Community Showcase: Stephanie Diggins

Luis Malbas  
We're live. Oops. And I think that's I'm hearing a little bit of an echo there. Maybe if you could just turn your volume a little bit down, Stephanie, on the speakers. That's okay. All right, cool. All right. Welcome, everybody to the training, learning and development community. Thanks for joining. I know we have a bunch of people registered for it. The invite went out. So we should have people coming in soon. And yeah, so we have another community showcase with Stephanie. Dig into. I don't know, you have been on broadcasts multiple times.

Stephanie Diggins  
Yeah, I think this is my third.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah. Third time. I know we've had you on panels. Your you participated in events. And and it's great that we can actually catch up. I think it was in 2021 that we first chatted, maybe. And, yeah, something of that chat was one of our first sort of freelance events. What came out of that one? Yep. Yeah. And so um, so yeah, there's so many things that I have questions about with you just curious about what's been going on. So yeah, let's, let's, let's catch up a little bit. Okay. So the last time we talked, it was all pretty much like you're focused on freelancing, relatively new instructional designer. I mean, it's been a couple years now. So you've been doing it for still a freelancer?

Stephanie Diggins  
Yes, yes, I am still freelancing.

And it but it's more so on this side now, then being like, the main focus.

But yeah, I still have two clients that I'm working, or I have two clients that I got this year that I'm working with. So my previous contracts ended, which the nature of freelance, that's how it goes. Um, so yeah, and one of my contract jobs actually led to a full time position. Okay, that's where that's where the higher ed comes in. Last year, kind of beginning of the fall, and the summer, beginning of fall, I randomly saw and applied for a contract position for an instructional design job for one of my local universities, um, and interviewed ended up getting it. And that contract is only supposed to last a couple of months, while somebody was out on maternity leave. And after, like when we were getting towards the end of the contract, huh, the manager of the team really wanted to keep me on and talk to her boss. And then he talked to his boss. And so they figured out a way to keep me on part time after the contract ended. And then beginning of this year, I was approved for full time. So

Luis Malbas  
congratulations. Thank you. Let me just real quick, if you could just describe sort of that journey from your shift from into instructional design. Like you were all right.

Stephanie Diggins  
I was a teacher. I left January of last year, when I left teaching, and I had initially like, I kind of randomly stumbled upon instructional design when I was still teaching. And so I was like, oh, you know, I kind of want to learn about this is it's very similar to teaching in a way. I mean, obviously, there's like, differences, but it seems like a fairly easy thing to kind of get into while I was still teaching. So I was looking for, you know, some money on the side just to make little extra money, because we all know teaching doesn't pay all that much. So kind of stumbled into it, ended up getting my first contract my first freelance contract through Upwork. But then I also got a freelance contract through Sarah's Ed. And those were kind of like my first two, kind of instructional design gigs, the first, the one through Upwork. I was working with a gentleman who was contracted by a larger corporation to create a course for them and I was able to initially it was like, just PowerPoints. And I was able to kind of bring that over in to storyline and show them what storyline could do. And so it's actually learning how to use story reline wall, I was working for this for my client. And then the saris Ed position, it was more so like it was it was a little bit closer to lesson planning than instructional design. So I was less than planning, but I was also creating activities.

Luis Malbas  
Okay. Okay, so so so this is different now that you have a full time instructional design job. I mean, is are you enjoying it? I mean, is it you say you're still keeping the freelance stuff on the side? But you've got time position now? I mean, are you like, are you all good with that? Oh, yeah,

Stephanie Diggins  
yeah. Um, so the University I'm working for, it's a small university. So you know, a lot of people like everybody kind of knows each other. And my team, like the team that I work with the instructional design team that I work with, they're all amazing, and they're super helpful and super walk. They were super welcoming. And and the professors that I work with, as, you know, part of my job, actually appreciate my expertise. And so it's it's definitely a lot different than, you know, what I was teaching. Like, he's feeling appreciated and feeling like you're respected as an expert. Yeah.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah. So having been a teacher before, and then, you know, and then you went on the freelance instructional design thing. Now coming back to academia, I guess. Does it feel like it's sort of a comfortable, you know, evolution of your career?

