KeelWorks Foundation

I have been trying to transition out of the classroom and into instructional design for a while now, and I was fortunate enough to find this internship opportunity. From the moment I joined, I was given valuable resources to help guide not only my processes, but my thinking. On top of that, Thomas has been extremely helpful in guiding me in the right direction. At first, I was just trying to teach myself tools like Articulate and Camtasia. Really, I was just wasting my time. This volunteer opportunity is giving me valuable, practical, experience in creating courses and applying ID theory. The plus side is that the mission of this organization is admirable and something that will really help people who participate in our courses. I am extremely grateful to be part of this organization, and I would encourage others to join.

I have been working and learning with The Keelworks Foundation for the past year. Coming from education, I appreciate how much I'm learning as a new Instructional Designer, the autonomy of working with my team and making our own decisions, and the feedback during our check-in meetings. We meet weekly, and we also use chat to share updates in between times. This volunteer opportunity allows me to continue working full time while also working on my project with a flexible schedule. There is never an issue with getting feedback or answers to questions that come up along the way. We have honest and open conversations about the work and our progress, and we also set our own meetings if needed to go over something in more detail.

KeelWorks Foundation has provided me with opportunities to learn and grow in my career, I'm very grateful that Thomas brought me on board.

I am still relatively new here at Keelworks. I think they have an inspiring mission and it makes me feel good about contributing to the team here. I am excited about the opportunity to gain some hands on experience as I transition into the instructional design field!

Pros: I learned some principles of ID through reading case studies, participating in discussions, and the detailed feedback the director consistently gave to interns. Cons: - Despite the org. being active for over a decade, the structure and aesthetics of the program looks like the first iteration of a university LMS. It doesn't inspire confidence in the value of the program. - Interns are coming and going, which makes collaboration difficult, esp. as the director inflexibly insists on webcam conferencing and not Google Doc, emails, or chat. - The director is knowledgeable, but also very rude, condescending, and talks negatively about interns who decide to leave. He does not understand that his program does not have the value he thinks it does, esp. being unpaid. Plenty of dedicated and smart interns will be labeled as "unmotivated" by him. I can't learn from someone who is not reflective and thinks interns should swoon that he is sharing his knowledge. I did not feel valued.

I was initially very excited to work with this organization as a virtual e-learning design intern. However, on the day I was to Google Meet with the executive director, Thomas, he did not show up at our scheduled time (which I was not upset about because I realize things can come up). Understanding this, I waited about 5 minutes for entry into the meeting and then e-mailed him to make sure he was still available to meet. I waited another 5 minutes for either an e-mail response or entry into the Google Meet (a total wait time of 10 minutes) before I left the Google Meet. When I checked my e-mail later, I received messages from Thomas in which he called me "unmotivated" (without us having a single conversation) and, in so many words, he had a "you need us more than we need you" attitude. Not once did he apologize for being late to our meeting. I found these actions to be extremely unprofessional and, unfortunately, he left a bad taste in my mouth about interning here.

I joined the KeelWorks internship program and became an Instructional Designer. I really appreciate the support from the peers, mentors, and the organization. I hope more people could join us to support the people in need.