Guest: David James, Chief Learning Officer 

In this episode of Become an IDOL, I’ll be chatting with David James, Chief Learning Officer at 360 Learning. David has a wealth of information about our industry and he shares tips for creating digital learning that makes an impact. 

Listen to this episode below:

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Let me tell you a little bit about David:

David is Chief Learning Officer at 360Learning (formerly at Looop) and has been a People Development professional for more than 20 years, most notably as Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East & Africa.

David is host of The Learning & Development Podcast, a prominent writer and a conference speaker on topics around modern and digital L&D.

Connect with David: LinkedIn  | Website | Twitter | Podcast

Enjoy the Episode...

Guest: Brian Harris, Chief of Design and Development

In this episode of Become an IDOL, I’ll be chatting with Brian Harris, Chief of Design and Development at Brilliant Educational Services, about his journey since enrolling in the eLearning Freelancer Bootcamp. Brian talks about how he leads conversations with his clients, manages pushback, and always keeps the needs of the learners first.

Listen to this episode below:

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Let me tell you a little bit about Brian:

Brian Harris is the Chief of Design and Development at Brilliant Educational Services. He develops E-learning and designs learning experiences that engage minds, motivate hearts, and get real, measurable results. He's someone that's been in the IDOL courses Academy. He's an alumni, but he's more than that...He's a business owner. He's an e-learning designer and developer extraordinaire, and he just has so much...

Guest: Ian Melchinger, Program Manager

In this episode of Become an IDOL, I’ll be chatting with Ian Melchinger, a former Lead Instructional Designer at IDOL Talent. Ian discusses his experience as an IDOL courses Academy member and his journey to become an IDOL.

Read on to find out what it's like to work with IDOL Talent, the importance of giving and receiving quality feedback, and creating goals for continuous improvement.

Listen to this episode below:

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Let me tell you a little bit about Ian.

Ian Melchinger has worked in instruction, media, and movies for over 20 years. He lives in Connecticut, keeps chickens and bees, and makes musical projects with friends. He joined IDOL courses in Cohort 10 and loves remote ID work. He quickly become a Lead Instructional Designer at IDOL Talent and has recently accepted a position as a Program Manager at Learn Quest! 

Connect with Ian: LinkedIn

Ian, will...

Guest: Ron Nakamoto, Training Service Chief

In this episode, I’m chatting with Ron Nakamoto, the Training Service Chief at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Academy. He is one of the most experienced people I've found in this field to talk to us about working as an Instructional Systems Specialist (ISS). He shares how to find these jobs, how to make yourself a competitive candidate, and why he thinks now is the best time to become an ISS.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to have a learning and development career in the US government, this is the episode for you!

Listen to this episode below:

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Let me tell you a little bit about Ron:

Ron Nakamoto is the Training Service Chief at the TSA Academy. He manages major training projects at TSA Academy, including development of new course material, courses, instructor development, and emerging technology. Prior to joining TSA,...

Guest: Laura Wilczek, eLearning Developer

In this episode, I'm chatting with Laura Wilczek, a former teacher who transitioned to a new career as an eLearning Developer for Hanover Research. While teaching during the pandemic she realized she had a unique set of skills and a passion for developing courses and training. 

 Laura shares great pointers for how she navigated the course, purposely applied what she was learning, and landed a new role in 2 months!  

Listen to this episode below:

Subscribe to Become an IDOL Podcast: Apple Podcast | Spotify | Google Podcast

Let me tell you a little bit about Laura:

Laura is a former teacher who successfully transitioned into the learning and development space after enrolling in IDOL courses Academy. She began her teaching career in 2009 and started developing a passion for creating virtual learning materials during the pandemic. Laura was a part of the 10th cohort of the Academy and is currently...

Guest: Talia Taylor, Instructional Designer

In this episode, I'll be chatting with Talia Taylor about her experience making the transition to corporate instructional design. 

• Talia works with clients to identify gaps in efficiency to effectively design solutions that enhance relationships between humans and the systems they use to perform work.
• She started her career with a tutor.
• She was working in sales in the past, and then she quit her job and hired a resume writer to make her portfolio.
• Her relationship to social networks has honed a unique style of communication marketable to companies and individuals interested in expanding their reach of services, products, or funds.
• Today, she manages the end-to-end lifecycle of training and presentations, including scheduling working sessions, designing PowerPoints, authoring Facilitators and Participant guides in content management systems, updating web-based training to align with standard operating procedures and train the...

Guest: Samuel Apata, Senior Instructional Designer

In this episode, I'll be chatting with Samuel Apata about learning management systems (LMS) and how you can add this tool to your skillset as a new instructional designer.

• Build and maintain trusting partnerships with the global project team and individual market partners for development.
• Manage and deploy online courses through the organization's LMS.
• Easily tracks learner progress and performance: LMSs allow the company to quickly generate training reports on an overall or user/student level basis.
• LMS can also handle things such as onboarding, compliance, and skills gap analysis.  
• In LMS, you can store your courses and can help you track your courses.
• Cloud-based LMS are scientific and are used by a large organization that has over 2000 employees.
• The learning management system concept emerged directly from e-Learning.
• There are two management systems 1) LMS and 2) LRS.
• Using an LMS to deliver eLearning, you can...

Guest: Anja Hartleb-Parson, Data Analytics, and Trainer

In this episode, I'll be chatting with Anja Hartleb-Parson about using data and analytics in workplace learning. We try to break down the data that you want and need for the newbies. 

• She has a passion for creating measurable results.
• She is an Instructional Designer for since last 6 months, and her main focus is on the data part.
• Data analytics and business process improvement in operations and people development.
• Issues should be addressed forthrightly while being empathetic and kind for effective solutions to be discovered.
• She achieved Salesforce Ranger status on the Salesforce training platform in under 8 weeks, beating the industry average.

If you are a new listener to become an IDOL, we would love to hear from you. Feel free to email [email protected].

In this episode, we discuss:

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Guest: Leslie Marquez, Instructional Designer & eLearning Consultant

In this episode, I'll be chatting with Leslie Marquez. She is a member of the eLearning Freelancer Bootcamp and a freelance instructional designer and eLearning developer. Her business is Inspire Learning Design, and she's noticed quite a few changes in the learning industry when it comes to acquiring and working with new clients during the COVID pandemic.

• Leslie is uniquely qualified to analyze your training needs and design a plan that works for you.
• She is interested in full freelance in the early days.
• She had a 6-month contract project form, which she opt-out from the corporate world and entered into the freelance world.
• She has designed engaging and effective training in many different industries, including healthcare informatics, IT, sales and services enablement, government contracting, and higher education.
• She has many long-term contracts too.
• She is 15 years in the field of learning and...

Guest: Kerri Duncan, Training and Development Specialist

In this episode of the Becoming an IDOL Podcast, I'll be chatting with Kerri Duncan - Training and Development Specialist.

I'll be chatting with Kerri Duncan about her 2020 journey. Getting laid off from her job during the pandemic spurred Kerri to invest in herself and her skills to land her next role as an IDOL. Listen in to hear her story and get tips on how to reskill if you've been laid off.

• A servant leader is adept at identifying and evaluating problem areas.
• She trained 100 new hires in 20 weeks, designed and developed four eLearning modules in 8 weeks, Led 40+ direct reports (Supervisors and Agents) to exceed performance expectations. She maintained a quality score of 95% or higher for over 3 years.
• She took about 6 weeks to land her job and created his portfolio.
• She knows how to build WordPress for herself for her portfolio.
• Have a plan for yourself, and trust your plan.
• Don't underestimate the power of the...