Stephanie Diggins  
Oh, hi, there's definitely going to be more comfortable for those coming from the teaching world. Because it's, it's still education. Yeah. It's not it's, it's not a corporate training or anything like that. So it, there is a certain level of comfort. Um, but the actual job is very different than what I was doing when I was teaching.

Luis Malbas  
Okay, right, right. Definitely. All right, cool. Is it okay, if I bring up some stuff? Let's see if, like, there's some some things that I know for instructional designers like that maybe are just some challenges. If anybody in the audience I see. Let's see who is in here right now. No, see, consoles. Avatar, but let's see. Oh, Danny. Nice indeed. All thanks for dropping in Elizabeth. Diane. Thanks, everyone. But okay, so resistance to change. At in a university, like as an instructional designer? Do you get that at all? Is there anything that you might come up with that you feel like you had seen? They might not be? You know, yeah,

Stephanie Diggins  
so the resistance like that. The few instances of resistance that I've seen have been more with like, particular SM ease. But this university at like, the college that I'm working for, as a whole, is actually changing a lot. And the majority of their classes are going online now, instead of that face to face anymore. Because they learn from the pandemic, that most students at this point, want to take online classes versus having to go in like having to do face to face. Yeah, so the, you know, because most students want to do online classes now. And this, my university is changing is going more towards online than it ever had before. There's a lot of work for me and my team to do.

Luis Malbas  
And so talk about how you how you're approaching like collaborating with your S SMEs, where was the resistance there or what is a little different?

Stephanie Diggins  
So one of the things that isn't as prevalent in higher ed is the use of storyline to create learning like they by university calls them learning objects. So that's something that we're actually starting to introduce more into Um, our work with sneeze and some sneeze or like, oh, like are super into it and like, okay, I can do a lot. And then others are like, now they like they're the whole mindset of like writing essays. That's what you're, that's what you're constantly having to like kind of pull this means back from is okay for assignments, don't just give them quiz quizzes and essays you want to give them like more interactive opportunities.

Luis Malbas  
Right, right. So, so So prior to like, so introducing storyline is a little bit of a challenge is what you're saying into into into this university University.

Stephanie Diggins  
Yeah, yeah. And so And originally, only one of my team members has a storyline subscription through the university. By the end of this month, myself, and another one of my team members will also be getting subscriptions through the university. So we're starting to like, kind of push a little bit more for the use of storyline or even rise to create these, like, more interactive activities for students.

Luis Malbas  
So that's another thing like budget constraints, right? Is that is that kind of an issue too? Um,

Stephanie Diggins  
yeah, yes, and no, because, like, our budget is fairly decent, because we've got our enrollment has gone up because of the offering of online classes versus face to face. So that's been really nice. It's more so any tools that we use any third party tools that we use have to be vetted by the university, and that takes time I say that bag and get that approval and down.

Luis Malbas  
Nice. So um, so what is tell me describe like, what your team is, like, how you like, like the how were you motion in relation to the faculty and all that?

Stephanie Diggins  
Yeah. So um, so the way that our team is, is kind of split up, like we're the ID team, so we only focus on instructional design. I am in charge of the College of Health Professions and nursing sciences. Now their teammate is in charge, and then the rest of my teammates are in charge of different colleges. So when it comes to either developing a new course, or redeveloping an existing course, or even refreshing a course, I specifically work with any courses that are coming from the college that I am attached to. Okay. Okay, so and then I work with the sneeze on either developing, redeveloping or refreshing,

Luis Malbas  
has there anything about it, moving into sort of this full time role with the university that's been like, really challenging.

Stephanie Diggins  
Um, I think, probably the most challenging thing is, when I was freelancing, I could work whatever hours I wanted to, whenever, like, whenever I wanted to, for as long as I wanted to, um, for the university, I have to work I'm working 830 to 430.

