Susan McCool, CTRS
Instructional Design • Curriculum Development • Learning Experience Design
I design learning experiences that make complex information clear, meaningful, and usable. My work spans higher education, professional preparation, curriculum development, and community based training, with experience designing for asynchronous digital learning and facilitator led environments.
My approach begins with the learner: what they need to understand, what they need to be able to do, and how the learning experience can help them move from information to confident application.
Learning Designed With Purpose
Effective learning design is more than organizing content or making information visually appealing. It requires understanding the learner, defining the desired outcome, creating a logical path toward that outcome, and giving learners meaningful opportunities to apply what they are learning.
My work draws from instructional design models and learning theories including ADDIE, Backward Design, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Andragogy, Cognitivism, Constructivism, and Experiential Learning. I select and adapt these approaches based on the audience, learning environment, and performance need rather than applying a single model to every project.
Across projects, I focus on:
Clarity
Organizing complex information into manageable, purposeful learning sequences.
Alignment
Connecting learning objectives, content, activities, and assessment so each element supports the intended outcome.
Application
Moving learners beyond knowing information toward using it in authentic situations.
Engagement
Using visual design, examples, discussion, practice, reflection, and interaction intentionally to support learning.
Learner Experience
Considering how learners move through content, what they need at each stage, and where additional structure or support can reduce unnecessary barriers.
Selected Work
Explore the projects below, or jump to a specific case study.
01 | Digital Course Design
CHPE 3200 Undergraduate Course
Project Overview
CHPE 3200 was designed and developed in Brightspace/D2L for an undergraduate program. The project demonstrates my approach to creating a complete digital learning environment rather than treating the LMS as a repository for readings, assignments, and files.
I designed the course architecture, module organization, instructional content, assessments, learning activities, navigation, and visual structure with the goal of creating a predictable experience in which students could focus their attention on learning rather than figuring out where to go next.
My Approach
My development process reflects ADDIE, beginning with consideration of the learners, course requirements, and desired outcomes before moving into course design and development. Implementation within Brightspace/D2L allowed me to evaluate how students interacted with the course, identify points of confusion or unnecessary friction, and refine the learning experience over time.
At the curriculum level, I used Backward Design to connect desired learning outcomes with assessment and instruction. Rather than beginning with content and determining what students could do with it afterward, course components were organized around what learners ultimately needed to understand and demonstrate.
Because this was an asynchronous course, I treated structure as part of the instruction itself. Consistent module organization, visual headers, clear directions, and intentional sequencing created a recognizable learning pattern across the course.
The course also incorporates principles of UDL and scaffolding by providing clear pathways through content, multiple forms of instructional support, and progressive learning experiences that prepare students for increasingly complex application.
Design Priorities
Consistent Learner Navigation
Students encounter a predictable structure from one module to the
next.
Outcome Alignment
Instruction, activities, and assessment connect directly to intended
learning outcomes.
Content Sequencing
Concepts build progressively rather than appearing as isolated weekly
topics.
Visual Organization
Headers and visual hierarchy help learners quickly understand where they
are and what they need to do.
Scaffolding
Learning experiences build foundational understanding before requiring
more complex application.
Asynchronous Instructor Presence
Directions, explanations, feedback, and supporting resources provide
guidance even when instructor and learner are not present at the same
time.
Explore the Course
This brief walkthrough demonstrates course architecture, visual organization, module structure, instructional sequencing, and the overall learner experience within Brightspace/D2L.
02 | Curriculum & Teacher Education
From Standards to Lesson Plans
The Learning Challenge
Students learning curriculum development can easily experience standards, vertical curriculum, horizontal curriculum, pacing guides, objectives, and lesson planning as a series of unrelated assignments.
The instructional challenge was to help future educators understand that these components are actually layers of one interconnected curriculum system.
The learning experience was therefore designed to move students beyond completing individual planning tasks and toward thinking like curriculum designers. Students examine how decisions made at one level of curriculum planning influence the decisions that follow.
My Approach
Backward Design is both part of the content being taught and a central influence on the design of the learning experience itself.
The instruction is organized around curriculum alignment. Rather than presenting standards, curriculum, pacing, objectives, learning tasks, and assessment independently, learners progressively see how each component connects to the next:
Standards → Vertical Curriculum → Horizontal Curriculum → Pacing → Central Focus → Objectives → Learning Tasks → Assessment
This sequence helps students construct a mental framework for understanding curriculum as a system.
The learning experience also reflects cognitivist principles through chunking, sequencing, visual organization, and explicit connections among concepts. Learners first establish the individual components of curriculum planning and then integrate them into a larger mental model.
