We caught up with yet another WRD alumna who took a more teaching oriented career path. Krissy Wilson (class of 2018) is an Instructional/Learning Designer at Northwestern as well as an adjunct here at DePaul, and we checked in with her to see what her day-to-day is like, and how WRD helped prepare her.
What about this job drew you in? Did you know a career like this was an option?
After I completed an MFA in Writing at the School of the Art Institute in 2014, I ended up applying to DePaul’s MA in Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse, looking for a critical complement to my creative background. I took a student employee position in the School for New Learning (now the School of Continuing and Professional Studies), where the fantastic team of instructional designers there saw my interest and enthusiasm and helped me grow into a part-time instructional design role.
As an undergraduate, I always thought I’d have three or four part-time jobs rather than a single full-time job. Instructional design happens to be a great combination of my interests: writing, graphic design, web design, technology, and teaching and pedagogy. I have also found a fulfilling niche in adult learning, helping lifelong learners reach their educational and career goals.
In addition to my full-time role as a Senior Learning Designer in the School of Professional Studies at Northwestern University, I am also an adjunct instructor of professional communication in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at DePaul. Teaching my own courses helps me better understand adult student needs and expectations and informs the work I do advising faculty as an instructional designer.
And, although I am not a tenure-track faculty member, instructional design helps me stay connected to the academic community. For example, I’ve had the opportunity to present at conferences like the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) and last year I co-authored a book chapter with a colleague.
What does a typical day look like for you?
No two days are the same, which is one aspect I love about instructional design!
My core responsibility is to collaborate with faculty to develop and revise online asynchronous coursework in our noncredit, undergraduate, and graduate programs. This means that in a typical week, most of my tasks involve meeting with faculty, providing feedback on syllabus and in-progress course materials, and advising on educational technology use and media development. Importantly, I am able to advocate for the needs of adult students by recommending best practices for online course facilitation and research-based approaches to course design.
There is also a significant amount of hands-on creative work: assisting faculty with drafting course content and assignments, designing pages in the course site, developing infographics and interactives, and editing audio and video content.
In addition to my course development work, I am involved in departmental projects such as: developing a rubric for quality in online asynchronous courses; developing and co-facilitating faculty development workshops; developing a consultation booking platform; and planning interdepartmental communication. I have also had the opportunity to grow into a leadership role in the department. I currently supervise and coach one Learning Designer. In the past, I have supervised up to two Learning Designers and two student employees.
I also regularly write blog posts, tweet from our department’s Twitter account, @NUSPSOnline, and participate in academic conferences. For example, this spring I presented at the Midwest SoTL Twitter Conference and the eLearning Consortium of Colorado Virtual Conference; I have forthcoming posters at Pedagogicon and TEACHx.
Are there any big focal points of your job (like say registration season)? And what do those require?
Many instructional designers in higher education have a consulting role in their relationship with faculty; rather than working on extended projects together, the instructional designer is available to answer questions and provide feedback on course materials.
In contrast, my team has a workshop approach, where a faculty member partners with a Learning Designer and an Instructional Technologist for roughly six months to develop or revise an online asynchronous course. We have four cycles per year, affiliated with the term of launch. We are busiest when those development cycles overlap, which requires completing a number of courses while simultaneously launching new developments. While the start of a given term can be a stressful time, our development cycle aims to complete courses six weeks prior to the start of a term, with course copy taking place two weeks prior to the first day of class.
Do you feel like WRD prepared you for this career?
I started working in instructional design contexts while pursuing my degree, so my time in the Writing, Rhetoric, and Discourse department was formative in establishing my identity as an instructional designer and instructor, helping build my confidence and providing perspective on why instructional design and teaching are meaningful pursuits.
As I mentioned earlier, I joined WRD seeking a critical complement to my creative writing background, and came away with exactly that. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are program priorities and as I pursued the Graduate Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and the Concentration in Teaching Writing, it raised my awareness of linguistic racism, white language supremacy, and linguistic privilege. This heightened my awareness of my responsibilities as an instructor with privilege as a speaker of English as a first language and I explored strategies and theories such as hidden curriculum, Universal Design for Learning, web accessibility, equitable approaches to assessment, and anti-racist pedagogy, which constitute the foundation of my pedagogical approach today.
Memorable courses include WRD 521: Technical Writing and WRD 531: Digital Storytelling with Dr. Lisa Dush as well as WRD 543: Teaching ESL Writing and WRD 507: Global Englishes with Dr. Jason Schneider. Taking my last two courses while pregnant was its own exercise in developing empathy for students and acknowledging the complex lives and identities they bring to our classes!
For anyone looking to go into education, what is the difference between your position and a standard professor?
My role is different from a tenure-track professorship in many ways. I am classified as university staff and have no formal teaching or research responsibilities in my instructional design context (although I do co-facilitate faculty development courses and, as discussed above, participate in the academic community from a professional development perspective). I am a salaried employee and receive a yearly performance review from my supervisor that helps determine compensation and potential promotion. Career paths for instructional designers do not typically follow a similar sequence of titles to tenure-track faculty (e.g. assistant, associate, full, emeritus); instructional design roles have many different job titles and follow different sequences. For example, I have held many titles with overlapping responsibilities, from eLearning Content Developer to Instructional Designer to Learning Designer and Senior Learning Designer. Other instructional designers at Northwestern have titles such as Learning Engineer and Instructional Technologist.
Krissy, like many other WRD alumna, was able to utilize the skills she picked up at DePaul to forge her own path in writing and writing education. While being a professor can seem like the only teaching option, Krissy has shown that the academic world is much broader than we think.