Sharin Chadid

Practitioner Interview with David Gillham

Professional & educational background of David Gillham

David holds a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Master’s
degree in the Philosophy of Education. He has been working in the educational field ever since
he started studying at a university level. He was teaching music, tutoring high school students,
tutoring university students and worked as a lecturer at a university. He started to work in
digital education mostly in the development area and eventually went in the direction of
instructional design.

Type of organization
QA which is based in the UK, mainly offers solutions for other companies that need training for
their employees. It is very personalized depending on the companies’ needs. The company has
many clients that require training such as face to face, digital or blended training designed
resulting in e-learning, apps, etc. depending on the client’s learning requirements.

Philosophy and purpose of the organization

Helping people and businesses transform their performance through learning. Whether for an
individual course or a full certification program, they offer a complete range of business and IT
training with training centers throughout the UK. QA delivers an exceptionally broad training
curriculum to meet the needs of individuals and corporate businesses. Their award-winning
teams of learning professionals are amongst the best in the world, each with extensive
experience and a proven track record of delivering the skills that transform performance and
ensure lasting benefits.

David’s role in the organization

As an instructional designer, he supports the sales team with presales. It is his job to come up
with a proposal according to the clients requirements. After the proposal is accepted, he will
then move to design the whole product and then take it through the development process
while managing the client relationship. He is focused on creating learning solutions for
corporate clients.

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David’s duties and responsibilities

David’s duties and responsibilities are to complete a project that has a lifecycle of five phases:
1. Presales: he would be coming up with creative solutions for a specific client
requirement and figuring out the costs.
2. Specification: this is where he creates a project plan with an initial draft, then he will
create a statement of work which is a document that details that will be delivered like
an agreement document. When the clients is happy they sign it off and then there is a
content outline which is a list of all the content that needs to be in the course. The client
would have usually already given him all the required content or asked him to source
the material at which point he would get all the material and then list them to achieve
the learning objectives they are trying to achieve.
3. Storyboarding: This is when the designing takes place. He has to understand the
content and then he uses learning models like ADDIE, depending on the requirements.
4. Development: At this stage, the course is being built. Authoring tools such as storyline,
captivate, the adapt framework are being used. At this stage, his role becomes more
project manager focused, managing the development process. This means he is doing
the reviews, he is getting the clients to review it to make sure that they are satisfied and
often this requires back and forth communication with animators, graphic designers, the
developers themselves others to make sure the developing is in line with the client’s
needs.
5. Deployment. Most companies are using Learning Management Systems that are
specifically SCORM compliant like often the case SCORM 1.2. SCORM tells the LMS the
status of the course (if it started, finished, etc.) and what the learner achieved. This is an
exciting area for David because new things are coming out like xAPI Tin Can, these are
other platforms that give more information than SCORM 1.2 does.

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Day-to-day operations & tasks

He usually has 8-12 projects at any given time. This means his day-to-day tasks vary depending
on what and how many client’s projects he is working on.
For example on Tuesday 22nd of October, 2018:

then then in a meeting

He spent few hours then reviewing brainstorming an regarding a
storyboarding one project another project Idea for a new review of
proposal another product

So it really depends, he has to be a able to juggle his time effectively because he’s not going to
be able to just work on one thing for very long so that can be a challenge.

Required skills, education and training to perform the job

Basic understanding of authoring tools

Time management
Skills Writing skills
Budgeting knowledge
Coding knowledge prefeable

Degree in education
Education Or a degree related to education
Post Graduate degree preferable