Constructivist application occurs as students use this framework to develop their own curriculum products. The goal is not simply to remember terminology, but to apply the relationships among those concepts to authentic curriculum decisions.
Design Priorities
Conceptual Scaffolding
Individual curriculum concepts are introduced before learners are asked
to understand the complete system.
Systems Thinking
Learners see curriculum as an interconnected progression rather than a
collection of activities.
Visual Modeling
Complex relationships are represented visually to make connections among
planning decisions easier to recognize.
Authentic Application
Instruction supports a larger curriculum development project in which
learners create and connect actual curriculum components.
Reflection & Metacognition
Guided questions encourage learners to consider why instructional
decisions are made and how each decision affects student learning.
Digital Delivery
The presentation was designed as part of an asynchronous Brightspace/D2L course and delivered as a recorded lecture. The visual presentation therefore serves as one component of a larger learning experience that also includes course instructions, assignments, resources, assessment, and instructor guidance.
Explore the Learning Experience
KSPE 6401 - From-Standards-to-Lesson-Plans.pptx by Susan S. McCool
This presentation demonstrates the visual and conceptual design supporting a larger asynchronous curriculum development learning sequence.
03 | Professional & Clinical Learning
Cognitive Orientation & Executive Function in Recreational Therapy
The Learning Challenge
Clinical education requires learners to do more than memorize terminology or assessment tools.
Students must learn to determine what information matters, select appropriate assessments, interpret findings within context, and understand how those findings affect professional practice.
This learning experience introduces cognitive orientation and executive function while connecting those concepts to recreational therapy assessment and clinical decision making.
My Approach
The design is grounded strongly in cognitivist learning principles because learners are working with complex clinical information that must be organized into meaningful mental structures before it can be applied.
I structured the learning progression as:
Concept → Functional Meaning → Assessment → Comparison → Interpretation → Application
Students first establish foundational knowledge of orientation and executive functioning. Those concepts are then connected to their functional implications for participation, safety, decision making, and independence.
Only after that foundation is established does the instruction move into assessment frameworks and specific instruments.
This progression helps manage cognitive load by chunking technical information and creating relationships among concepts rather than asking learners to memorize disconnected facts.
From Knowledge to Clinical Reasoning
The later portions of the learning experience shift from content acquisition toward application.
Students compare assessment instruments such as the MMSE, MoCA, and Trail Making Test and consider which tools are most appropriate for different clinical presentations.
Case based examples then require learners to interpret patterns rather than simply recall information.
This creates a scaffolded progression from:
The result is an asynchronous learning experience designed to support the development of clinical reasoning, not simply content recall.
Design Priorities
Cognitive Load Management
Complex technical information is chunked into manageable learning
segments.
Progressive Scaffolding
Foundational concepts precede assessment selection and clinical
interpretation.
Theory to Practice
Abstract cognitive concepts are consistently connected to their
implications for participation and professional practice.
Comparative Learning
Learners examine similarities, differences, strengths, and limitations
rather than memorizing assessment tools independently.
Case Based Application
Clinical examples require learners to interpret information and make
reasoned decisions.
Digital Delivery
The presentation was developed for an asynchronous undergraduate course delivered through Brightspace/D2L and accompanied a recorded lecture. Its visual design supports the spoken instruction while allowing learners to organize, revisit, and connect complex clinical concepts.
Explore the Learning Experience
Cognitive-Orientation-and-Executive-Function-in-Recreational-Therapy.pptx by Susan S. McCool
This presentation demonstrates my approach to transforming complex professional content into structured, visually supported, applied digital learning.
04 | Adult Learning & Volunteer Development
Hometown Outreach Volunteer Training Series
The Performance Need
Community volunteers regularly interact with people experiencing hardship, but many enter service because they simply want to help. They may have little formal training in helping relationships, boundaries, recognizing unmet needs, or responding when someone discloses a difficult situation.
The learning need was therefore not simply to provide volunteers with policies or information.
Volunteers needed practical skills they could recognize, remember, and use during real interactions.
I developed a facilitator led training sequence that moves learners from understanding their role to applying appropriate responses in realistic community situations.
My Approach to Adult Learning
The series is strongly influenced by Knowles' principles of Andragogy.
Adult learners bring significant personal experience into the training environment and are most engaged when they understand why learning matters, see its immediate relevance, and can apply it to authentic problems.
Rather than beginning with abstract policy, the training connects new concepts to situations volunteers may already recognize from their own experiences helping others.
The series also incorporates Experiential Learning. Learners encounter realistic situations, reflect on the challenges involved, connect those experiences to broader principles, and practice new responses.
