Final Credential

At the end of November, I officially "graduated" from AIDA and joined the alumni group. As a culmination for completing all of the core and at least one elective badge, I earned the final credential. There were two other elective badges available (Vyond and Camtasia) that I didn't complete - mostly because I was too busy working on contracts (the whole purpose for joining in the first place!!)

Overall, I would say this was a great experience. While the target audience for this program is primarily people who are new to instructional design or want to make the transition into this field, there were some people with backgrounds more similar to mine: their experience was in L&D but didn't have the official title of "instructional designer", or they were transitioning from instructional design in a higher ed setting to a corporate setting, or they wanted to learn more about freelancing/doing contract work.

While the badges are nice (do they really mean anything outside of the program?) the greatest benefit from my perspective was developing a more robust portfolio and building working relationships and friendships with other instructional designers - those new to the field and those transitioning to other areas or industries. An unexpected but added bonus is that this program has been approved to provide hours towards my CPTD certification.