As for training, on the job training is

Training enough required to perform the job

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Reflection

David was very keen on advising me on the important aspects of being an instructional
designer. David’s job seems interesting as he does not work as an inhouse instructional
designer for an organization, instead he works for a company that provides learning solutions
for other companies. Therefore, I was very fortunate to interview David as he is an instructional
designer for many companies. He shared his knowledge which entails experience of
instructional designing for many different fields. This did however help me realize that I would
prefer to be specialized in one company/educational institution and be focused rather than
have many projects of many companies at once.
David mentions some basic skills an instructional designer must have such as writing skills, basic
understanding of authoring tools, time management, budgeting knowledge and preferable
coding knowledge. This can certainly be added to the training required for the job as anyone
that lacks in any could do with some online training perhaps in order to have those skills before
applying to jobs in the instructional design field. I would like to learn more about coding for
instance as I do not have any background knowledge of such. Another eye opener was the
budgeting knowledge. David explains that 500-700 pounds a day would be paid on average for
instructional design time, which is much more than I would expect.
Certain technologies mentioned by David such as SCORM 1.2 is important to learn about since it
can really save time when it comes to the deployment stage of instructional design. At this
stage, the instructional design is being delivered to the client company so it must be integrated
in the Learning Management System the company uses effectively before this step is complete.
The SCORM tool would make this integration more efficient as it helps the content and the LMS
work together as long as the LMS and the content are SCORM compliant. If it is not, the
deployment stage might be a struggle to complete.
Through this interview I was able to better understand what an instructional designer does.
Starting from an overview of the role of an instructional designer in general to the duties and
responsibilities and most specifically day-today tasks. This has shown me insight in real time of
a professional, busy practitioner who was kind enough to take some time out and explain to me
his work experience and some valuable advice I can learn from.
Finally, David advised me that it is very important to draw inspiration from modern media in
order to design in an aesthetically pleasing manner and that I should always be up to date of
new technologies. I agree with him since the aesthetics is what would pull a learner in to
explore the content. It is very important the design is clear, simple and modern to appeal to the
users. This would make learning more effective if the learners are having a positive experience
with learning via the design. Since technologies are always evolving, one must also be up to
date in order to have a competitive advantage over others in the market. This is a type of

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healthy competition which benefits the person himself, the learner and competitors to up their
game.

Appendix 1
Practitioner Interview Transcript

David Gillham: Hello

Sharin Chadid: Hello, how are you?
David Gillham: Good, how are you?
Sharin Chadid: Great, I wanted to thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn from your
experience.
David Gillham: LinkedIn is a professional community and I’m quite happy to use it in that
capacity.
Sharin Chadid: So my first question is what’s your professional and educational background?
David Gillham: I basically have a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, a bachelor’s degree in
psychology and Master’s degree in the philosophy of education. I have always been in
education in one form or the other from when I started studying I have been doing work such
as teaching music, tutoring high school students and also tutoring university students. I also
worked as a lecturer in a university, this was all before instructional design. I started to work in
digital education mostly in the development space and eventually moved out into instructional
design.
Sharin Chadid: Okay, and what is the type of organization you work for?
David Gillham: The company is very corporate focused, and specifically it’s very bespoke… so it
really depends on the client. The company has many large corporate clients and most
companies are training focused such as face to training or digital training or blended training
designed and that could be e-learning , an app or anything that they require I will get designed.
Sharin Chadid: What’s the philosophy and purpose of the organization?
David Gillham: I would say to help people and businesses transform their performance through
learning. Whether for an individual course or a full certification program, we offer a complete
range of business and IT training with training centers throughout the UK, QA delivers an
exceptionally broad training curriculum to meet the needs of individuals and corporate
businesses. Our award-winning teams of learning professionals are amongst the best in the
world, each with extensive experience and a proven track record of delivering the skills that
transform performance and ensure lasting benefits.

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Sharin Chadid: What is your role in the company?

David Gillham: The company has more than 1,500 people employed, of that my team is made
of two graphic designers who I work with very closely, a video group who do video and photos
for us shooting and editing videos mainly, and then we got guys in management and strategy
who are helping the team from a higher level. As an instructional designer I support sales
people with presales. It is my job to come up with a proposal according to the clients
requirements and if the proposal is accepted I will then go on to design the whole product and
then take it through development process while managing the client relationship. So I am
basically focused on creating content for corporate clients, but if I worked in a company like on
of the clients of my current company, then I would be designing specifically for that company, If
I was working in a university for example, I would be supporting the educators to help them
create blended solutions.
Sharin Chadid: I want to know your general duties & responsibilities, and your day to day
operations & tasks.
David Gillham: Duties and responsibilities, basically there is a lifecycle to a project essentially
you can think of it in five phases, the first one is presales so I would be coming up with creative
solutions for a specific client requirement and figuring out the costs. So let’s say the solution is
going to have video elements, animation, it might be built in a specific software maybe it’s
some kind of responsive design, or else.. so I have to understand all of the costs all of that in the
proposal that is presales. Let’s say we win the proposal I then need to go into specification
stage so creating a project plan at that point creating the initial draft I will create a statement of
work which is basically a document that details what we are delivering like you will have a piece
of e-learning that will last for 30 minutes with 3 videos in it these are the minimum system
requirements so it’s basically an agreement document when the clients is happy with we sign it
off and then there is a content outline which is a list of all the content that needs to be in the
course so at this point normally the client would have already given me all the required content
or asked me to source the material at which point I would get all the material and then list
them to achieve the learning objectives we are looking to achieve. After specification we go into
storyboarding.. storyboarding is what I would say is where the art instructional design is
because you have to really engage with your content.. deep dive into it.. really understand what
the content is, what it means, and once you understood all that you can use learning models
like ADDIE, it depends on the requirement, but at this point you are designing the product.
Once you done that, you go into development, which is literally building the course, there are
authoring tools available, things like storyline, captivate, the adapt framework for instance. At
this point my role becomes more project manager focused so I’m really just managing the
development process, I’m doing all the reviews, I’m getting the clients to review it to make sure
that they are happy and often this requires back and forth communication I would be
communicating with animators, graphic designers, the developers themselves, all different
people to make sure that the product comes alive and finally the last stage is deployment.

