Community Showcase: Leah Chang

Luis Malbas  
Hello, everybody, welcome to the training learning and development community. Happy Wednesday to you wherever you are. I know for me, it's still morning time over here, but I'm sure for some of you folks like looking in the audience. It's probably afternoon and evening evening Sutton some places. Let's see. Let me give a shout out real quick to some of the folks that are in the audience now. Shannon Pippa prices here, Dan Jones. Danny. Bobby, nice to see you again, Erin, thanks so much for for joining us. So new guests in this member showcase, we have Leah Chang. And Leah is out of British Columbia, and has her own agency. And I was really, really excited when she accepted my invitation to come on to one of our member showcases, because I went to her website, and I took a look and you have like such a wonderful looking, diverse staff and the things that you do seem to be really, really good. So yeah, we're just going to learn more about Julia and talk about your background a little bit. I've got 10 questions. 30 minutes. And, and yeah, like Bobby says, can't wait to hear about you and your work. I love it. So before we do that, though, I did see on LinkedIn that you have a webinar that you're going to be a part of coming up soon. Yeah. Why don't you pitch that real quick? Because one, and I want you to pitch it.

Leah Chang  
Yeah. Thank you so much, Louis. That's that's quite an honor. So I'm giving a webinar on Thursday, December 16. It's at 10am. Pacific. So 1pm. Eastern, and everyone's invited, it's about learning accessibility, and six simple concrete ways that any organization nonprofit corporate, what have you can adopt more online learning accessibility. In Canada, we're, I'd like to say we're a little bit behind the states. We're learning a lot from groups like you, Louis, and this community you're building. So yeah, we're just going to share some of our lessons learned and at least, you know, hold space for the conversation. I've got two great colleagues joining me. So you can check out the link on our website. Probably best on LinkedIn. Yeah, registration link is there. Yeah,

Luis Malbas  
I'm gonna I'll chase it down at some point and paste it. I was looking right now. But wait, actually, I have it right in front of me. So I will. I will paste that in a little bit. Um, yeah, I, I did see that you kind of came in after we did the, the accessibility event that we did over the summer. And I was really surprised at how popular that one was. And actually how powerful it was, I still get messages to this day from folks that are watching those videos and just kind of keep that handy for for their teams and things. So I'm really glad that you're coming in because I do feel like that's a priority for T LDC going forward is to really focus more on on on accessibility and DX strategies, that type of thing. So, yeah, I'm glad that you came in through that way. But let's talk about you. Now, let's talk about this journey that you've been on. You have been an educator, like I think you mentioned it on LinkedIn. It's been 20 plus years since you've been teaching. I saw that you were in France as an educator, and let's hear about your journey as a as an l&d Professional.

Leah Chang  
Yeah, thank you. And when I saw your message that I had almost two decades, I was like, oh, boy, I guess it's true, because I started off as a French immersion teacher. So French Immersion is a really popular program here in Canada. I landed in teaching because I had a master's in language. And I was like, What am I supposed to do with this? And I just loved learning and helping teenagers learn about learning French, because that's really what we are doing as language teachers is learning how to learn language. So I was super fascinated by that. I did get a bit burnt out. Turns out I'm quite an introvert. I love working at home alone. Surprise, surprise. You know, us in the eLearning industry, a lot of us are actually quite happy permitting, you know, we're probably working from home pre pandemic. So what I discovered about 1015 years into teaching was it was quite draining, being with teenagers all day as much as I loved the energy and I loved you know, that engagement. I was getting a bit tired. And I didn't realize that this world of instructional design existed, I had come from, you know, academia gone straight back into the education system. I I sort of wish I had known about that and my journey into online learning and learning. Consulting was actually through digital marketing and I am so glad I had that experience because the combination of education and digital marketing really primed me to be in this learning technology space, which turns out is totally my jam. So that's it. That's my story in a nutshell. I'm happy to unpack some of that too. But

Luis Malbas  
right. No, I love it. I don't think that I've heard that one before, where you went from being a teacher to being a digital marketer. And then going back to education, I mean, we all know, like, the marketing and education, sort of spaces overlap so much, right, especially on the digital marketing side. But as a digital marketer, I mean, were you finding yourself just like gravitating towards, like elearning, or instructional design?

