Category: Blog

As every organization becomes a data-collecting organization, protecting and managing data will soon be everyone’s responsibility. And the rules are about to undergo a major update on May 25, when the European Union will adopt the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

This new regulation will hold businesses accountable for transparency and security of any customer information they possess. Violators will face fines of up to 4% of a company’s global revenue, or 20 million euros (whichever is higher), and the regulations apply to any EU resident served by that organization. This means that simply having an EU citizen visit your organization’s website qualifies that citizen to all protections under these new regulations. And since storing and handling data differently for EU and non-EU citizens is infeasible and inefficient for most organizations, the standard set out by the GDPR will become the de facto standard for organizations that have any EU presence online.

While GDPR enforcement will motivate many organizations to comply, this articulation of comprehensive guidance also provides an opportunity for international development organizations to demonstrate leadership. Donors typically require detailed, data-driven monitoring and evaluation to justify funding, which means that collecting, storing, analyzing, and sharing beneficiary data is no longer solely the concern of global technology companies such as Facebook. And in development, this data is all-too-frequently compromised or misused at the expense of the most vulnerable, who have been damaged through collective inaction and patchwork regulation.

But GDPR is not just a challenge for technical and legal teams, but also an opportunity for organizational learning and donor education. If donor and client preferences are as aligned with the data rights of value beneficiaries as they are with value of that data for programming purposes, we could hope for real change. To reference the PopTech presentation by Nathaniel Raymond on Data Rights, this could be an opportunity for our moral and ethical innovation to catch up to our technical innovation — even if it has to arrive via incremental progress.

For example, the TechChange platform used to permit administrators to create user accounts directly on the TechChange platform. This feature, added to ease the integration of new learners into a seamless course experience is convenient. However, it is also directly counter to the spirit and letter of GDPR.

So in response, our team has removed that ability for administrators to create user accounts on the platform and replaced it with the ability to invite users. This adds an extra step to the process, but also protects user privacy by forcing users to generate their own passwords and opt in to our learning experience.

And while some partners have asked why the feature has been removed, it has also presented a learning opportunity for us to share more about the GDPR and also how we are growing as a partner to serve their needs but also responsibly administer their learner data.

This is just one example, and we are still working to understand the full implications of these regulations. But there are steps we can all take today to create the kinds of organizations that we would trust with our own data, much less those who count on us to keep it safe.

Interested in learning more? Take our two-week facilitated online course on GDPR for International Development! Class starts on May 7th.

Open source software platforms are a foundation of the ICT4D toolbox. The Digital Principles, a community-generated set of guidelines to help develop ethical and effective digital projects for development and aid, include as core tenets using open platforms, investing in software as a public good, and developing new software code to be open source. But the practice of open-sourcing sustainable and high-quality platforms is more challenging than we acknowledge.

Too often, we conflate the purpose, license, and business model of software, bundling ‘free-and-open-source-software’ (FOSS) as a kind of avatar for ‘software for good’. In so doing, we deprioritize the purpose and effectiveness of the software and hobble the success of platforms that could be the foundation of a thriving technology for social good.

 

Multiple motivations

In its best incarnation, software is trying to solve a problem. Notionally at least, donors fund apps and platforms because donor and developer agree on a problem and want to solve it together. Practitioners choose to use platforms because they solve a problem they have. Then there are questions about effectiveness to ask. This is idealized, but choosing a platform to fund or use in social change work should be just this simple.

Software released with an open source license has one other motivation: contributing to a software platform whose code is open to all, as a community asset. Some donors will fund only open-source software, among other reasons because they believe in this vision of collaborative building.

Both problem-solving and community asset-building are valid things to want to do, of course, and in itself the tensions between these two motivations are not fatal and can be resolved, if they are acknowledged. The problem comes because we need to think more clearly about the business models available once you open-source a technology; and we need to develop clearer understandings of what it takes to run a healthy technology platform – let alone an open source community which needs a different kind of love and energy to grow and service.

 

Non-profit funding vs investing in a business

Often, people expect public benefit software to be open source, and open source software to be free or cheap. They are often funded like non-profit projects. But when that funding ends it’s hard to find more. Providers are expected to have developed some sort of business model during the initial funding period. But non-profit funding is typically project-focussed, short-term, focusses on features over maintenance and core product development, and development over sales and marketing – arguably key early stage investments for successful software platforms.

