Instructional design portfolio
Explore the Instructional project created for EDUC 765: Trends & Issues in Instructional Design
Featured learning project
This project combines adult learning theory with modern multimedia design to deliver clear, impactful educational outcomes across Hennepin County's Education Support Services Department.
Academic tutoring process
Project Description & Core Aim
Academic tutoring is one of our specialists' primary front-facing services, covering everything from initial intake referrals to setting up live tutoring sessions.
After 6 years of operations, data show ongoing confusion when explaining the tutoring pipeline to families and referring workers. This stems from inconsistencies in specialist training regarding the underlying referral steps and ongoing support models.
The Aim: This project completely revises how the tutoring workflow operates. It gives specialists a single, clear path to reduce procedural confusion across the board.
Primary & Secondary Audience
The Specialists
Our frontline specialists handle day-to-day communications across the entire Education Support Services department, partnering agencies, and resident families. They are former teachers, social workers, and educational professionals who understand the profound impact of timely academic tutoring.
Partnering Agencies
External tutoring agencies collaborate directly with our staff to accept referrals. They require absolute clarity regarding our updated workflows to ensure student matching is processed smoothly and without delay.
Content Delivery
Instruction for this project will be offered entirely virtually. Because our department operates on a virtual-only framework, all specialized training modules and webinars will be completed online. All learners have dedicated access to county-issued laptops, secondary monitors, mice, and headphones. The training will reside natively inside APEX, the county's central Learning Management System (LMS).
Learning & Motivational Theory Applications
Andragogy in Practice
Our instructional approach directly integrates adult learning theories by focusing on four core pillars:
- Self-Autonomy: Specialists retain full control over their learning environment, navigating the digital course material at their own pace and on their own schedules.
- Goal-Orientation: Because specialists expressed an explicit desire for a unified, central tutoring process, the course directly pathmaps to their professional goal of better serving residents.
- The Big Picture: Instruction explicitly shows how a single, properly executed referral positively impacts a student's long-term academic trajectory.
- Need for Community: The framework provides structured spaces for specialists to come together, discuss course breakthroughs, and align department-wide goals.
The ARCS Framework
To maximize learner engagement, the training applies the four quadrants of Keller's ARCS Model of Motivation:
- Attention: High engagement is triggered using realistic, branching scenarios that mirror actual student stories specialists encounter daily.
- Relevance: Course vocabulary, casework, and case studies are taken directly from real, day-to-day specialist workflows.
- Confidence: The training utilizes challenging yet achievable knowledge checks, ensuring specialists build genuine confidence in handling complex referrals.
- Satisfaction: The module concludes with an interactive simulation where test students are assigned to specialists. Learners achieve satisfaction by successfully steering a mock referral through the system.
Learning Objective
Given standard county referral protocols and CMS access, specialists will accurately process, communicate, and track tutoring referrals from initial worker intake to service initiation.
Procedural task analysis workflow
The workflow allows learners to visually map out the steps they need in order to complete a successful tutoring referral.
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