Okay. So it's that it's getting into that set schedule again. But I do work remotely,

like I do not have to go into the university, except for like, between two and four times a year, I'm still trying to figure it out both like we usually have either quarter or twice a year. I can't remember. Because I haven't been there long enough. Yet to really like, haven't stick. But we do like a faculty wide like staff and faculty wide meeting in person at the university. Luckily, it's 15 minutes down the road from me, so it's not far, but I'm working from home still. I have my nice, beautiful new office, because I moved earlier this year. So I have office like a much bigger office than my previous office. And I this past weekend, a friend of mine actually helped me finish decorating and like really setting up my office. So now I'm like I have this amazing office to come and work in every day and I'm excited about it.

Luis Malbas  
That's great. That's great. Very cool. I'm gonna read something from chat. I know catesol is like of course going at it with some of his pawns that he likes to share with us. Very much distracting but um, Cindy is saying to the men another university ID today who says Her biggest challenge is getting the educator to grant. Versus to make sure

Stephanie Diggins  
Yep, yeah. And that goes along with what I was saying, with storyline and like, are doing like, you know, project based learning or, um, you know, well, group projects, you have to be very careful. Because, you know, teachers love their group projects. And being a teacher, former teacher, I know how others, like, I know how students can be when it comes to group projects. And you've got like the one person who basically does the whole project and the one person who does nothing, and you know, and then you have to make sure that, okay, they're not getting equal grades, because the one who did nothing doesn't deserve to get full credit. So it's like working with the series on how to come up with a fair way to do a group project. To come up with the learning objects or come up with like, or help them like, kind of figure out what kind of project they can do throughout the course, if they want to do like a course on Project, that kind of thing.

Luis Malbas  
Right now, so I mean, what would you say here? Thanks, good. So it's tough to articulate that they need to rise up these things,

Stephanie Diggins  
when I kind of, when I've shown some of my sneeze and chairs, um, what I could do in articulate, they got really excited, okay, so that they just need to, like, once you start to show them the possibilities, like especially in my college, they, they love to continuously push the envelope. So that their, their courses are, are really good.

Luis Malbas  
Okay. So if there was an instructional designer that you were chatting with, and they were having challenges bringing more interactive and interactive courses, what kind of advice would you give them?

Stephanie Diggins  
Um, I think if you show them the possibilities, that will help with the buy in, okay? Cuz, until I show them examples of storyline, they couldn't wrap their head around what it could do, or even what it is. And then same with Rhys, like until you show them an example. They they can't wrap their head around it, because it's something that is not used as much in the higher ed world versus the corporate world, like corporate world, you talk about storyline rise, like, constantly, because that's the norm in that world. But not in higher ed. Yeah, well, that's that's also been an adjustment because, you know, since I started freelancing, it's all about it's been all about storyline and rise and honing my skills with those. And, you know, working with people who knew exactly what they want for in storyline and rise. And now it's like, kind of showing them what they could have.

Luis Malbas  
So what do you primarily like? What kind of authoring tools or what are you using to build your, your learning objects now at the at the university? Storyline?

Stephanie Diggins  
Well, we'll be okay. As soon as they purchased the license,

Luis Malbas  
right, right.

Stephanie Diggins  
But yeah, it's gonna be storyline and articulate rise.

Luis Malbas  
Oh, nice. Nice. But prior to that, so like, the stuff that you've been doing there, what what have you been doing?

Stephanie Diggins  
What have you. So prior to that, it's just building in Canvas. Okay, your learning management system that they that they're using, they use to use Blackboard, they push it over to Canvas. So, like, our process is, I work with this me to help them plan out the course. They know, just like lesson planning, they have a template that they that they fill out to plan out the course and plan out the assignments and stuff like that. And then I build it in Canvas. They take a look, we make modifications. So it's like using essentially, it's if they're not using, if they're not, if they don't want to learn object, then essentially it's, you know, what is available for me to use in Canvas.

