Berna Scott

Personal Background

My name is Berna Scott and I received my Master’s degree in Instructional Design and Technology in May 2002. My undergraduate degree was in Early Childhood Education. I worked as a preschool teacher and kindergarten assistant for 15 years. Somewhere along the way, I felt I wanted to make a change in careers, though I wanted to stay within the education field. At first I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, so I did some research and came upon the field of Instructional Technology. I became interested in this field and when I discovered this program was being offered at ODU, I applied. A couple of months after I graduated, I obtained a job as an instructional designer. I am now an Associate Instructional Specialist at a company called AMSEC. I work as part of the e-Learning team where we redesign training from the traditional methods to methods that will make instruction more meaningful. We are creating instructional software which of course is interactive including multimedia such as 3-D graphics, animation, video, etc, to be used by instructors for class presentation or to stand alone as a refresher course.

 



About my ID&T education at ODU

Through the classes I have taken in the ID&T program at ODU, I have gained more knowledge about using the computer itself as well as using different computer programs, such as Photoshop, Premiere, Hyperstudio, and Dreamweaver. I have learned what qualities to look for in instructional software that would deem it beneficial to the learner. I have also become more aware of different types of learning and different types of learners and what their particular needs might be. The projects that I have created based on instructional design theories allowed me to better understand the application of these theories. As for instructional design, I have learned that it is a systematic approach where the components which include learners, skills and learning materials to name a few, work together to achieve the instructional goal.

Application of my coursework

Though I have been in my position for a relatively short time, I can see how many aspects of what I have learned from my classes in ID&T are applied to my work. Our team is working on different projects which are or have been in different phases such as conceptual analysis, development of objectives, identification of skills needed to be learned to reach objectives, instructional strategies, testing, evaluation and even the conceptual development of graphics. I look forward to further opportunities to apply the skills I have learned from my classes in ID&T.

WebMaster: idt@odu.edu