And in any case, getting investment in a platform when you’ve already given away your competitive advantage is tough. Most colleagues I’m aware of have supported their FOSS platforms through consulting and custom implementations or feature development, another kind of project-based funding that keeps your developers busy providing bespoke services to paying clients and draws them away from spending time on the core of the platform. Or, unable to get repeat grants for maintenance and continued improvement, platform providers continually ‘innovate’, developing new products or new features rather than consolidating and improving the original. So we end up with proliferating, confused, feature-rich, poorly-maintained platforms.

 

Let’s stop conflating purpose, license and business model and start investing in successful software

As a sector, we need to think more slowly about how funding flows create technology landscapes. If we have a commitment to open source, because of a conviction that open source software is a community asset, then that’s fine – but we need to then also commit to funding it properly and supporting these projects to thrive. One such effort is the Open Source Center at the Digital Impact Alliance, although I note that the model here is partly to help FOSS projects to outsource the core project roadmap, specification and other functions that they need to succeed – to an organization which already has funding. This might be a precursor to making a case for platforms to be funded to have these capacities themselves, but does not tackle the systemic issues.

And we need cleaner and more reliable funding flows for proprietary products, too. If we want a flourishing technology market for development and aid work, we need to create a less distorted marketplace for them, and the conditions for more than one approach to successfully generating value.

About the Author:

Laura Walker McDonald has over a decade of non-profit experience at the forefront of social change. She specializes in inclusive technology, starting her career at the British Red Cross working on humanitarian policy, accountability and learning. In 2010, she joined FrontlineSMS where she helped turn an open-source platform into a non-profit business and took the software from 25,000 to 250,000 downloads in just two years. She then worked as the CEO of SIMlab working with clients and partners to choose better technology tools and improve their impact. She is currently consulting on tech for social change projects and evaluations. She holds a Master of Law degree in International Development Law & Human rights from the University of Warwick, UK.

Building effective, engaging online content is hard. And unlike still photos or infographics, video and animation can be particularly challenging for delivering consistent, high-quality learning experiences through adding audio and motion. 

But regardless of whether you have an interviewee who keeps touching their lavalier microphone or a late storyboard change that shifts an entire animation, music can usually help. Used effectively, music can draw learners into the video, provide an emotional arc to reinforce the narrative, and conclude with an energizing call to action.

While every use case is different, we wanted to share some of our process for selecting the music for our latest demo reels for both video and animation (featuring work and built by John and Yohan of the creative team!). By design, both reels are amalgamations of different projects, some fun and others serious, but still needing to be tightly integrated into one video. So we turned to music and the starting sequence to help us get our look-and-feel the way we wanted the TechChange brand to come across to viewers.

For our animation reel, we decided that we wanted a cheerful, energetic sound with a strong beat so that we could sync up animation transitions. Syncing beats can be easier for animation than video, as we had more control over the speed and variability than we would over a person talking (which could look strange at high or slow speeds). So we started with a short, playful techbot logo animation (designed by 2016 Summer Creative Fellow Katie Wang — thanks Katie!), and let the music do the rest. Take a look for yourself!

For our video reel, we wanted an uplifting track, but ideally more inspirational side than fun. Since it was a video reel, we decided to start with creative use of video footage instead of an animation in order to showcase our work (as well as beautiful b-roll from our 2018 workshop in Mozambique). We also wanted keep the video under a minute, as there’s only so many talking heads and b-roll footage that any casual viewer will want to sit through. 

But most importantly, even though both videos were different lengths, topics, and creative mediums, we wanted to give both a consistent “TechChange” feel, but without breaking the bank. We’ve worked with custom scoring and in-person musicians (as you may know from our many Fail Songs from 2016 through 2013, which have their lyrics and guitar chords online), but that can often be time and cost prohibitive.

So….we went online! To a service called PremiumBeat.com and started listening to different samples. After listening to a variety of tracks while watching the draft video with the sound off, we settled on one particular artist (Gyom, a 4x Emmy Nominee) and wanted to have a consistent BPM of around 115 so that even if the music was different, it would sound familiar and consistent. We ultimately settled on the track Body Rock for animation, and Dream Catcher for video. After that, we edited down the “Shorts” we wanted and made sure the loops synced up with the transitions. We bought each track for $49 and then synced it all up to export as a completed video.

This is just one example for two videos, but we also use music and audio editing in many, many different ways to achieve engaging learning experiences. We’ll cover more in future posts, but we hope this short explainer will help you in your learning journey!