Leah Chang  
Yeah. So there's a lot of concepts that I really got to practice as a digital marketer. And you know, I only dabbled in a little bit. This is back in the day when social media was fairly new. So that was my foray into it. But what I learned in marketing is all the good stuff that we need as learning professionals like metrics, analytics, and measurement, also, just not being afraid of trying new platforms and systems, and also how to write in plain language and write a really compelling call to action, which is very similar to a lot of the behavior change work that we do as learning professionals. So it was kind of a good experience. For me, it got me a little bit out of, you know, just that teacher language and learning how to use my transferable skills, right in a corporate environment. And that was a huge learning curve. But there's so much that marketing and teaching or education have in common in terms of the psychology of how humans and our brains work. So it really did primed me for, I think, what are the some of the work I'm doing now? If I hadn't had that background? I wouldn't be here today.

Luis Malbas  
Right? Yeah. Well, I know, I've met a lot of l&d professionals that like that, I think would be absolutely fantastic. digital marketers, and pretty much are they just don't even realize it. Because it is all just kind of like instruction? Pretty much. So

Leah Chang  
yeah, there's so many hats too, right? Like, some of the best graphic designers I've met are not actually graphic designers. They're in our industry. Right? So.

Luis Malbas  
Right, right. And so how about now that you're where you're at, you have you've got your own consulting agency, anything you wish you had known? Like when you had started out in your career about where you are? Now, if you can go back to yourself, when you'd first started something that you you'd, you'd let yourself know,

Leah Chang  
your I love that question. It's so hard to answer, because so many things, you know, I would do differently. But I think one thing is I would have maybe spend more time outside of education. Now now that I'm you know, seeing it from the other lens. So I've left you know, the post secondary world, I've left the secondary teaching sort of circles. They're really well supported and have great networks, there doesn't seem to be a lot of connection with like, beyond that. And I'm excited to see that there are some groups now that were that the Venn diagram of education in the secondary world, and what we do as, you know, elearning designers in, in the performance world, let's say, where that can collide and create some magic. So I wish I had known that this industry existed before. What I really loved as a teacher was I love designing lesson plans and units and always had some sort of zany project that the kids were doing. That was the beauty of the program I was teaching into. So I think just having more of a sense of what working outside of academia was like, that would have really helped me, but I've had a great time learning about that. And, you know, the one thing I have a guess is, you got to be a little gutsy, right? You have to have some gumption, right? So I don't mind asking people like, Hey, can I can I pick your brain? Can I sit in on a meeting? I want to see what you do. I want to learn more about this other world that I don't know anything about. So

Luis Malbas  
right, right. And it's interesting that we're kind of going there. I haven't actually announced it yet. But next month, we're going to be doing kind of a teacher to, to ID event for until DC and then actually the following. We're trying to schedule one that is focused on writing for instructional design, and that's going to be towards the end of January. But you kind of mentioned both of those things. And I I've been doing research about both. And I run across that a lot is that people don't realize a lot of especially like teachers K through 12 just don't realize the how big of a world it is out there. This whole instructional design and learning and development space. And how did you adjust or how did you start to figure that out? What what Where did you come across all of it?

Leah Chang  
Yeah, good question. Um, I think it was because I was working in a company you know, I worked in a large travel insurance underwriter in Canada and I got to do a bit of digital marketing and so through that I am I became aware of this whole world of performance and development. And so eventually transitioned into being their learning center team lead, and there's all these cool facets and venues you can go into. So it turns out, I really like learning management system and talking about technology and helping organizations with those systems. And it's not dissimilar to what an educator might do in terms of helping a school or a district sort of think about things more globally, right, and think about, you know, big picture items. So that's, I guess I'm answering your question in a circuitous way.

Luis Malbas  
I know you are, you definitely are. I mean, it feels almost perfect that you're able to run into it that way. And now you're working at serving like nonprofits.