Luis Malbas  
Right, right. Okay. All right. Great. Um, you know, I want to say so it's been a couple of years, you've been kind of at this, and I think you've really been hustling you know from the beginning. Did you really have like from the beginning, you know, we put together that first Freelancer event you were active. You know, and yeah, it was fun. And I see that you're, like, involved with CPL D now. So yeah, I haven't been

Stephanie Diggins  
as involved with TP LD lately. Okay. I like I was much more involved with TP LD in the very beginning. Um, you know, if any of my teacher friends are like, Okay, I need to not teach any more than I point them to TP LD because TP LD has great resources for transitioning teachers. Um, so I'm always gonna have like, some sort of connection with CPLD. I'm just not as active with them anymore. But Allison's amazing. She's been kind of running things. Because Dara who we all love.

Is she just had she just had a baby. Yes. Yeah. She's

taking care of herself and her family, which is very well deserved.

Luis Malbas  
For sure. Sure. Yeah. No, it's great. And Cindy's asking, um, you know, how long it took for you to transition from, from teaching to ID and I think you mentioned that it was 22,021. Yeah. And reached out to me, I think it was the end of 2021. Yeah. It was still been teaching then.

Stephanie Diggins  
Yes. Yeah. And it was. The, it was right around the time that I put in my notice for, yes, um, is when I reached out to you, yeah, is like, I knew I was gonna leave. Because I needed to, hey, it's not just that I want to do I needed to leave. And so I was getting into like the freelancing, but I couldn't find as many resources for like the business side of freelancing. There's lots of stuff out there. For the instructional design side. But not so much for like the business side. And even now, it's been a learning curve. Like I didn't know I didn't even like I had my I had my business license from the state did not realize that I needed a business license for the city. So I just recently had to retroactively purchase my business license for last year, and then also for this year for the city that I live. Yeah, so I had to deal with that. And then the thing that I'm taking trying to deal with right now is making sure that I pay my taxes for the city, because I had to pay city tax as well. On the profit that I earned while running a business in the city, so interesting to say the least. So it's yeah, it's like, I'm still learning about the business side of freelancing, even over a year later.

Luis Malbas  
Okay. Because, you know, as you know, there are so many transitioning teachers, right, that are into idea right now. This time, I think that things are starting to get a little saturated from what I hear anyway, and that it's more more challenging.

Stephanie Diggins  
Well, I've been saying that for since even before I got into it, that it's it's getting saturated, and I don't know how much I believe that, okay. There are still jobs out there there. A lot of companies are doing online training versus in person. So, the works there. It's just it's marketing yourself. Right? Well, yes. I mean, it's hard for teachers. Yeah. Because we don't have to market ourselves.

Luis Malbas  
And I want to ask you about that. Because, you know, let's just say it's been like less than two years, you went from a teacher, to now at a university as an instructional designer, if you can go back to, you know, say December of 2021 and give yourself some advice.

Stephanie Diggins  
think the advice mostly would just be like It's got to work out. It's transitioning into a completely different job is terrifying. And figuring out what you need to do to be successful in that new job in that new career path is also terrifying. And that's why a lot of people end up having impostor syndrome, where they don't feel like they're remotely qualified for whether what they're doing or trying to do, but they actually are the skills, it's this, it's a lot of the same skill set, going from teaching into instructional design. But it's applying those skills in a different way. So being able to change your mindset, out of teaching and into attraction design, that's probably one of the toughest things to do. But it's possible. Did you connecting with people and connecting with the ID community, because the ID community is amazing. That that helps you start to change your mindset.

Luis Malbas  
Right? Did you do any of the things like any the boot camps or any of these? Okay, okay. And how did you manage to find a full time job and, and my, to this point, I mean, it's good. According to so many people out there, it's like, if you don't do this and sign up and pass all this money, you're not able to find a job.

Stephanie Diggins  
Anybody died? Yeah. Well, you do not need to pay for the boot camps, you do not need to be academies, you do not need to. 100% like the most it really comes down to marketing your skill set. Yeah. I still have recruiters reaching out to me to talk to me about opportunities, because my LinkedIn profile is good. Yeah. Because my portfolio is good. Right? Because I've actually branded myself

Luis Malbas  
yeah. How did you?