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Most companies are using Learning Management Systems that are specifically SCORM
compliant like often the case SCORM 1.2. SCORM tells the LMS the status of the course like if it
started or finished and what the learner achieved. This is an exciting area because new things
are coming out like xAPI Tin Can, these are other platforms that give you more information than
SCORM 1.2 does.
In terms of my day-to-day, its varied. I would usually have 8-12 projects at any given day, we
are very busy, I’m quite lucky my boss gives me a lot of freedom to do whatever I feel I have to
do. So today for instance I spent a few hours storyboarding one project, then I was reviewing
another project, then I was brainstorming an Idea for a new proposal, then I was in a meeting
regarding a review of another product, so it really depends, you have to be a able to juggle your
time effectively because you are never going to be able to just work on one thing for very long
so that can be a challenge.
Sharin Chadid: What are the required skills, education and training to perform the job?
David Gillham: For an education perspective any degree that is in Education or Education
related, like a degree in Instructional Design, that’s great, I have a degree in the Philosophy of
Education which is an education degree and that is good enough. A Post graduate degree is
preferable but an undergraduate is enough. As for training, on the job training is enough to
perform the job. In terms of skills there some core skills that should be focused on like
computer based skills such as adobe creative suite – that’s very helpful. They are not required
to have but they are very helpful because a lot is created using these tools so if you have an
understanding of them even if you don’t have to use them yourself they will help you in terms
of what you need to design. I would also really recommend being able to use tools like
captivate or storyline because they are often used for e-learning even though you wouldn’t
have to actually use them, if you don’t understand them you will struggle. And if you can code
HTML 5 and JavaScript CSS that is really helpful as well. Again they are not required but very
helpful. You have to at least have the understanding of HTML and basic capabilities of authoring
tools that are available and a little bit about adobe creative suite because its industry standard.
You need to demonstrate that you can manage your own time and other peoples time, you
want to demonstrate that you are able to write creatively and clearly, you need to be able to do
budgeting, to know how much the instructional design costs. For example instructional design
would cost around 500-700 pounds a day for instructional design time.
Sharin Chadid: What kind of advice would you give a young instructional designer?
David Gillham: First I would say that you should draw as much inspiration from modern media
as much as you can for example Netflix, look at the user journey, look at the way modern
websites look, when you design solutions, bear that in mind, try to replicate the best
experiences that you have on the internet because that’s what people want, they don’t want
experiences that don’t match their experiences on the internet. You need to be designing
esthetically pleasing simple pieces of learning but it always has to be on brand of the client,

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always create simple easy to use learning journeys to really put the learner at the heart of your
design. Second you should always be up to date of new technologies, in fact there is a new
platform called evolve which is easy to use. It is a front end website to adapt and you can create
pieces of learning using in real time. You need to make sure that you got many technical skills.
As a young instructional designer you would know what a young learner looks for so you need
to include those elements as opposed to an older person who wouldn’t have this knowledge.
Don’t think of it as inexperience think of it as insight.
Sharin Chadid: What are the biggest challenges you face as an instructional designer?
David Gillham: Time management and trying not to get distracted with the many tasks, dealing
with team members if there is someone you don’t get along with, dealing with the clients if
they have difficult requirements.