Adam Minahan
Instructional Designer / e-Learning Developer
A B O U T
A B O U T
O T H E R P R O J E C T S
W O R K
E X P E R I E N C E
May 2023 - Present
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Boise State University
Boise, Idaho (Remote)
May 2023 - Present
Learning Designer (Volunteer)
Rumie Learn
Virtual
October 2022 - April 2023
English (ESL) Instructor
Open English / Latin hire
Virtual
Summers of 2021 and 2022
Quality Assurance Team Lead/Trainer
OBI Seafoods
Egegik, Alaska
August 2013 - August 2019
English (ESL) Instructor
Various Employers
Seoul, Republic of Korea
P O R T F O L I O
O T H E R
P R O J E C T S
Personal Attributes
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Exceptional writing skills
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Creative problem solver
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Self-motivated learner
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Adaptable
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Culturally competent
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Collaborative team player
Technical Competencies
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Articulate Storyline and Rise
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Camtasia
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Microsoft Office Suite
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Vyond, VideoScribe
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Canva
Languages
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English (Native)
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Spanish (Proficient)
S K I L L S &
E X P E R T I S E
August 2022 - Present
Master's of Science - Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning (In progress, graduate 2024);
Certificate - Workplace Instructional Design (May 2023)
Boise State University
Boise, Idaho
August 2011 - June 2013
Bachelor's of Art - English Literature
San Francisco State University
San Francisco, California
E D U C A T I O N
Vetting Your Hagwon
Click the image to view the project.
O V E R V I E W
Learners: Prospective EFL teachers in South Korea
My Roles: Instructional Designer, e-Learning Developer
Tools Used: Articulate Storyline, Vyond, Camtasia, Twine, Adobe XD, Google Docs, Google Forms
South Korea is a country that values education highly, and its thriving private, for-profit education industry is proof of that. In Korean, the word hagwon best translates to academy, but it is more precisely defined as a private educational business. Adults and children alike attend hagwons of all sorts, taking classes in just about any subject from math and languages to art and science, in order to gain an edge in the country's competitive market.
Hagwons that specialize in the English language can be found in nearly every neighborhood in a major city like Seoul. The demand for native English speakers far exceeds the supply of credentialed English as a Second Language (ESL) instructors, so the industry must turn to any college graduate from one of seven English speaking countries approved by the government. These college graduates often don't have ESL teaching certification and have degrees in anything from STEM to the liberal arts. However, parents are willing to pay a premium so that their children can be exposed to native English accents.
Teaching at a hagwon is a great opportunity for young, recent college graduates -- one that I have done myself! South Korea is a wonderful country with an amazing culture and a long and interesting history; it is home to kind and welcoming people, delicious food, and world famous pop culture exports. But sometimes, things can be hard for foreign English teachers. One reason for that, is that a teacher's visa is tied to their employer. It can be difficult to leave a job that is a bad fit to seek a better one. Unfortunately, some hagwon owners take advantage of that. Some write up unfair contracts, which are signed by foreigners who don't know any better. Others violate contracts since they know the teachers can't easily switch jobs and they count on the foreigners not knowing how to navigate an unfamiliar justice system in a foreign language.
I created this learning experience in order to familiarize prospective ESL instructors in South Korea with the possibilities of a hagwon job gone south. I lay out advice and strategies for weeding out potentially poor employers from the good ones. This is a scenario-based module in which learners experience a simulation of an interview with a hagwon director. They make choices that help them identify poor hagwon practices and that teach them how to negotiate for better working conditions. It is my hope that this learning experience helps future ESL instructors find rewarding employment in Korea.
Learners: Prospective EFL teachers in South Korea
My Roles: Instructional Designer, e-Learning Developer
Tools Used: Articulate Storyline, Vyond, Camtasia, Twine, Adobe XD, Google Docs, Google Forms
South Korea is a country that values education highly, and its thriving private, for-profit education industry is proof of that. In Korean, the word hagwon best translates to academy, but it is more precisely defined as a private educational business. Adults and children alike attend hagwons of all sorts, taking classes in just about any subject from math and languages to art and science, in order to gain an edge in the country's competitive market.
