Carrie Graham, PhD

Needed to see this post today as I'm creating content all week. Recently, I discussed how easy it is to lose sight of your own beliefs, values, and passions working in the online world. Your own experiences and stories have a place in the world. The challenge is tuning in to who you are and being confident enough to share it with the world.

Professional skills development should be a personal experience. When funds are low, it's wise to take an honest objective look at where you want your career to go, then identify the roles/responsibilities you want to have in the future. Consider what keeps you motivated to learn and do that, online courses are not for everyone so don't fall into that trap. There are hundreds of thousands of free resources available, the key is to use reputable resources (not everything on Google is reputable, reliable, or valid). Don't forget to practice what you learn.

Move beyond the typical audience analysis of identifying pain points, corporate needs, or training projections. While these outcomes are commonly used to guide the design process. However, you should aim to understand the audience's personal experiences and motivations prior to attending any training especially mandatory training. Also, shifting the focus from the checklist of things to do and discuss, instead focus on the people first.

One critical way to highlight the team's work is to spotlight the unique solution/outcome established. Each individual contributes to the overall team collective that results in efficiency, effectiveness, creativity, innovation or more. Focus on the unique collective.

How you present the portfolio should also be tailored to meet the needs of the reviewer. Consider the multiple ways to present your portfolio such as: document, multimedia (audiovisual), or as an illustration. Also give consideration to how frequently the evidence (data) changes and how frequently should the portfolio be updated to meet reviewer needs.

A final step to creating an effective workshop development portfolio is to include a narrative which provides overall context. More importantly, provide a summary of how the included evidence is interconnected to improve workshop effectiveness. Some refer to this a establishing a workshop framework, regardless of what you name it the key is to show clear connections.