Leah Chang  
Yeah. So I really love picking and choosing the clients and projects I get to work with and collaborate with. And there's quite a huge need for nonprofits to be supported with big picture stuff. So you know, they might need a custom course design. But more importantly, they might need just some help with like, I don't have a system to host this, what are my options? Right? How much does that cost? How do I get grants for that? Or am I hiring a position for this? Or should I hire a consultant, I have no idea, right? So having come in through the nonprofit world as a volunteer and also as an employee, and then also now as a board member, I can really see that nonprofits, a have some really cool projects to work on, and sometimes have some very solid committed funding. So for example, you'll see us working with provincial or federal groups, even some groups in the States. So they may not be charities, but they may be not for profits, right. And also, I really like working in the space where people are very committed to a central cause or common mandate. And they're, they're pretty creative about how they get there. So most groups I work with, the nonprofit ones are either really scrappy, and innovative. But you have to be lean and mean, right, which means you can move quickly or move strategically on some things and make some big differences with with, you know, some some small effort, right. So yeah, it's an exciting space to be in. It's, it definitely takes the right. Background and nonprofits, it's a different world. It's a different language. And also, there's a lot of client education that happens, which is the fun part for me, so.

Luis Malbas  
Right, right. Well, I've never heard anyone describe like nonprofits as being lean and mean. But I can see that and I've wondered about it myself. And I find that really, really fascinating. So and also, like the webinar that you're going to be participating in next week, you are discussing diversity, equity, accessibility, you know, what, how did you get into the, into that space?

Leah Chang  
Yeah, that's a great story. I'll be honest, a couple years ago, I would probably not have touched any projects that said, you know, must be web compliant, or must be this or that or must have accessibility. Like, there are a lot of codes for different provinces and states where you have to meet a certain level, I, I've shied away from those. I got into it, because I was working for nonprofits, that had budget to do some really cool things during the pandemic. So very early stage of the pandemic, a couple of years ago. And they, they, they didn't find anyone who could help them with the work that they had, they wanted to design some accessible learning, they had self advocates and people with disabilities who would, you know, be prepared to be subject matter experts and testers. And, you know, they had the content, they had the budget, and so we just went for it. You know, as I was saying earlier, sometimes they're pretty gutsy. But the best way to, to, you know, get into something is just to dive right in. So our team has really been learning a lot. We've come a long way since those two years. But it's thanks to our work with our client, the President's group, which is accessible employers of BC. And, you know, because of that project, we were able to learn and practice and hone a little bit of our skills and increase our understanding of what exactly do we mean by WCAG? 2.1. Like, what, what is that right? And then since then, we've, you know, just grown our network. So we've had some consultants that we've worked with, we work with accessibility testers, we have someone on our team actually. And our whole our whole group is sort of tuned into that. And since then, we've been working more with neurodiverse audiences. And I'm hoping you can ask them Next question, which is, what's the project you're really excited about? Right? So that and that one was a really big growth project for us working mostly with people on the spectrum, the autism Association of Canada, and also people with intellectual disabilities. So it's been really interesting for us. Yeah.

Luis Malbas  
Nice. Okay. Well, I actually did have that question was actually supposed to be before I got into AGI a question. But yeah, let's tell me a little bit more about that. I really want to hear about the neuro diverse projects and, and that type of thing.

Leah Chang  
Yeah. So again, coming from a space of deep humility, like we we are just learning as we go, right. And so we're very open to sharing those lessons learned. And that's how we've been learning to is connecting with with people in this community. So I'd like to invite you all to go to the inclusive workplace.ca, because it's Canadian. But that's a recent project, we did it published in spring of this year. And Holy smokes, it was massive, right? We did a custom website, we built custom resources for the site. It's a resource hub to support employers, employees, and employment agencies. And the idea is that it supports people who were very much affected by the pandemic, people on the spectrum and people with intellectual disabilities and writing for that broad audience is pretty challenging, right? So my first hunch was, okay, great, we'll have segmented you know, streams, we'll have different elearning courses for each group. And it really challenged us because the client said, you know, what, we want to focus on universal design and a universal approach. And we didn't really know what that was as a concept. And we learned so much about it. So at the end of the day, what we created is, you'll see it's a website, that's for all three audiences. It's written in a variety of different grade levels, there's different resources, some of them are in an LMS, some of them are not, there's different visuals, and even you can toggle between French and English. So it's 100%, bilingual, which is no small feat. It's a lot of work. And also, you can change the color saturation of the website. So that's, that's something that the web development team also designed so you can decrease, you know, the the color contrast. So things like that, just learning to write in plain language, we've, yeah, we've really grown quite a bit in terms of our skill set. You know, at

