Skillcrush.com has a variety of course topics they cover for their 3 month courses, and needed to add 4 new classes. 3 covering UX Design and 1 covering Web Design.
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Skillcrush uses subject matter experts to help produce it's courses. The Subject matter expert handles helping dictate what to teach, how to explain it, and creating projects.
I was working as a design instructor when I was asked to be the Subject Matter Expert for the UX Design and Web Design classes. I would write outlines for the curriculum team, provide research, and review lessons.
Working alongside the team I helped create a UX curriculum. The course resulted in 47 instructional videos, 59 written lessons, and 100 challenges.
We took a project based approach so our students would have better job outcomes. Students worked for a fictitious company that they would use Design Thinking to re-design a reservation system.
For the Web Design Class, this being a much smaller class I acted as a Subject Matter Expert as well. The class targeted both developers and non-tech background folks ease into basic design principles for web. The web design class resulted in 15 instructional videos, 19 written lessons, and 33 challenges.
Acting as Subject Matter Expert was something I did alongside my regular duties. It consisted of writing outlines for curriculum writers to use to create the high fidelity lesson.
My Director acted as the video talent for our instructional videos.
Here are some of my favorite moments / jokes I wrote for her to act out:
I learned a lot about instructional design through out the process of being an curriculum based SME. In many ways it felt like a game of chess. Every decision you make builds on the next and it is vital you look several moves ahead to see where you are going. Every decision relates to the holistic vision for the class. The individual parts creating the sum.
With so many moving parts, good communication as a team is vital.