Stephanie Diggins  
You can see, it's gonna it's gonna be kind of, because it's like, but yeah, I've got my logo behind me. Design. So it's like, not only just branding yourself, but completely embracing your branding.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah. Nice. How did you get your storyline chops? How did you learn?

Stephanie Diggins  
Um, just by doing it, just by playing around with it. storyline, like something you gotta remember, storyline is essentially and this is kind of, you know, watering it down a little bit, but it's, it's like it's a souped up PowerPoint. You know, how do you terrify, then you can figure out how to use storyline. Plus, the elearning heroes community is so good. If you want to do something, and you're like, oh, I don't know how to do it. Chances are, someone has asked that elearning heroes community, so you can find help. If if, if you find something that you want to do, or something's not working, and you've checked, and you can't find any, you can't find any resources to help you with it. Then you can post a question to the elearning heroes community, people respond. They try to help you. So it's that, um, there's tons of YouTube videos on how to do stuff. I know, I think Devin pack is constantly showing you how to do stuff in Storyline. Demo, Tim Slade, they're constantly showing you trying to show you how to do stuff in Storyline. So it's, you know, and those are all free resources. Right. Right. It's utilizing those free resources. Yeah. You know, which you obviously don't have to pay someone to do.

Luis Malbas  
Right, right. No, and they do. They do also offer paid opportunities, right. You can take workshops and stuff from Yeah, Tim, but the free stuff, do you know, take advantage of it when you can? So okay. Devaney, last question. This one is, this is sort of interesting, um, because I'll tell you, you were the first person that ever just sent me an email and said, Hey, can you host an event on freelancing? I'm like, what the

Stephanie Diggins  
superpower is going like if I'm if again, an idea stuck in my head. I'm like, Okay, who do I need to contact? Right. Working? And then I have no

Luis Malbas  
issues. Right? No, and it was a good one because I'm like, Who is Stephanie Diggins and Why don't she wants me to doing it on freelancing on my,

Stephanie Diggins  
my students great opportunities when I was teaching because I had no qualms about reaching out to people and saying, Hey, I think this would be a great opportunity for you to.

Luis Malbas  
Yeah, and the funny thing about it is like, Well, yeah, I guess I can post one on freelancing. Anybody asked me if they, you know, like, I mean, next month, we're hosting one on for the black LED community. And yeah, so anybody can come. You know, I don't I love that now. So this last question, if I could also another event for you, like, what would it be? Oh,

Stephanie Diggins  
it probably be freelancing again. Yeah, another freelancing event. Um, and then even getting more into the business side. Okay. Make as much as possible. And so the business side, and I know that can be, that's hard, because, you know, the laws and what you need to do change from state to state. Yeah. But yeah, I think it would be everything. I think it would be that like, really getting into the business side of freelancing. Well,

Luis Malbas  
I'll keep that in mind. I love um, Parker and Andrea. So maybe Allah. Yeah, yeah. opportunity to reach out with them and, and do something again, because they were wonderful to work with.

Stephanie Diggins  
Oh, yeah. They're great. And it Lance is, is doing so well, like they're doing so well with it. Lance. It's, you know, they're blown up. Great. In the freelance world there. Yeah. You're doing great.

Luis Malbas  
That's good to hear now. They're wonderful. All right. Well, Stephanie, thank you so much for doing this again. Appreciate your time and for supporting to the you see, good luck with everything, you know, I'd love to catch up again at some point on your story and see how that goes at the university. And out in the live audience. Thank you for joining today. We've had three more showcases next week. Plus, I believe it's going to be on Monday, I'm going to be talking with some folks about it's either Monday or Tuesday, we'll be talking about ATT ice and the experiences that some folks have in San Diego. And so we'll be talking about that. And with that, I'm going to go ahead and end the broadcast. Thanks, everybody, and we'll see you next week.

Stephanie Diggins  
Bye, everyone. All right. Bye.

‍