Hagwons that specialize in the English language can be found in nearly every neighborhood in a major city like Seoul. The demand for native English speakers far exceeds the supply of credentialed English as a Second Language (ESL) instructors, so the industry must turn to any college graduate from one of seven English speaking countries approved by the government. These college graduates often don't have ESL teaching certification and have degrees in anything from STEM to the liberal arts. However, parents are willing to pay a premium so that their children can be exposed to native English accents.
Teaching at a hagwon is a great opportunity for young, recent college graduates -- one that I have done myself! South Korea is a wonderful country with an amazing culture and a long and interesting history; it is home to kind and welcoming people, delicious food, and world famous pop culture exports. But sometimes, things can be hard for foreign English teachers. One reason for that, is that a teacher's visa is tied to their employer. It can be difficult to leave a job that is a bad fit to seek a better one. Unfortunately, some hagwon owners take advantage of that. Some write up unfair contracts, which are signed by foreigners who don't know any better. Others violate contracts since they know the teachers can't easily switch jobs and they count on the foreigners not knowing how to navigate an unfamiliar justice system in a foreign language.
I created this learning experience in order to familiarize prospective ESL instructors in South Korea with the possibilities of a hagwon job gone south. I lay out advice and strategies for weeding out potentially poor employers from the good ones. This is a scenario-based module in which learners experience a simulation of an interview with a hagwon director. They make choices that help them identify poor hagwon practices and that teach them how to negotiate for better working conditions. It is my hope that this learning experience helps future ESL instructors find rewarding employment in Korea.
O V E R V I E W
Even though I worked in Seoul for more than six years, and I spent most of that time working in hagwons, I knew I couldn't count on myself as the primary Subject Matter Expert (SME). Nor did I elect to only pick the brain of one expert. Instead, I researched blogs, Reddit posts and YouTube videos, and I spoke with several friends and former coworkers in the ESL industry, to gain a thorough analysis of the problem.
I uncovered the most common practices problem hagwon owners partake in and how to identify them during the interview and contract review phase of a job search. I also identified three reasons why prospective employees find themselves working at problem hagwons:
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Ignorance of how a proper hagwon should conduct itself using both the law and better-run hagwon competitors as a measuring stick
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Willfully ignoring warning signs due to excitement and/or desperation to acquire a job in Korea
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Inexperience and the associated nerves during the interview process make it difficult for interviewees to advocate for themselves and their rights
Finally, I undertook an analysis of my potential learners. Most fell into the 22-30 age range, but there were many from age 30-40 as well. While the ratio of male to female was very close, many job listings said they preferred female teachers. This is unsurprising, as most Korean hagwon teachers are female. Learners had degrees in nearly all areas but most were in the liberal arts fields rather than STEM fields. Many of them wanted to work/had worked only one year in Korea.
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From the information collected during my analysis, I was able to craft the following learning objectives:
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Learners will be able to recall resources that can aid them in their hagwon job search (a Reddit subreddit called r/teachinginkorea, Korean Black List, former teachers from the hagwon one is interviewing for).
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Learners will be able to recognize best practices for hagwon interviewing, such as interviewing for multiple positions to find the best option.
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Learners will be able to interact with Korean job recruiters respectfully.
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Learners will be able to analyze hagwon interview practices and apply knowledge related to such practices critically.
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Learners will be able to negotiate contract terms according to Korean law and hagwon standards.
I decided to make this a scenario-based e-learning module using Articulate Storyline. After reviewing the first reason why prospective teachers choose poor hagwons (ignorance of how a proper hagwon should conduct itself using both the law and better-run hagwon competitors as a measuring stick), I thought that perhaps an explainer video using Vyond or other animation software could be helpful. However, there are many talking head videos on YouTube that explain all of the negative practices I uncovered. Why then are teachers still allowing themselves to become victims of predatory hagwons? The answer lies in the third reason (inexperience and the associated nerves during the interview process make it difficult for interviewees to advocate for themselves and their rights). I decided on a scenario-based module because a simulated interview allows them to practice facing employers head on and they can gain the confidence to advocate for themselves through the direct experience of doing it. This kind of experiential learning is imperative for transferring knowledge into action as it makes them confront challenges in a safe environment and reflect on the consequences of poor choices.