While online learning has quickly advanced as a capacity building solution in the international development space, connectivity challenges continue to plague program implementation. For impact areas struggling with low- or no-bandwidth learning environments, the solution still requires physical travel of trainers to reach the desired intended audience. However, as we’ve reported repeatedly over the last seven years, including with offline-first delivery of Malaria training in Uganda and Nigeria, offline doesn’t have to mean old-school.

For example, TechChange recently partnered with Jhpiego to deliver a landmark course on Maternal and Child Survival Program in Liberia, which provided a blended and offline approach to training over a five-month period. In this post, we’ll share more about how this was accomplished from a technical perspective when it comes to building in Articulate 360. For those unfamiliar with Articulate, it serves as the primary rapid-authoring tool for building courses that can work on any major online learning platform….or even no platform at all! There are five key steps to success:

Step One: Replace Absolute Links with Relative Paths

Publishing Articulates for offline use often means creating a lot of relative paths, which involves a lot of files looking for other files within folders. So, what if you have a large project with many folders (and other Articulate files) linked up by relative paths, but want to deliver a single course file to the client that runs correctly and still “understands” where to find what it needs along its relative paths?

Here’s where Windows shortcuts come in handy. What you’ll need to do is 1) Place all linked Articulate files and documents in a single folder, which you then hide in the delivery folder, and 2) create a shortcut for the course launch file.

Because Windows shortcuts in their default form use absolute paths, you’ll need to make an adjustment to the shortcut in order to have it run on a relative path. The reason why is that absolute paths look for a file starting with the C:// drive of the computer that created the file — so, if you were to deliver an absolute shortcut to a client, the pathway would look for a file on your C:// drive, instead of looking for a file relative to its position in a folder. The beauty of relative paths is that they operate as they should on any desktop; absolute paths won’t work outside of your own desktop.

Step Two: Place All Files and Documents in a Single Folder

Let’s place all linked Articulate files and documents in a single folder, which you then hide in the delivery folder. We’ll take the example of Jhpiego’s MCSP Faculty Development Program, the most recent usage case. Organizationally, this course had a parent Articulate file, the Faculty Development Program, hereafter referred to as FDP. Any user that opened the FDP Articulate could access any of the module Articulates, which were in three series — the TL, AE, and CP series — thanks to relative paths.

When you open the delivery folder, you see this:

 

 

Step Three: Hide Your Work!

Notice that the folder “Modules” is a hidden folder, and wouldn’t normally show. To hide a file, right click on the file, click Properties, check the “Hidden” box, then click OK, applying the change to all folders and subfolders. If you’d like for files you’ve hidden to show again, open up the containing folder, click “View” at the top, and then check the box reading “Hidden items” in the Show/Hide category. The file “CLICK HERE TO LAUNCH COURSE” is our shortcut file with a modified relative path and opens the parent course, FDP. Let’s open up that “Modules” folder.

 

 

Here we have each of the module folders that open up separate Articulates within the parent Articulate course, FDP. Those folders (the TL, AE, CP folders) contain all the documents that each module needs as well as that module’s Articulate output. The “Output” folder you see is the Articulate output for the parent course, which our shortcut taps into. Now, how do we make that shortcut? Let’s open that “Output” folder.

 

 

Step Four: Take a Shortcut

We’ll need the shortcut to hit “Launch_Story.exe,” so we’ll right-click on that and choose “Create shortcut.” Windows will make the shortcut for you, which you can take anywhere and rename as you like. For now, let’s take that shortcut one folder up, out of the hidden folder and into the delivery folder.

 

 

So we’re back here. We’ve renamed our shortcut “CLICK HERE TO LAUNCH COURSE.” Now we need to modify that absolute path into a relative path, so the shortcut knows that no matter what computer it’s on, it needs to go from this folder, into the hidden folder Modules, and into Output to find its “Launch_Story.exe.”

Right-click your new shortcut and choose Properties to modify that path — at the outset, you’ll see this on your screen:

 

Step Five: It’s All Relative (Paths)

Now, let’s take that absolute path and make it relative. In the “Start in:” field, just delete everything. Then, in the “Target:” field, type in the following, with modifications based on the folder names in your relative path:

%windir%explorer.exe “.Your\Relative\Path\Launch_Story.exe”

The beginning of this should not be in quotes, the only part in quotes is your relative file path. In the case of the FDP course, this would read as follows, since we’re asking the shortcut to look in the same folder at the start for the hidden Modules folder, then telling it to go inside Output to find the Launch_Story.exe for FDP.