This moves the learning experience beyond:
“Here is what our volunteers should know.”
“Here is what our volunteers should be able to do when this happens.”
Module 1 | Professional Boundaries in Community Outreach
Serving With Compassion While Protecting Everyone Involved
The first module establishes the foundation for healthy helping relationships.
Instead of framing boundaries as rules that limit compassion, the training positions boundaries as the structure that allows volunteers to serve safely, ethically, respectfully, and sustainably.
Learning Design
The session begins by activating prior experience, an important principle of adult learning.
Participants are asked to think about times they have helped another person and gradually found themselves taking on more responsibility than they expected. That familiar experience creates an entry point into more formal concepts surrounding boundaries.
Learners then examine:
Volunteer role clarity
Power and vulnerability
Emotional dynamics in helping relationships
Dependency
The rescuer role
Appropriate responses to requests outside the volunteer role
The sequence progresses from personal experience → conceptual understanding → realistic application.
Scenario Based Practice
Learning about boundaries is not enough. Volunteers must be able to recognize a boundary challenge when it occurs and respond without becoming cold or dismissive.
Participants therefore work through realistic scenarios involving financial requests, personal contact information, and requests for assistance outside the volunteer role.
Rather than memorizing a scripted response, learners identify the concern, consider potential consequences, discuss competing needs, and develop an appropriate response that preserves both compassion and the volunteer role.
Learning Sequence
Connect → Understand → Examine → Apply → Reflect
Module 2 | Seeing the Need
How to Recognize & Respond in Real Moments
The second module intentionally builds on the first.
Once volunteers understand how to remain within appropriate boundaries, a new performance question emerges:
What should I actually do when I realize someone needs help?
The training teaches volunteers to recognize indirect signals of need, listen without immediately problem solving, respond appropriately in the moment, and connect information back to the organization.
Performance Model
To make the desired behavior easy to recall during real interactions, I developed a simple three step performance model:
Acknowledge → Stabilize → Connect
Acknowledge
Demonstrate that the person has been heard and that their concern matters.
Stabilize
Respond calmly and supportively without immediately taking responsibility for solving the problem.
Connect
Bring the identified need back to Hometown Outreach so appropriate organizational support can follow.
The model functions as both an instructional framework and a practical performance tool volunteers can remember outside the training environment.
Experiential Practice
This module incorporates experiential and scenario based learning through structured role play.
Participants rotate among three roles:
Volunteer
Practices responding to the situation.
Neighbor
Presents a realistic statement or disclosure.
Observer
Evaluates whether the volunteer acknowledged the concern, avoided
immediately trying to fix the situation, and appropriately connected the
need.
Scenarios include food scarcity, transportation and isolation, medication concerns, and loneliness.
The observer role adds another layer of learning because participants must identify effective performance in someone else's response as well as practice the behavior themselves.
Reflection & Transfer
Following practice, learners reflect on:
What felt natural?
What felt uncomfortable?
When did they feel the urge to immediately solve the problem?
How could the response model help during an actual volunteer interaction?
This progression reflects elements of Experiential Learning:
Experience → Reflection → Conceptual Understanding → Active Practice
The result is a training sequence designed around behavior change and transfer to real service situations rather than information delivery alone.
Learning Sequence
Recognize → Respond → Practice → Receive Feedback → Reflect → Transfer
Selected visuals are shown for portfolio purposes. Complete training materials are proprietary to Hometown Outreach.
05 | Interactive Web-Based Learning
Hometown Outreach Prospective Volunteer Orientation
Project Overview
Hometown Outreach is a small, volunteer-led nonprofit that relies on community members to carry out much of its work. As the organization grew, prospective volunteers needed a consistent way to learn why Hometown Outreach exists, explore ways to get involved, understand volunteer expectations, and know what happens after they sign up.
I designed and developed a self-paced interactive orientation that guides prospective volunteers through five areas: Who We Are & Why We Exist, What You Can Do, How We Expect You to Serve, and How to Get Involved, and Next Steps.
The experience provides prospective volunteers with the information they need to make an informed decision about participating while reducing the need for organizational leadership to repeatedly provide the same introductory information one-on-one.
Design Approach
Because the goal was orientation rather than skills training, I intentionally designed the experience around exploration and progressive disclosure rather than quizzes or scenario-based assessment.
Interactive timelines, expandable content, volunteer-role exploration, guided navigation, and other interactive elements break information into manageable pieces while allowing users to engage with the content at their own pace.
Content was developed from organizational source materials, including the Hometown Outreach Volunteer Handbook and internal organizational reference materials, to ensure consistency between the orientation and the actual volunteer onboarding process.
