And how I learned instructional design by working with faculty and village educators across Alaska – before instructional design certificates even existed.
Every presenter eventually faces the same moment: A blank slide, a complex topic, and the pressure to make it all make sense to an audience.
But here’s the thing – whether you’re presenting a tool, a lesson, a strategy, or an idea – it all works better when you follow one simple storytelling structure.
And I learned that not in a classroom, but through years of instructional design work across Alaska, supported by a team and guided by my mentor, Chris Lott, long before the instructional design field had formal certifications.
Our hub was Fairbanks, where we worked with University of Alaska faculty on traditional academic subjects. That’s also where Chris and others taught me the fundamentals – ADDIE, backwards design, questioning strategies, and SME collaboration – before we ever flew out to the rural campuses and satellite communities.
Those trips, working with local experts on what their communities needed and how their students learned best, shaped everything I know about teaching, learning, and presenting.
1. Story: Begin where the real work began.
Our instructional design team didn’t sit in one building reading theory. We were fully embedded in the work.
In Fairbanks, we spent much of our time supporting University of Alaska faculty – developing online courses on topics like writing, environmental studies, business, and social sciences. This was my hands-on training ground for instructional design theory, where I learned:
- How to plan using backwards design
- How to map courses through ADDIE
- How to run effective faculty consultations
- How to interpret learning goals into assessments
- And how to translate complex subjects into structured learning pathways
But Alaska is vast, and not all education happened in the major hubs.
So our team also traveled to small towns with small airports – places with tight-knit schools, community centers, and faculty who wore multiple hats. These local educators were experts in their own right: Experts in what their students needed, what their communities valued, and how learning worked in their context.
My role on these visits was to train SMEs on digital tools such as:
- Elluminate Live (synchronous teaching)
- Voicethread (video-based discussion and commentary)
- Blackboard LMS (course structure and delivery)
I gave presentations, workshops, and hands-on demos on best practices for using these platforms. Through this, I learned how to present clearly, teach tools effectively, and adapt explanations to every level of comfort and experience.
2. Shift: The moment the work became deeper than tools.
Before traveling, Chris and others had already taught me instructional design models, but the fieldwork is what made those models real.
I saw quickly that success didn’t come from the tools – it came from asking the right questions and building the right relationships.
Chris taught me to approach SMEs with curiosity and partnership, not assumptions. As a team, we learned to ask:
- What do students truly need to be able to do at the end?
- How do people in your community learn best?
- What’s the difference between nice-to-know and need-to-know?
- What misconceptions do new learners usually have?
- What’s the simplest way to show this concept online?
This transformed my entire approach to presenting and instructional design.
I learned how to learn quickly from SMEs, no matter the topic.
I learned to extract essential knowledge from long explanations.
I learned to reframe and re-sequence content so it flowed logically.
I learned that the key to teaching tools was not the tool – but the story around why it mattered.
And this is where the universal storytelling formula took shape.
3. Structure: The presentation formula that works anywhere.
After hundreds of workshops, faculty trainings, and SME sessions, I realized something:
Every great presentation follows the same pattern.
Here’s the formula I still use today:
The 4-Part Presentation Story Formula
1. Story — Open with a real moment from the field or the problem you’re solving.
2. Shift — Share the key insight that reframed your understanding.
3. Structure — Offer a simple, memorable framework that organizes the idea.
4. Solution — Show the impact: how this framework helps your audience right now.
This formula is powerful because it naturally aligns with how people think.
A story draws them in.
A shift earns their attention.
A structure helps them understand.
A solution helps them act.
It works for tool demos, keynote speeches, workshop sessions, and even one-on-one explanation.
4. Solution: How this applies to every presentation you will ever give.
By the time instructional design certificates became common, I had years of hands-on training across Alaska’s educational landscape – team-based work, faculty development, rural community collaboration, and tool-focused presentations.
That experience taught me:
- How to design courses with clarity and intention
- How to extract essential knowledge from SMEs in any field
- How to present tools in ways that feel empowering, not overwhelming
- How to identify learner needs before building content
- How to ask the right questions – and listen for the right answers
- How to build presentations that flow logically and land effectively
But the most important lesson was this:
Instructional design and presentation design share the same DNA.
They both rely on storytelling.
If you want your next presentation – on anything – to land:
Start with your story.
Reveal the shift.
Offer the structure.
Deliver the solution.
It worked in Fairbanks meeting rooms.
It worked in small-town workshops across Alaska.
And it works anywhere you need to teach, persuade, inform, or inspire.