%windir%explorer.exe “.Modules\Output\Launch_Story.exe”

Once you click OK, the icon on the shortcut will change to a folder with a small blue square overlaid on it. If you click Properties again to check out that slick relative path, it should look like this:

 

 

You’re done! Now any user will just have to double-click on your newly modified shortcut to launch the course!

If you have any questions or comments (or suggestions for things we may not have thought of!), please feel free to contact me and the TechChange team at: info@techchange.org.

Today marks the fourth year since the TechChange office moved to our current location on U St, and to celebrate we held a team potluck lunch…..with a special surprise! Nick and Austin had secretly organized a puppy party and office visit from Homeward Trails Animal Rescue.

Homeward Trails Animal Rescue is a non-profit 501(c)(3) in Fairfax that finds homes for dogs and cats rescued from high-kill animal shelters, or whose owners could no longer care for them or were found as strays. According to the “About” page, “Homeward Trails not only facilitates adoptions from local shelters, but also supports a large network of foster care providers who take homeless dogs and cats into their homes, care for them, rehabilitate them when needed, and prepare them for their permanent adoptive homes.” If you’d like to support this wonderful organization that has rescued over 21,000 animals, see what you can do to get involved today.

As for the benefits of a TechChange Puppy Party, not only is looking at “cute” animals a proven method for improving performance on detail-oriented tasks, but it also provided the team an opportunity to learn about the responsibilities and process for adopting an animal from a local shelter. We were also able to update some of our “official” staff photos…..which we’ve included a selection of below.

 

The TechChange team recently returned to Maputo, Mozambique for the culmination of a two-year long partnership with the Coastal City Adaptation Project (CCAP), a USAID-sponsored program dedicated to preparing Mozambican urban centers for the adverse effects of climate change. The purpose of the trip was to deliver an intensive, three-day technical workshop on eLearning hosting and management in Articulate 360 and JoomlaLMS.

Shannon demonstrates the features of JoomlaLMS.

Our team first traveled to Maputo in January of 2017 to conduct a series of interviews with key stakeholders involved in climate change adaptation efforts around the country. After the trip, we worked closely with the CCAP staff to produce a comprehensive four-module, self-paced course that familiarized users to the science of climate change and its impacts; the fundamentals of adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and resilience. The course was developed with custom assets made by our Creative Team using Articulate Storyline 360 and localized into Mozambican Portuguese.  

Isabel assists a workshop participant with his demo course.

The objective of the workshop was to train the Knowledge Management Center, an organization sponsored by Eduardo Mondlane University, on how to edit and maintain an Articulate Storyline 360 project, and how to host the course online using JoomlaLMS. The team split the three days between teaching the basics of Storyline 360, walking through the best practices of managing an LMS, working through class activities and presentations, and troubleshooting any questions regarding Storyline 360 or JoomlaLMS. By the end of the third day, the majority of participants reported on our post-workshop assessments that they had a firmer grasp on how to manage and maintain an eLearning course.

Throughout the workshop, we captured many images and videos that will be used to support CCAP in their course promotion efforts. CCAP plans to launch the course in early spring and we can’t wait for this unique Portuguese resource to come online!

The TechChange team with the workshop participants.

“We want to rewrite the narrative about being the minority in the room and show each other we exist, we have been existing, we have been creating, we have been leading, and more importantly, we have one another to learn from, to connect with, to support, and to share our expertise. “

Excerpt from Welcome Address, Tech Intersections Conference Brochure
Maira Benjamin, Idalin Bobé, Tiffany Price, Ellen Spertus

This paragraph jumped out at me from the Tech Intersections conference brochure. It was a necessary reminder that in the room where I sat, we were all contributing to shaping a rich and powerful narrative; a narrative driven by women unafraid to claim space in a primarily male-dominated sector. As I looked around, peering at the people in the room, I made a conscious note to myself not only to be fully present with the inspirational women of color in the room but also to share the lessons and takeaways I gleaned from the conference far beyond the confines of the conference walls.

Tech Intersections was a conference that took place in Mills College in Oakland, California with the aim of celebrating women of color in computing. I had the opportunity to present on a panel with one of my great friends from Swarthmore College, Kendell Byrd, who currently works at BuzzFeed in LA, and a friend from Kendell’s Code2040 network, Patricia Perozo, who works at Brigade in SF. We all recently graduated in May 2017.