Luis Malbas  
least I think you sent this to me before, and I saw it, and I was totally blown away by it. I pretty sure I don't think I ran into it on my own. But it's amazing. And thank you, all of you out in the audience, you need to take a look at this site. It's it I should have, I should have promoted this before I may have even but um, it's it's, it's incredible work. Great job.

Leah Chang  
Thank you. Yeah, we had a big team on it. And thank you so much, Liz, and you are, you know, promoting it now. But yeah, it's, it's not, it's exciting to finally see some of our hard work get out there to the public. So this is probably a project not only did we learn so much, and it was such a great, you know, group to work with, but it's also something that we can share and showcase. So that's kind of cool. A lot of our stuff often gets hidden behind, you know, NDAs or, you know, it's client, proprietary intellectual property, whatever. So, yeah, please poke around, take a look. And maybe it will even be useful for others in, in when, when they're looking at inclusive hiring. So

Luis Malbas  
right now, that's fantastic. And if anything, it's was just inspirational for me. And I think that my challenge is, is, you know, after doing that event, and I had all it's been kind of like on my mind for a year or so. But after we produce that event, I was kind of overwhelmed, because I didn't know where to start. And it's kind of nice to hear that you just sort of have to learn as you go. And I'm pretty much like a one person shop. So sort of just slowly trying to get things covered, but it can feel overwhelming. I mean, do you feel that way? And is there anything that you might do to sort of cope with that?

Leah Chang  
Yeah, no, I, I hear where you're coming from. And, and, and yeah, there are some tips too, but I have to, I have to say like you're doing a fantastic job and I'm so grateful that you're just creating the space and holding it for us to meet and connect with others and, and that's the key, I think is let's lean on each other. Right? There's, there's some great groups, you know, people have done some good things. We're happy to share what we did. You know, we can always improve on that, but we've really tried to focus on we can't do everything So what's important? And depending on our client, and depending on the audience and all those things, right, sometimes some elements of accessibility or assistive technology are more important than others. So for example, with this last project, our audience was mostly neurodiverse. Right? So we actually decided not to put closed captions hard coded into videos, because people on the spectrum find that very distracting. You know, I'm generalizing here, but this was the feedback we got. So there are no hard and fast rules. Yes, there are compliance guidelines. But again, as designers, we need to design the experience for the audience that we're, you know, directing it for right. So I think that is the key is always start with the user first, right? Yeah, let let that sort of guide your decisions, and you can't sometimes do everything. So just be choosy about what you can do. Now, that's a bit vague, but that would be.

Luis Malbas  
And look at that. I mean, I just learned something there about, you know, you're right, that if you hard code, the captions in there, that actually I can see how that will could be totally distracting. And, and that's great to know. And I haven't looked at this as kind of like, really a space to, to, you know, to have conversations how it potentially could be helpful. But you're right, it is. And it's, I guess, I'm sort of quietly doing it in my own way, by having conversations like this with you. And I'm just sort of like, you know, trying to soak this stuff in so that I can make the stuff I'm building a little better. So I'm, so I really appreciate that. You're right. So how do you stay on top of like, your professional development and staying on top of knowing what you need to know to continue to grow?

