, it isn’t all that different from teaching high schoolers. It means creating relevant and engaging lessons for people who (1) have other tasks they have to complete and (2) have other things they’d rather be doing. As an instructional designer, I continue to welcome the challenge of creating trainings and materials that learners know are meaningful and interesting, where “Why am I learning this?” doesn’t exist.