Throughout this class, I completed the following template to ensure the objectives, assessments, and activities were in alignment with one another. Alignment is key within the instructional design process to ensure the course will effectively support the needs of the learners while aligning with the company's business goal(s) for the instructional intervention.

The activity columns are divided into three categories—Absorb, Do, and Connect—a distinction made by William Horton in his book E-Learning by Design (2012). Each activity type serves a specific purpose within the instruction design process:

• ABSORB activities: Learners absorb knowledge through hearing, reading, or viewing. While they are physically passive, they are mentally active and are expected to retain some of the knowledge. This prepares learners for more interactive DO and CONNECT activities.

• DO activities: Learners do something with what they are learning by practicing, exploring, and discovering. This turns mere information into knowledge and skills they can use in life.

• CONNECT activities: Learners connect what they are learning to their prior knowledge, making it easier to apply in future contexts where the knowledge and skills are necessary.

The assessments are a natural follow-up to these activities and help ensure the learners can meet the performance-based objectives for Mastering Credit Cards in YNAB.

It is essential for the assessments to serve as a bridge between the learning activities and the course objectives. The assessments I've chosen for Mastering Credit Cards in YNAB will help ensure learners are able to perform each of the procedures on one's own in YNAB while also ensuring they understand why YNAB handles the transactions the way it does. This not only increases the accuracy of the learners' money management, it also teaches them a sound financial philosophy.

Four of the five modules in this course are focused on mastering how to perform various procedures within YNAB. To ensure learners meet these objectives, the assessments are scenario-based simulations. These simulations will serve as formative assessments that are integrated seamlessly into practicing each procedure. Each module will contain various scenarios where the learner can use the on-screen simulation of YNAB to complete the needed steps. During the "Do stage," learners may choose to click on the on-screen guide to provide helpful reminders of how to accurately complete the procedure. If the learner makes an incorrect step, the guide will appear to provide feedback. However, once the learner is able to complete a scenario without assistance (clicking for help or making an incorrect move), that scenario will serve as the assessment and prompt the end of the module. By integrating the assessments into the learning activities, the course will be customized to the learners' needs; those that need additional practice and feedback can receive it, while those that have mastered the objective(s) can go to the next module more quickly and avoid unnecessary repetitive practice.

Two other assessment types are also planned. There will be a mid-module formative assessment to practice matching transactions between YNAB and a bank statement. This assessment evaluates the learners' ability to closely analyze and compare contrasting data to look for inconsistencies. This key skillset is different from the previous assessments and will be independent from them. Towards the end of the course, there will also be a series of multiple-choice questions that are based on a different set of scenarios (case studies). These questions will assess if the learner understands how YNAB handles the transactions in the background.

This course has expounded on the facet of instructional design that I find most fascinating: its systematicity. Through the guidance of William Horton in his book, E-Learning by Design (2012), I gained a much deeper appreciation for the level of detail an effective Instructional Designer can delve into to ensure that the instructional interventions they design are as aligned with the objectives (business goals) as possible, thereby increasing the efficacy of their learning solutions.

Although I started the course with a general idea of where I wanted my project to end up, the use of the alignment template and weekly feedback provided by the instructor have ensured my design decisions were sound and in alignment with one another. By beginning with the end in mind, I was able to create assessments that support the terminal objectives for the course. From there, I created activities that fall under Horton's three categories—Absorb, Do, and Connect—in order to ensure the activities in each module are supportive of one another and allow the learner to absorb the required information, practice the skills, and connect with other users to ask follow-up questions (if needed) once they complete the course.

One challenge I had with the course design was to find opportunities to introduce different interactive elements so it wouldn't feel too repetitive. The options for activities are naturally more limited with online, self-paced courses; however, I was able to brainstorm with several others and decided to add case studies, step-by-step graphics, and a flowchart as part of the Absorb activities. In another effort to cut down on repetition, I decided to integrate the assessments into the practice (Do activities) through scaffolding. Once the learner is able to complete a scenario-based simulation without on-screen help, they will have met the objective(s) for the module. This allows additional support for those that need it while preventing students who have mastered the objective from doing unnecessary extra practice.

Finally, after aligning the appropriate activities and assessments to best support the objectives for the class, I reviewed my selections from the perspective of Universal Design of Learning (UDL). Interestingly enough, I first learned about Universal Design in architecture school, where it originated from, so I was excited to see the evolution of that concept applied to education. Thankfully, my course design already aligned with the following UDL guidelines and checkpoints:

In terms of Engagement (the WHY of learning), the course optimizes the relevance, value, and authenticity by using realistic scenarios, derived from online comments and posts, to ensure the situations presented in the videos and simulations feel relevant to learners' needs. These scenarios cover an array of financial situations and use characters of differing ages, cultures, professions, and socioeconomic levels so all learners will come across scenarios they can relate to. They will also be provided with external resources where they can connect and interact with other YNAB users, fostering collaboration and community through continued social learning long after completing this course.

In regards to Representation (the WHAT of learning), the course will activate or support background knowledge by comparing money management in real life versus YNAB. This will help bridge concepts such as zero-based budgeting and the cash envelope system to the software's functionality. It will also guide information processing and visualization through step-by-step graphics and on-screen demonstrations. During the simulations, learners can choose to receive helpful reminders to guide their practice until they can perform the procedures unassisted.

Although Action & Expression (the HOW of learning) is a bit harder to align with due to the online nature of the course, the chosen Connect activities do use multiple media for communication by providing links to various external online resources, such as YouTube videos, blog posts, and webinars, where learners can ask questions and get further clarification on the covered topics. And finally, the job aid provided at the end of the course will facilitate managing information and resources by providing an overview of all procedures taught within the course.

Knowing that these UDL guidelines are naturally addressed in my course is comforting, and I will continue to think of ways to incorporate even more as this course moves into the development stage in the next course, at which point other accessibility best practices will also come into play. Overall, I feel that the design of this course has gone from a mere concept to a concrete roadmap, rooted in the systematicity of the instructional design process, that is ready to "come alive" in the next course as I begin developing it into a fully interactive eLearning course.