Leah Chang  
Yeah, thanks for that question. Oh, it's a little harder these days. And I do, I was just thinking about DevLearn. This morning, I miss going to conferences. I'm not quite ready yet to go in person. So I didn't go this fall. But I really miss the engagement with peers, with the presenters, but also with the exhibition like like the vendors themselves, I love I love chatting with vendors and picking their brain and asking them about the latest releases and that kind of stuff. So you know, webinars are copious these days, and I attend lots of them. I like to you read newsletters and connect. And mostly I'm very intentional about the people I spend time with I love by colleagues. So we're all consultants, we all can learn and grow together alongside each other. So I talked about us as as a team, but even though we all work independently, and you know, we're contractors, basically, it's very important to stay connected. And to have that ongoing professional discussion, right? Even to build it into a meeting about whatever task it's, you know, it doesn't hurt to just check in and say, like, Hey, did you did you read this? Or are you part of this, you know, and, and to share those learnings. So I kind of know on my team, like, who to go to, for the latest on, you know, new stock images, or who to go to on the latest technology for video editing. Right. And, and I would definitely advise anyone, especially if you're working on a small team in an organization, like reach out, this is a great community. People like Luis are connecting us. I love what we do. It's it's fun. We get to do all sorts of things. But but don't feel like you're alone. I guess. My my tip.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah, yeah, no, that's great. I love it. And I do I miss conferences, too. I'm still kind of trying to figure out with I mean, because to TLDC started out as a conference, a live conference, you know, event, you know, production business. But, you know, the last couple years, of course, we haven't been able to do that. So still trying to figure out 2022. So we'll see what happens.

Leah Chang  
Yeah, yeah. Well, the last, the last two events are fantastic. And, you know, a lot of us are a little bit tapped out in terms of participating online, but those are great. So I happen to support that. Thank

Luis Malbas  
you. Thank you. So um, I think I know the answer to this already. But I was going to ask you if there was a specific training project that you're especially proud of. So would that be the inclusive workspace one?

Leah Chang  
Yes. Yeah. Um, and thanks to that project, we're working on another. It's similar. It's, again, a federally funded French and English across Canada. But it's this is specifically for people on the autism spectrum, and it's called employment works. And so that's a really well known, well researched, well presented, facilitated program. It's a six week, sorry, 60 hour program that is currently offered through virtual instructor led training. And yeah, they've engaged us to bring it to a soft directed through a synchronous model. And not only that, we get to work on implementing the LMS. And setting it up and testing it. And most importantly, we get to work with a really great group of self advocates. So I guess what I forgot to mention earlier is, you can, you know, you can't work in accessibility without working alongside and being an ally of people with disability, or the people that you're designing for. Right. So yeah, we're learning so much. It's it's really eye opening, we get to work with them as a focus group, we work with them at the beginning, middle and end of all of our design stages. And Holy smokes, does it really inform what we do? Because we're like, oh, should we do it this way or that way? And then when we get the feedback, we get the evidence. We're like, oh, okay, we didn't even consider that. Great. There's our answer.

Luis Malbas  
Wow, wow. Yeah, that must be amazing. Like some of the folks that you get to work with and, and even just building what you're building, I know, for myself, when I worked on AIDC, and, and the, the last DEI event we did, it just felt good to work with that. And the people that you know, that I was talking to the speakers, everybody involved, just an amazing group entirely. Not to say that, you know, my other events are terrible, but there's just something about that just really kind of fulfills some very basic about myself, so I can't imagine, you know, for you working, building these amazing things, it's probably it probably feels pretty good.

Leah Chang  
Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, obviously, coming from an education background, we we sing, we those of us who have similar journeys are really drawn to like think people teaching, you know, nurturing that kind of thing. And there's a whole nother stream of what we do out there as, as elearning designers that sometimes, you know, we can get bogged down a little bit with the compliance training, or the technical training or the, you know, and that's highly important, too, but it's so professionally satisfying and humanly satisfying, if that's a word to really mix and match the types of projects you work on. And, yeah, I've really enjoyed being able to pick those those projects that I feel really make a difference in the world and make a difference in how we as humans are, are living here, right? So

Luis Malbas  
right, right. And it makes a big difference when you are talking about, you know, like, seeing what you've decided to pick, you know, so I feel like that says a lot about, about you and your collaborator. So I do love that. So who are what keeps you inspired?

