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2 Killer Cover Letter Formats: Classic and Contemporary. This article is part of a series called How to Write a Cover Letter. To start this series from the beginning, read the introduction. I’ve been dreading the continuation of the How to Write a Cover Letter series. It’s not because I’m lazy. But getting my motor revved and my writing in gear to explain resume cover letter formats is a bit of a drag. Since you’re reading this you’re probably spinning your wheels too. Yep, getting ready to write a cover letter can make anyone feel a little deflated — I don’t care how good your engine. But no fear. There are two cover letter formats I’d like you to take for a drive. The Classic Cover Letter Format The Classic cover letter is the most common format, and it’s the type most prospective employers expect to see. Use the Classic cover letter format when:You’re applying to traditional organizations.You can stick to a single page.You can keep it brief.

I’ve covered the structure of the Classic cover letter in detail in Anatomy of a Killer Cover Letter. The Women's Center | Mental Health, Career, Relationship Counseling and Other Services for Men, Women and Families in Vienna, Northern VA and Washington, DC.

Instructional Design

Scaffolding. Lindsay Lipscomb, Janet Swanson, and Anne West The University of Georgia Review of Scaffolding Scenario Figure 1. Barn and Silos Third grade students in Mrs. Maddox’s class have been studying about different types of communities for the past two weeks. Throughout this study, students have focused on distinguishing between rural, urban and suburban communities. Figure 2. As a culminating activity for this study on types of communities, the students are going to prepare some type of individually selected project demonstrating their knowledge of urban, suburban and rural communities. Patrick, the computer whiz of the class, decides to prepare a PowerPoint presentation which will incorporate digital pictures taken on the field trip and of the rural areas surrounding the school community.

Figure 3. Mrs. Later, when another student, Melissa, needs assistance with inserting a picture to a PowerPoint slide, Mrs. Through her support and facilitation, Mrs. What is Scaffolding? In our scenario Mrs. What Instructional Designers Do: Is this a career for you? What is instructional design? Instructional design involves the process of identifying the skills, knowledge, information and attitude gaps of a targeted audience and creating, selecting or suggesting learning experiences that close this gap, based on instructional theory and best practices from the field. Ideally, workplace learning improves employee productivity and value and enhances self-directed learning. As social media technologies for learning become increasingly important to organizations and to individuals, instructional designers will need to focus on broad learning events and strategies that incorporate many approaches rather than on individual courses.

See A Look into the Future below for more on this. What is the instructional design process? Although the approaches people use to design and develop online instructional events vary widely, the common denominator is that the process is systematic and iterative. What does an instructional designer do? Professional Foundations. 10 Qualities of the Ideal Instructional Designer. Sharebar People employed as instructional designers come from wildly varied educational backgrounds. I’ve met writers, teachers, media specialists, psychologists and programmers who somehow have ended up designing web-based and instructor-led courses.

For the past several years, blogger Cammy Bean has had an open survey asking her instructional design readership whether they have a degree in instructional design. Although the survey doesn’t use a scientific sampling method (basically, whoever happens upon the survey can respond), the results cannot be ignored. The survey results are no longer available, but in 2009, these were the results: ~ 60% do not have a degree~ 38% have a graduate degree in Instructional Design~ 1% responded that they have an Instructional Design degree (level is unspecified) Do Instructional Designers Need a Degree? There is an ongoing debate within the US instructional design community as to whether a degree is needed to be most effective in this field. Top 10 List. Ben Fendel - Instructional Designer - Resume.

How to become an instructional designer. A lot of people ask me how they could become instructional designers. Here’s some advice from my perspective, followed by links for other perspectives. All of this applies to instructional design in the business world, not academia or K-12 education. It’s probably most applicable to people in the US. Get experience in your current job The first step can be to get more instructional design experience at your current job, if possible. For example, if you’re offered the technical writing part of a project, you might ask about other training and support materials that the project requires and what the larger business need for the project is, and suggest that you could design those other materials to meet that need. Another approach is to simply create what the organization needs, if you have the time. Build a portfolio A lot of designers create portfolios that show examples of elearning that they’ve developed.

Consider volunteer work Decide: design or development, or both? Learn the theory. What does an instructional designer do? In the past few months, I’ve been asked by a number of different people what an instructional designer does and how to get into the field. I love instructional design because it is a field where I am constantly learning and I have a great variety in what I do. I use so many different skills—writing, web design, graphics, collaboration, planning, plus of course how people learn. Since this question has come up more than once, I thought it would be useful to collect all the information I have emailed people privately and post it here.

This will be a series of posts over the week or so. I have about five pages of emails to revise for this format, so it’s waaay too long to put into one post. So without further ado, here’s the first installation: What does an instructional designer do? I’m emphasizing “experiences” here deliberately, even though that isn’t always how others would describe the job. How do we do that? Update: Other Posts in this Series Free Subscription.

15 Tips For Using LinkedIn to Build Your Online Portfolio | Starr Convictions. As a recent graduate, I've found LinkedIn to be an invaluable resource as I begin to embark on my career. My profile has been established for a few years now, but it didn't really represent the full picture of me until recently. If you are job hunting, thinking about a career change, or are about to graduate high school or college, you can use LinkedIn to your advantage to grow your personal network, showcase your accomplishments, and even figure out what really interests you. Best of all, it's free, aside from taking some of your time to build. What's great about LinkedIn is that it's essentially an expanded, online version of your resume. Of course, you can list past and present positions, but you can also tell your story in a variety of other ways.

If you want your LinkedIn profile to be of any use to you or potential employers, there are a few things you must include, a few you definitely should include, and a few features you should take advantage of. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.