I was also able to incorporate my Vyond explainer video due to reason number two (prospective employees willfully ignore warning signs due to excitement and/or desperation to acquire a job). The video that introduces the learners to the scenario is a catastrophe narrative of the worst possible case that could happen at a problem hagwon. An inspiration for this is Jack Mezirow's articulation of transformative learning, where he explained the power of a "disorienting dilemma," i.e., an event that rocks a person to their core so strongly that it is a catalyst for transformative perspective change. The event depicted in the opening video would certainly be such a transformative event in a person's life were it real, and they would definitely not make the same mistakes again during their hagwon hunt. However, the goal here is to induce that kind of perspective change before one finds themselves exactly where they wouldn't want to be. I hope the introduction video opens the eyes of prospective teachers to the consequences of not properly vetting their hagwons and motivates them to play through the scenario attentively in order to gain the knowledge, ability, and confidence needed to maximize their professional lives and protect their emotional well-being.
Besides transformative learning, another learning theory that has heavily influenced the design of this module is John Keller's ARCS-V Motivational Learning Model. As stated above, the opening video aims to capture the attention of the learners, by showing them the relevance of their inaction, of their reluctance to take seriously the challenge of finding a good hagwon. Within the video itself, I start it off with a sarcastic quip: "Congratulations! You just graduated from a bottom five percent university in the United States with a degree in Harry Potter Studies. You are entering the job market with $40,000 debt while the economy is in shambles." While not all teachers entering Korea have less marketable and lucrative degrees, I hope the humor is able to intrigue learners and engage them in the video. I also think, due to my analysis of the learners, that many will be able to relate to the economic hardship aspect.
One aspect I am most proud of as it relates to motivating learners, is the consequence videos that play when users elect to sign the contract too early into the scenario. The beginning video that shows a nightmare hagwon scenario replays with slight variations and learners must start over from the beginning. It is my hope that this video is entertaining enough that users will choose to sign the contract early because they think the video is funny and are curious to see the consequences of their actions. Then, having to reply through the scenario is a form of spaced repetition that helps move the material into the long term memory.
As far as the minutiae of the learning design goes, here are some of the most important choices I made:
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*Guidance in the form of the r/teachinginkorea Reddit button as an advisor. As this module targets adult learners, I took Malcolm Knowles's theory of andragogy into account, which claims that learners are self-directed. I didn't want to give learners pre-training because I wanted to allow them to discover for themselves how to best navigate the scenario. However, I did give them the option to seek guidance.
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*Faded support/scaffolding: I took away the Reddit advisor once the decisions involved using knowledge that was learned in previous decisions.
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*Question types: I used both multiple choice and checklists. I wanted to limit question types in order to make the user experience more intuitive for learners (so they don't need to spend too much time figuring out how to do something rather than figure out what to do), but some of the decisions had different question types that were more appropriate for them.
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*Feedback: I used both intrinsic feedback and instructional feedback throughout the module. The intrinsic feedback is most obvious when learners sign the contract too early. It shows the consequences of that choice. I used one or the other type of feedback for the rest of the decisions based on which type of feedback would be more likely in the real world; however, when intrinsic feedback would come too far in the future or not at all in the real world, I opted for instructional feedback (such as when deciding which questions to ask the current/former teachers). I used whichever type of feedback felt better for being delivered instantaneously because, besides signing the contract, there are no actions that could take learners beyond the interview process where realistic intrinsic feedback would occur in reality.
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I always took Mayer's Principles of Multimedia Learning and the C.R.A.P. Design Principles into account when building the module.
*Clark, R. C. (2013). Scenario-based e-learning: Evidence-based guidelines for online workforce learning. John Wiley & Sons.
