Create, Teach, Inspire – An Instructional Design Podcast
Create, Teach, Inspire: An Instructional Design Podcast
Eleven episodes. Ten minutes each. One goal — helping faculty arrive at every CDI session ready to build, not just ready to listen.
Audacity | Adobe Podcast | Canvas LMS | Spotify | Brain-Centric Design | Bloom’s Taxonomy
DESIGNER’S STATEMENT
Most faculty development happens in workshops nobody remembers. This podcast was designed differently — ten-minute episodes, released weekly, timed to each stage of the Course Design Institute so faculty could listen between sessions and arrive ready to build. The goal wasn’t just information delivery. It was designing a learning companion that respected how busy professors actually are.
| Overview Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Episodes | 11 |
| Target Audience | Course Design Institute Cohort – Subject Matter Experts |
| Format | Audio |
| Length | ~10 minutes |
| Released | Spring 2024 |
| Platform | Spotify, Canvas LMS |
PROJECT OVERVIEW
The Challenge
The Course Design Institute pairs instructional designers with faculty for a 12-week collaborative course build. The content is dense, the timeline is tight, and faculty arrive at weekly meetings with wildly different levels of readiness. A supplemental resource was needed — something faculty would actually use.
The Solution
A 10-episode podcast series, each episode running approximately 10 minutes, released weekly on Spotify to align with each CDI phase. Episodes were scripted, recorded, and produced to function as standalone learning tools — accessible anywhere, anytime, no login required.
My Role
Solo project — concept, scripting, recording, production, and distribution.
Impact
Released to the Spring 2024 CDI cohort of 20 faculty participants. Faculty who engaged with the series arrived at weekly ID meetings with stronger foundational vocabulary and fewer baseline questions — allowing sessions to focus on application rather than explanation. The series remains available on Spotify as an evergreen resource for future cohorts.
TEN EPISODS
Module 1: ID/SME Collaboration
What the ID/SME partnership looks like — and why both roles matter equally in course design.
Module 2: Introducing Objectives
Bloom’s Taxonomy unpacked: how to write measurable objectives that actually drive learning.
Module 3: Aligned Course Maps
Why alignment between objectives, activities, and assessments is the foundation of every great course.
Module 4: Fostering Engagement & Deep Learning
Strategies for moving learners beyond passive consumption into active, memorable experiences.
Module 5: Universal Design Is For Everyone
Accessibility isn’t a checkbox — it’s good design that benefits every learner.
Episode 6: How the Brain Likes To Learn
What neuroscience tells us about how people actually learn, and how to design for it.
Episode 7: There’s Power In Discussions
How to design online discussions that spark genuine thinking rather than compliance posting.
Episode 8: Through The Eyes Of A SME
Stepping into the faculty perspective — what instructional designers need to understand about content experts.
Episode 9: Rubrics, Assignments & Assessments — Oh My!
Designing assessments that measure what they’re supposed to measure.
Episode 10: Arduous Accessibility Checking
A practical walkthrough of accessibility review and why it matters more than most faculty realize.
Episode 11: Quality Does Matter!
Quality Matters standards demystified — what they mean and why they make courses better.
DESIGN DECISIONS
Decision 1: Why a podcast?
Faculty are busy. A podcast respects that. Ten minutes during a commute, a walk, or lunch is achievable in a way that a reading assignment is not. Audio also allowed for a conversational tone that written guides can’t replicate — the same voice faculty heard weekly in their ID meetings, now available on demand.
Decision 2: Why a weekly release?
Deliberate pacing mirrors the CDI timeline. Each episode drops the week its topic is introduced, creating a reinforcement loop between the podcast and the live ID/SME session. Faculty arrive having already heard the concept — the meeting becomes a conversation, not an introduction.
Decision 3: Why Spotify?
Zero friction. No login, no LMS navigation, no downloading. Faculty could subscribe once and episodes arrived automatically each Wednesday. Each episode also went out as an announcement with a link and was embedded into the Subject Matter Expert Toolbox, a Canvas Course for those participating in the Course Design Institute.
TOOLS & CREDITS
| Overview Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Authoring Tool | Audacity |
| Production | Adobe Podcast – audio cleanup & enhancement |
| Distribution | Spotify & Canvas LMS |
| Content & Research | Brain-Centric Design (BCD) framework – informing Episodes 4 and 6 Bloom’s Taxonomy – episode 2 content foundation |
| Guest Contributor | Marija Dimitrijevic – Episode 8: Through the Eyes of a SME |
| Scripting | Shawna Stushnoff |
| Solo Production | Shawna Stushnoff |
| Evergreen design. | Serves future cohorts |
EXPLORE THE EXPERIENCE
Individual Episodes (.mp3)
- Episode #1: ID/SME Collaboration – released 2/7/24
- Episode #2: Introducing Objectives – released 2/14/24
- Episode #3: Aligned Course Maps – released 2/21/24
- Episode #4: Fostering Engagement & Deep Learning – released 2/28/24
- Episode #5: Universal Design Is For Everyone – released 3/6/24
- Episode #6: Brain-centric Design – released 3/13/24
- Episode #7: There’s Power In Discussions – released 3/27/24
- Episode #8: Through The Eyes of a SME – released 4/3/24
- Episode #9: Rubrics, Assignments & Assessments – Oh My! – released 4/10/24
- Episode #10: Arduous Accessibility Checking – released 4/17/24
- Episode #11: Quality Does Matter! – released 4/24/24