Information better suited for policy documents, onboarding, or role-specific training was intentionally excluded to prevent cognitive overload and keep the experience focused on what prospective volunteers need to know before deciding to sign up.
Technology & Sustainability
Technology selection was shaped by both instructional needs and the client's operational realities.
As a small, volunteer-led nonprofit, Hometown Outreach is intentional about directing its financial resources toward programs and services that benefit the people it serves rather than unnecessary technology expenses.
Subscription-based authoring platforms such as Genially would introduce recurring costs, while the cost of an authoring suite such as Articulate could not be justified for this use case.
Instead, I used AI-assisted web development with ChatGPT Work to develop a custom responsive interactive experience using standard web technologies. The completed orientation is hosted on a dedicated subdomain of Hometown Outreach's existing web infrastructure, eliminating the need for an additional learning-platform subscription or separate hosting expense.
This approach also addressed the long-term sustainability and maintainability of the learning resource. Hometown Outreach retains control of the files and content, and routine changes to text, links, images, and other information can be made using WYSIWYG web-editing tools without requiring a specialized e-learning authoring subscription or incurring additional platform costs each time information needs to be updated.
Interactive Experience
The orientation uses purposeful interaction to make an information-rich experience easier to navigate without turning an informational orientation into unnecessary skills training.
Prospective volunteers can interact with the experience as they:
- Move through Hometown Outreach's organizational story.
- Explore programs and services.
- Explore available volunteer opportunities and role information.
- Review volunteer expectations.
- Navigate the volunteer onboarding process and next steps.
The experience is responsive and designed to function across desktop and mobile devices.
Live Project
Interactive Walkthrough
This walkthrough demonstrates the orientation's interactive elements, navigation, responsive design, and learner experience.
My Design Process
From Learning Need to Learning Experience
I do not begin with the tool.
I begin with the learner and the problem the learning experience needs to solve.
My process is informed by ADDIE, while remaining flexible enough to adapt to the scope, audience, and timeline of the project.
01 | Analyze
Identify the audience, learning or performance need, existing knowledge, context, constraints, and desired outcome.
02 | Define & Align
Determine what learners should know, understand, or be able to do and establish how success will be demonstrated.
03 | Design
Develop the learning sequence, instructional strategy, modality, activities, assessments, and supporting resources.
04 | Develop
Create clear and engaging instructional materials in which content, interaction, and visual design support the learning objective.
05 | Implement
Deliver the learning experience through the appropriate environment, whether an LMS, recorded instruction, facilitator led training, or another modality.
06 | Evaluate & Refine
Use learner performance, feedback, observation, and instructional outcomes to identify opportunities for improvement and iterate as needed.
Areas of Experience
Learning Design Across Audiences & Settings
Digital & Asynchronous Learning
LMS course architecture, asynchronous learning experiences, recorded instruction, module development, learner navigation, assessment, and digital learning resources.
Higher Education
Undergraduate and graduate course design, instructional presentations, learning activities, assessment, rubrics, and student support materials.
Curriculum Development
Standards alignment, vertical and horizontal curriculum, pacing, objectives, assessment alignment, lesson and unit design, and curriculum evaluation.
Professional & Clinical Learning
Complex content translation, clinical reasoning, applied decision making, professional preparation, and case based learning.
Adult & Volunteer Training
Facilitator led instruction, onboarding and training materials, scenario based learning, role play, guided discussion, reflection, and performance support.
Learning Materials
Presentations, facilitator guides, learner handouts, job aids, instructional documents, assessments, rubrics, templates, and digital learning resources.
Tools & Technology
Learning Management Systems
Brightspace/D2L • Canvas
Instructional & Visual Design
Canva • Genially • Microsoft PowerPoint • Microsoft Word • Adobe Photoshop • Adobe Illustrator
Productivity & Collaboration
Microsoft Office • Google Workspace • Zoom • Microsoft Teams • Google Meet
Assessment & Data
Qualtrics • Google Forms • Excel • SPSS
AI & Emerging Learning Technology
Custom GPT Development • AI Assisted Instructional Design • AI Supported Content Development • Workflow Automation
Learning Should Lead Somewhere.
Whether I am designing a semester long asynchronous course, a professional learning experience, a curriculum sequence, or a one-hour volunteer training, I begin with the same question:
What should learners be able to understand or do when this experience is over?
From there, I design the path that helps them get there.
Susan McCool, MS, CTRS
Instructional Design • Curriculum Development • Learning Experience
Design
susan.s.mccool@gmail.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-mccool/