A note on my accessibility choices:
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Thanks to the feedback of my professor, I opted to use an accessible font (Calibri). I did use a more stylistic choice for the opening slides (Mouse Memoirs), but once the learning event is underway, the more accessible font is used.
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I provided optional subtitles for the videos.
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For segments when characters talk through a sequence of speech bubbles, I made it so learners click a button to advance so they can read the bubbles at their own pace. However, there are a few instances where I did not do this (namely, when a character speaks a single sentence at the end of a scene and during the interview segment). I chose not to do this because in these instances I was aiming to create a cinematic effect. These moments do not directly contribute to the learning objectives and instead are used for creating an immersive experience. I felt making users click to advance would take away from that and would be tedious. I also felt that learners with disabilities would not lose out on the experience if they missed some of the dialogue, whereas other learners would feel burdened if they were forced to click through unnecessarily. Furthermore, I felt that having learners click to advance during the interview segment would confuse them and make them think they have to respond to the interview questions when its only purpose is to create immersion in a cinematic way.
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I tried to break up large chunks of information into small, easily digestible portions or I made them into bullet lists.
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Finally, my design process:
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I created the branching scenario in Twine and tested it out on former colleagues in the hagwon industry.
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I built a text-based storyboard with a few visual mockups made in Adobe XD. I shared these with my professor and fellow students in the Interactive Learning Design (ILD) Lab at Boise State University. Their feedback was invaluable and gave me what was needed to make this project the best that it could be.
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I choose Vyond for this project so I could achieve a cinematic and immersive feeling with the module. Vyond was a perfect choice because of its camera angle features and robust library of animations. It also came with some stock music that I felt perfectly captured the mood of the opening video, both during the more negative parts with the sad music and at the end with the uplifting music when it highlights the positive aspects of teaching English in Korea. Having studied filmmaking for a semester in university, I feel I was able to give the opening video a cinematic touch.
This was my second project in Articulate Storyline and it was much more complex than my first. I felt the tool was very intuitive to learn more deeply and I was able to achieve everything I had planned with the project and I even made some discoveries along the way that made the project better than I had anticipated. Since the learning process was all about self-discovery, I created many workarounds using triggers when I did not know an easier feature existed. By the time I finished the project, I had learned the easier features and felt like a pro at creating triggers. Please see the multiple answer slides to see my complex use of triggers, layers, and states.
I also used Camtasia for some small edits to the videos as well as for making the captions. One key moment was after my Vyond subscription ran out and it was recommended I increase the length of some of the animations. With Camtasia, I was able to slow down the animations and add them back into Storyline without having to use Vyond. Camtasia is also the perfect choice for making high quality subtitles.
Since I was working on this project during a lab at Boise State, I was able to use an iterative approach during the development process. Every couple of weeks, my labmates and professor would critique the work I had done so I was able to make changes before proceeding. They gave great feedback overall but especially with regard to accessibility.
The big test, however, was seeing how it fares with the target audience. I distributed the module to friends and former colleagues in the ESL industry in Korea as well as users on Reddit, specifically r/teachinginkorea. The forum is full of potential teachers who would love to work in Korea. They search Reddit for the information that I have provided in the module. Because users are able to post their brutally opinions with anonymity, I think Reddit will be the perfect place to find my target learners and get helpful and constructive feedback.
Using the first two levels of Donald Kirkpatrick's Evaluation Model, I created a survey using Google Forms to evaluate how users reacted to the module and what they felt they learned. For the reaction level, I focused on whether or not the module held their attention, was relevant, made them feel confident heading into a real interview, and was satisfying. For the learning level, I aimed to see if learners felt like they understood and could apply the lessons taught, thereby fulfilling the learning objectives. Finally, I added some questions related to the visual design and user experience.
Overall, the response was positive! Many people expressed their gratitude for such a course and were regretful that it did not exist prior to teaching in Korea. The only negative was that the r/teachinginkorea subreddit denied my request to post it there because they thought I was trying to make money off of it. Luckily I found another subreddit (albeit much smaller) to post it on.
Here is a link to the survey. It takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete.
M Y P R O C E S S
Vetting Your Hagwon
Click the image to view the project.