As we prepared our proposal for the conference, we realised that coming out of college, there is sometimes a misconception that there are single pathways or specific locations or organizations that computer scientists need to work in to “succeed” in their field. This led us to choose the topic, “Multiple Pathways: Choosing the Tech Job that’s Best for You.”

Our panel debunked the myth that there was a single narrow Computer Science pathway and highlighted how we had combined our multiple passions with our Computer Science background; passions ranging from entertainment and theatre to government, policy, and education. I spoke specifically about my Computer Science journey at Swarthmore College and how I was combining my interests in technology and education with my current job at TechChange!

From left to right: Sedinam Worlanyo, Kendell Byrd, and Patricia Perozo

At the beginning of the panel, we conducted a poll to better understand who our audience was. We observed that the majority of the attendees in our panel were people trying to break into tech. We also had some students who wanted to learn more about our experiences in college and in the workplace, and the resources we capitalized on to get to our current positions. We talked about everything from the definitions of a “good company fit” in our job searches to the highlights of our job experiences, and challenges we faced in transitioning from college to the workplace.

One important theme that came up was the “danger of feeling isolated”. On different levels, we each at some point had felt a bit isolated when we were studying Computer Science. Patricia recounted a relatable story about how in college, she was struggling when working on a CS lab and tried to find someone in her dorm to help explain some concepts to her. She came across a group of people working together on the lab. The realization that struck her was one that also hit me in college. It is important to intentionally seek out and build support and accountability systems. I think it’s also important that people share that no one is where they are solely because of themselves or hard work. That might help break some of the high pedestals on which people in tech are placed, and might make studying computer science more accessible to others.

In our TechChange courses, one tool we adopt is the “Study Buddy” system. Through that system, people can partner up with other members of a course for support and accountability throughout the course.

Image from our Blockchain for International Development course

Working independently is a great skill but in addition to that, we need to know when to ask questions, seek help, and collaborate. The “study buddy” helps people to do this on the peer level.

Attending the conference allowed me to reflect a lot on things we can build upon even further at TechChange. I’m Ghanaian and personally, I love when I look at the list of guest experts in our TechChange online courses and see that someone from the African continent is represented. That our voices are helping to shape the discussion of “international development”; voices that have often been excluded from conversations that drive decisions that affect them – that affect us. I also appreciate that in my work with client partnerships, I support our partners and also have the opportunity to see people from the African continent that are learning various technologies through these courses. Diversity in thought is important and I’m excited to see how we further expand voices and perspectives in our courses.

This conference was a tremendous learning and growth opportunity. A huge thank you to TechChange for helping to sponsor my trip to California!

We are very excited to announce a new course we have built for our partners at Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture. In this training, users learn how to recognize and stop human trafficking, with the help of compliance officers Jose and Sofia. They also learn about other compliance principles such as fraud, abuse, and conflicts of interest.

The course takes learners through a series of scenarios that debunk myths and misconceptions about human trafficking. For example, many often associate human trafficking with women when, in fact, men and boys are also victims of human trafficking through avenues such as forced labor, debt, bondage, and child soldiering.

In one module, which focuses on harassment and discrimination, learners can categorize different behaviors as appropriate or inappropriate by clicking the red, yellow, or green lights on a traffic light. This kind of interaction is just another example of how we at TechChange are working to create new ways of presenting information in engaging and tangible ways.

The final module takes learners to Mali and Bangladesh and gives common trafficking scenarios to test their knowledge.
Does your company need an online compliance course? We would love to partner in creating an easy and interactive learning experience for your organization. Email us at info@techchange.org and let’s start a conversation.

Over the last seven years, TechChange has hosted and delivered thousands of webinars to teach, convene, and communicate on technology and social change. So we wanted to share a few tips that we’ve learned for upgrading your webinar setup.

That’s because even though we’ve tried dozens of livestreaming services from OpenTok to UStream to Google Hangouts On Air (now YouTube Live), and now Zoom, the video you push out to a livestreaming services is only ever as good as the video, lighting, and audio that goes into it.

So before we start our September livestreaming from PopTech and the Connected Health Conference, here’s a few tips that may help for your next livestream. 

