The dashboard on a vehicle is designed to display important information; in the spirit of this, I have designed a leadership dashboard to showcase the salient pieces regarding my leadership beliefs, style, and practices. It is reflective of my growth as a leader across a semester of coursework in learning design leadership.

My leadership philosophy revolves around the idea that any person at any level of an organization can be a leader. Meaningful change does not always have to come from the top and work down to the lower levels of an organization; sometimes, change can occur on a small scale at the bottom and then work its way up. I show this idea in action in my leadership philosophy. 

In addition to my belief on the possibility of leadership from the bottom-up, I believe that empathy, active listening, and creating a sense of psychological safety are integral tools for a leader. As part of this, I propose that leadership is most effective when collectively shared. However, I also acknowledge that for efficient follow through on projects, plans, and management, roles and responsibilities must be clearly defined no matter what style of leadership is employed. At times, it is appropriate to have a central leader that others report to. My work in the dashboard reflects this tension between my belief in collective leadership and the knowledge that sometimes one person must take the lead. 

My global vision for learning experience design, curated illuminated leadership plan, and community canvas all highlight my work as one central leader. However, within these examples the time I took to understand those I was designing for and leading is clear. The communication example, coaching and feedback plan, and project scope all highlight the importance of gathering information on and communicating with relevant stakeholders to create designs and projects directly tailored to group needs. The prototype for the professional development and curated illuminated leadership plan showcase my ability to lead in a collective and also as an individual. In these plans, I clearly define expectations, roles and responsibilities, and set manageable timelines. 

Throughout my work, empathy, active listening, and willingness to work with others in order to achieve results is key. I make it clear in my coaching plan that I value input from others and that feedback is not a one way street. Instead, as I help others to grow through active listening, empathy, and constructive feedback, I expect those I lead to be able to communicate likewise to me. I do this through offering specific times, templates, and opportunities for feedback. 

Leadership is a role where continual growth is necessary to lead effectively, create meaningful change, and continuously become a better leader. This leadership dashboard reflects my growth over one semester of graduate school; by utilizing my principles and continuously seeking feedback, I look forward to my continued growth as a leader in learning experience design. 

References

Center for Creative Leadership. (2025, September 25). The 6 principles of  leadership coaching, based on assessment – challenge – support. Center for Creative Leadership.  https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/the-six-principles-of-leadership-coaching/

Hacking HR Team (2024, May 30). Empathy in action: A leadership toolkit for the modern workplace. hacking HR. https://hackinghrlab.io/blogs/empathy-leadership/. 

Meyerson, Debra E. (2008). Rocking the boat: How to effect change without making trouble. Harvard Business Press. 

O’Neil, C. & Brinkerhoff, M. (2018, February 1). Five elements of collective leadership. NPQ. 

Connecting Liberatory Design ArtifactsThis semester-long project combined two frameworks of design to ideate, research, prototype, and revise a solution to a perceived problem in my workplace. The analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation or ADDIE design model is useful because it fits a variety of instructional designs. This makes it ideal to use in the business or education world. While a newer model, Liberatory design nicely aligns with ADDIE in that ADDIE provides a more stable framework by which to apply the equitable and just principles of design that the Liberatory framework brings. Liberatory design aligns with my ethos as a teacher, facilitator, and designer, and ADDIE provided an excellent backdrop in which to move the project forward.

Overall, the combination of the two allowed me to build a holistic picture of my school and stakeholders involved in order to co-design a thoughtful and equitable solution to a problem. The following posts will take you through brainstorming to prototyping and finally reflection on the process. Overall, the combination of the two allowed me to build a holistic picture of my school and stakeholders involved in order to co-design a thoughtful and equitable solution to a problem. The following posts will take you through brainstorming to prototyping and finally reflection on the process.

Learning Experience Design Technology and History

These infographics were created as a way to summarize key concepts — historical and technological — related to the field of learning experience design. The first infographic was created without the use of AI, and it synthesizes information from sever courses I took as part of my master’s degree: Learning Psychology, History of Assessment, and Current Topics and Trends in Learning Experience Design. The second infographic was created with the generative AI site Venngage. This was done to explore the challenges and opportunities for human and AI design.

Infographic One: Human Created

Infographic Two: Created with the Assistance of Generative AI

When designing on my own, it was difficult to narrow down all of the information I wanted to include into an infographic format. More than once, I caught myself wishing I had the chance to write this in a paper so I could explain my thinking more clearly. However, working on my own without generative AI assistance makes me take more pride in my work. It also allows me to know exactly where my information comes from, thereby identifying potential biases in sources and making sure I can attribute credit when needed. However, generative AI is more concise than I am. It is also able to effortlessly align elements and select accessible fonts and colors on the first try. However, it does not cite where its information comes from. It is also unable to generate its own thoughts, and requires human interaction to add the necessary reflective component for this design work.