Leah Chang  
Great. Um, well, I was gonna say, definitely the people we designed for. So I, again, I mentioned like this, the focus group we're working with, they're so fascinating. And, you know, some of our assumptions get completely thrown out the window. For example, I got to do some mock job interviews with some people with intellectual disability, we had a such a fun time. So I'm really inspired by working with self advocates. And I think that is so important for us as learning professionals to like not forget who the audience is, right? Also, I'm really inspired by people like you loose like this is. This is No, I know, it's kind of cheesy, but like, I I'm really grateful for the colleagues we have in our space. And I think it's just a great time for us in our industry. And thankfully, the pandemic has really sort of, you know, yeah, turbo boost driver, whatever you want to call in terms of what what we can do for organizations, organizations are ready for us, right?

Luis Malbas  
Yeah, yeah. I do have to say it is amazing. I hadn't thought about this until my wife brought it up. But she's like, can you? Can you imagine? Like, how many people have you talked to him? What have you learned from all of these people? And, you know, just all of this stuff. And I started thinking about, I'm like, Oh, my gosh, I kind of know a lot about certain things. So it is I'm sort of selfishly like, you know, doing this thing, but you know, what really inspires me is everybody that's in the audience and guests like you, and just being able to to learn more about, you know, about this l&d journey. It's really, it's very, very satisfying for me, so. Yeah, and I think that's probably the first time I get to mention that, so. Oh, that's great. Yeah. Yeah, so so if you weren't in l&d, what do you think you'd be?

Leah Chang  
Well, I was formerly a rock climber. I mean, just for fun, but I I like, I love rocks, I love you know, geology and like, discovering that the solid foundations of things we take for granted. So yeah, I might have gone back into that. I also am really curious about like, I want to learn more about the brain and how how much we've learned about psychology and all that kind of stuff. I kind of wish I had done more of those sort of studies. But yeah, so maybe I would have got into a different career, but I really enjoy where I am today. And we get to learn about all sorts of things. I could work on topics with smoothies that I know nothing about, by the end of the project, like I, I've taken a whole new program, right,

Luis Malbas  
right. No, I love that. I like it when people mention that because I think that that's one of the the benefits really, of being a trainer and instructional designers that when you work with different SMEs, you just get to learn like something that you'd never thought you'd know about, you know, and, and I think that that is very cool. Okay, last question. Leah, if there's one thing that people should know about you, what is it?

Leah Chang  
Well, I just adopted a rescue puppy from Mexico. And she's had a very hard few days. So yeah, it's been a little little crazy and also moved into a new place. So yeah, it's, I don't know, I'm excited to start 2022. And, and, yeah, I've had lots of changes in my personal life. So it's, yeah, it's quite an honor to be invited to the space and and, yeah, lots of new things going on. For me.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah, no rescue puppy. I have like a few friends that have this have the same situation where they, because there is, I forget his name. But there's a guy who lives nearby. I'm sorry, I'm totally going off on a tangent. But he drives to Mexico, like once a year and picks up some, you know, some stray dogs and brings them back to the US. And then basically, you know, it seems like a lot of my friends just all like, kind of meet up and they collect all these like wonderful puppies. And yeah, so it's nice to hear that it's been really, really rewarding for all of them universally. So I can Yeah, I can say that, that that you're in for a treat. So

Leah Chang  
she's fun, even though I didn't sleep much last night, but rescue puppies and cats, although it

Luis Malbas  
could take some work. Leah, thank you so much for joining us. I am going to, you know this inclusive workspace, space website, workplace website. I'm going to go and I'll push that out because it deserves some recognition. And I'm so glad you're able to join us today. And hopefully, we will see you again soon.

Leah Chang  
Yeah, thank you for the invitation. And thanks to everyone for your comments. Really feel supported. And, yeah, please reach out to me on LinkedIn. I love to connect, and hope you can join our webinar next week. Thanks for helping me promote it, Louis.

Unknown Speaker  
Absolutely. Let me let me post that back in I don't know if Rubina saw it because she came in it's something that I think Rubina would like, and yeah. All right, everybody. We'll see you next week. Let's see, I know next week we have, I think we have we have Lisa and Monique coming back with with another broadcast with Alan not to chew. I think that's coming out. And like I was saying I've got a couple of bigger bigger events planned for January been working on those one on writing for instructional design and other for teachers to teachers to instructional design. So look out for that. And we'll see you again soon. Bye, everyone.

Leah Chang  
Thank you. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

‍