Tip 1: Upgrade Your Camera

While casual conversations are often most effective for learner engagement, relying on your laptop webcam for a strong event can often let you down. There are a variety of full-HD upgrades you can make for $50 or under, which you can easily order online and test for your needs. Of course, many individuals and organizations are already accustomed to high-quality video, sometimes because they have a DSLR or other solution which enables quickly recording, editing, and distributing video content. Until recently, linking your DSLR to your livestream has been a headache, but new solutions such as the Cam Link by Elgato makes it easy to turn a clean HDMI out into presenting itself to your computer as if it were any other webcam.

Camlink

But even the best camera won’t fix basic issues around composition. Make sure your subjects are visible in the shot, try to shoot from a higher angle to avoid double chins, and be wary of leaving too much empty space above (which makes the subject look small) or below (which makes the subject look far away).

Tip 2: Check Your Lighting!

Even a fantastic camera will have a tough time producing a solid picture in poor light. Being aware of shooting “with” the light will not only create depth and a visually interesting picture, but it will also make the subject look much better than the typical office or conference room lighting. When you’re ready, it’s worth exploring artificial lighting options such as custom LED light panels (TechChange uses these), in order to achieve consistency and a good shot every time. But you don’t need fancy lighting to achieve your desired results. Natural light from a window can be more than enough for creating a warm, natural look (left), provided you don’t have your back to the window without another light source, which will result in a backlit shot (right).

Chris Lighting

 

Tip 3: Invest in Audio 

Audio is what differentiates good webinars from great webinars. And it doesn’t have to be that hard. The main trick is to never rely on the microphone already installed in your camera or laptop. For best audio results, we like to use a wireless lavalier microphone, which lets you get the mic close to the speaker’s mouth without distracting from the shot. Best of all, some options you can plug directly into the camera (like these Sennheiser lavs), although we still prefer to use a secondary recording device like the Zoom H4N.

But…lavs can be tricky to set up and expensive to buy, as can shotgun mics or other solutions. Cheaper, easy options ouch as a Rode on-camera mic can be perfect for your needs, and get “good enough” audio even from multiple speakers.

GH4 Rode

 

In closing, these are just a few tips we’ve learned over the years, but there are many, many factors you might consider to keep improving your setup for student experiences. None of these tips are a substitute for engaging speakers and informative content, but they can help make sure that your video quality doesn’t take away from the learner experience.

Do you have any tips you’d like to share with us? Tweet @techchange and we’ll check it out!

Mihret Tamrat recently joined the team this month as an Instructional Design Fellow. Mihret brings a wealth of experience – ranging from education, language, development and more. We sat down with her to learn a bit more about her background. Welcome to the TechChange team, Mihret!

Q: So…how’s your first month going?

Fantastic! I love the atmosphere and my coworkers – I feel right at home. I get up every morning excited to start work.

Q: Could you share a bit about your background before joining the TechChange team?

I grew up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and moved to the U.S. in the summer of 2013. I graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in Economics and minor in History this past May. Before my TechChange fellowship, I had interned at Eleni LLC (a company that built agricultural commodity exchanges for emerging markets based in Ethiopia), the Innovations for Poverty Action (in Lusaka, Zambia), and Harlem RBI (an education nonprofit in New York City).  

Q: What originally interested you in joining TechChange?

I was immediately drawn to TechChange because it encompassed the three things that I want to focus my career on: education, technology, and international development. When I was in high school, I knew I wanted to do something to help improve the quality of education for people in my community. TechChange solves part of the problem by providing high quality engaging and accessible educational materials to development workers.

Q: How does Instructional Design fit into your interests? What interests you in your projects?

I used to struggle to get my nine and ten-year-old students to write creative plays when I worked as an Odyssey of the Mind coach in Ithaca, NY. I quickly learned that regardless of how much information I threw at them, sometimes the delivery is more important than the material itself. A well thought out instructional design ensures the material gets its spotlight. Instructional design is all about structuring material in a way that maximizes understanding, engagement, and retention. At TechChange, I love the challenge of thinking through how a user will go through the material that we prepare and how best to present it. As a bonus, we get to work with our in-house creative team, so the possibilities are endless.

Q: What is one thing that you’d love to learn or do this Fall?

This is the first time I will be working in e-learning and I’m excited to sharpen my Articulate Storyline 360 skills. I think it’s a great tool that will serve me well in my career.

Q: Lastly, what’s something that not a lot of people know about you?

I speak four languages: Amharic, Tigrinya, English, and French. However, I wouldn’t call myself a native speaker in any of them. My love of Middle Eastern history led me to my passion for belly dance, which has lasted three years and counting!