Professional Communication Reflection

 
I believe strong communication is essential for learning, especially in the field of learning design and technologies. In this blog, I’ll address a communication strength of mine, a growth area that I’ve identified, and an action plan that I will take to improve in my growth area. I will also connect communication to my professional identity. 

Communication Strength 

Out of the four areas of professional communication (active listening, persuasive writing, visual storytelling, and AI-assisted communication), I feel the strongest in active listening. Active listening is my strongest communication area because I have been practicing it since I started learning. I always had a knack for listening to what my teachers said in class, aligning it with what they were looking for on assignments, and applying that learning to new situations. Instead of passively listening, I have learned to take what I hear and connect it to what I already know. This strategy has helped in a variety of communication settings. 

A situation where active listening helped me communicate effectively in a professional context was when I started my first position after earning my PhD. I had recently graduated from my PhD program and started a staff position in faculty professional development. I was the first person to hold this position in my office, so there were no guidelines or strategies for success from prior employees to lean on. During my first day on the job, I had a quick meeting with my supervisor where she gave me some information about the office and the work environment. After onboarding me that week, my supervisor was out of the office for a week. On top of that, I was working remotely because our office space was under construction. To say I felt lost would be an understatement! 

Luckily, my active listening skills helped me out during that first summer. Whenever I was in a meeting, I made sure I was listening actively and interpreting what was happening to the best of my ability. I didn’t ask too many questions, but made sure I took notes and wrote important points down. I applied much of what I heard to previous experiences and used that knowledge to help me start making progress on work relationships and tasks. In six months, I was fully versed in office dynamics and started proposing projects aligned with the team’s goals. My active listening skills were the biggest factor in successfully communicating with team members and learning which areas I could contribute to. 

Growth Area 

As we begin the Spring 2026 session, I would love to focus on improving my visual storytelling. This skill is important to my development as a learning designer because it is the skill that I am least proficient in, while also being the skill that I see on most learning design job applications. Visual storytelling has the potential to impact learners’ emotions and motivation and includes media such as video, audio, and even virtual reality (Welch & Fleming, 2022). Rather than simply using words on a page to communicate, visual storytelling involves using learning technologies to create compelling narratives. I would like to be better versed in using learning technologies to communicate learning pathways and goals and to have the necessary skills to get a job in the learning design field. 

I think visual storytelling is challenging for me because I have the least experience with it. I had some practice with creating visual stories in my doctoral coursework, but it was not the focus of my program. In my experience, creating a cohesive visual story takes a lot of time. The process of designing the story, choosing a technology, becoming proficient with the technology, and creating and editing the learning experience is lengthy and requires effort. If I could master a few learning technologies, I think creating visual stories would be less challenging. 

Action Plan 

Two specific steps I will take during LDT 503 to improve in the visual storytelling area are: 

1. Completing the M4 Assignment: Instructional Image Redesign with a focus on visual storytelling. In this assignment, I will redesign a visual slide, infographic, screenshot, or handout to improve clarity, accessibility, and instructional alignment. Before completing the assignment, I will become familiar with the CARP visual communication principles (contrast, alignment, repetition, and proximity) and how to apply them to a real-world visual design. 

2. Completing the M6 Assignment: Instructional Design Video. This assignment will require me to create a plan for developing a 2–3-minute video that communicates something to a defined audience. I look forward to having the chance to storyboard ideas, frame messages and make decisions about visual elements to include in the video, even if I will not actually be developing the video itself. 

Connection to Professional Identity 

I hope to become a learning designer who uses the four areas of professional communication effectively and to my advantage. My current communication habits are strongest in active listening and persuasive writing, and I hope to develop my visual storytelling and AI-assisted communication as I continue my journey to becoming a learning designer. I currently practice written communication and active listening on a daily basis, and I hope to continue strengthening these skills through the LDT program and in my day-to-day work. In the LDT program, I am learning how to communicate effectively using technology, visuals, images, and audio. My goal for the future is to combine my current and newly developed communication skills to become a well-rounded learning designer. My long-term professional goals are still forming, but after completing the LDT program, I would like to revise my resume to highlight my learning design and technologies experience (including effective communication skills) and use these skills to successfully earn a part-time or full-time job in the learning design field. I hope that my communication style eventually leverages all four areas of professional communication as I develop innovative learning pathways. 

References 

Welch, R. A. & Fleming, R. A. (2022). The power of visual storytelling to create behavior-change in the workplace. The Journal of Applied Instructional Design, December 2022 (pp. 87-101). https://doi.org/10.59668/423.8393

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Establishing My Personal Brand

Learning is something I’ve always been drawn to. Throughout school, I wondered why my teachers asked certain questions on exams and hypothesized why certain classmates knew answers but others didn’t. It was this passion for learning that led me to study neuroscience and behavior for my bachelor’s degree. I wanted a degree that challenged me academically and taught me how the human brain worked as it learned. Well, I got it. I enjoyed learning about learning so much that I chose to earn my master’s and PhD in educational psychology. Almost all the questions that I’d wondered during my early school days were answered through courses, educational research, and real-world experiences. I had finally found my calling and loved every minute of it.  One of my career-defining experiences in graduate school was working in my institution’s center for teaching and learning. I created educational materials to support research-based pedagogies, facilitated webinars on teaching strategies, and co...
Read more

Reflecting on the Learning Design Process

The Instructional Design Project  Our instructional design team was asked to create instructional materials for a faculty development course focused on creating, editing, and embedding an introductory video into an online course. The goal of the project was to increase instructor presence in online courses at the University of Skaro. The instructional materials we created were developed using Google Sites, a free web development platform that allowed our team to collaborate in real-time. We included a module overview that explained the purpose of the training for faculty and a set-up page to help faculty get their materials in order before starting the training. The bulk of the online training included three pages of instructional text, videos, infographics, and knowledge checks on the topics of editing their video, exporting it, and embedding it into Canvas. The final page in our instructional module focused on assessment and included peer review instructions, guidelines, and a ru...
Read more