BLOC Podcast

45: Book Release Announcement! Graphic Design for Course Creators with Dr. Dawn DiPeri

March 08, 2022 Episode 45
BLOC Podcast
45: Book Release Announcement! Graphic Design for Course Creators with Dr. Dawn DiPeri
Show Notes Transcript

In this episode, I'm bringing my friend, Dr. Dawn DiPeri back to chat about her new book, Graphic Design for Course Creators!

Her book is CC-BY, which means you can print, copy, paste, and re-use the content however you like as long as you give her credit. This also means that the web version is FREE!! You can find it here: https://graphicdesignforcoursecreators.pressbooks.com/front-matter/dedication/

Dr. Dawn DiPeri is a learning designer and graphic designer with over 15 years of experience working in the corporate sector in various capacities serving ad agencies, publishing firms, and as the owner of a certified minority women-owned business. Additionally, Dawn spent many years as a college professor teaching online, face to face, and in hybrid environments for both public and private universities. She has taught courses that range from new media literacies, educational technology, graphic design, animation, interpersonal communication, public speaking, and branding.  Dr. Dawn DiPeri has also published scholarly research on the topics of online pedagogy and also on the topics of gender and race disparity in the workforce. Dr. Dawn DiPeri has been lucky to work with some of best organizations and brands in the world including UNICEF, Harvard Graduate School of Education, United Way, Celgene, The Vanderbilt Museum, ONEHE, and many more. Additionally, Dr. Dawn DiPeri has also presented at conferences all over the world including the E-Learning Summit and the Q10 Conference.

To contact Dawn Lee DiPeri for speaking, training or design opportunities email dawn.diperi@eastendadvertising.com or find her on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawnleediperi

Dawn suggests finding an accountability partner if you want to write you own book, by joining communities or book coaching programs.

Connect with Heidi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiekirby/ or on my website: www.heidikirby.com

Thanks for listening to the BLOC!

Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiekirby/

Or check out what I'm working on over at https://www.getusefulstuff.com/

Heidi Kirby:

Hey friends, and welcome to the blog, the building learning and organizational culture podcast. I'm your host, Heidi Kirby. And on today's episode, my friend Dr. Dawn DiPeri is back. Why she back, because she just authored a graphic design book specifically for instructional designers. And not only that, but she's a wonderful human being. So the digital copy of this book is open source and free. We're going to talk all about it in this episode, you are not going to want to miss this. Hey, Dawn, how's it going? Great. How are you doing this lovely March day?

Dawn DiPeri:

I am doing fantastic. Thank you so much for having me today. So good to see you again.

Heidi Kirby:

And so you are here to talk about your awesome book about graphic design for instructional designers. But first, why don't you just give us a little background about you and where how you got to where you are today?

Dawn DiPeri:

Sure. So I'm Dawn DiPeri. And I, let's see my background. I've been working for a long time. So let's have a list. Think about how far back I want to go. But my subject matter expertise is actually in graphic design. My undergrad was in visual communications. And then I got I worked for a while I got a MFA in advertising. And that allowed me to teach at the college level. So I started teaching, graphic design, computer art, animation, interpersonal communications, I taught future teachers educational technology, I was doing a lot of teaching software. I taught in the community college, a public university and then an on a fully online program as well. And as I was doing that, I started to just really notice, like the experience of teaching and creating courses in the online environment wasn't as ideal as I would like. And I felt a little constrained by the LMS. And the opportunities that I was able to have when I was in the face to face or an hybrid environment. Because teaching came very naturally to me when I was in a face to face, but then online, I've kind of like struggled like how do we get these students to interact and to be motivated and to be engaged? Sure. So that really kind of piqued my interest into learning more about instructional design. And that's why I went back and got my doctorate. And my doctorates in a Doctorate of management in higher education, teaching and learning. And it's kind of it's like a part instructional design and part change management program. And I finished that in March of 2020, which was right when COVID happens. Yeah, so I've, you know, I've been doing graphic graphic design for a very long time, like 15 years, and then instructional design, like, I guess, like three or so for like formally as a title, but I was kind of doing it as a professor. Of course. Wow.

Heidi Kirby:

Yeah. Nice. So then what prompted you to want to write a book on graphic design for instructional designers?

Dawn DiPeri:

Yeah. So um, I guess, because I got very involved in instructional design communities, specifically on LinkedIn, and learning more and more about the industry. And I kept noticing that people were always struggling with graphic design in general, a lot of people who had instructional design jobs, but like, yeah, maybe didn't have the training or just had questions. So I was always just trying to like help. So it was offering to do like portfolio reviews or critique here and there. And I'm like, a lot of times people would ask the same questions again, and again, and I'm like, I'm sure there's a way that I can help. Because I was always able to use my graphic design skills, like in my instructional design roles. And that was, I think, that helped me to be an asset and where I worked, and it's like, one of my skill sets that I think was like, good. So that was one of the reasons is I saw a gap. And then the other is I'm really, really passionate about digital accessibility and inclusive classrooms. And I guess notice that the way courses and corporate training was designed was like, accessibility was always the afterthought, instead of designing at the forefront, and then I know that people were struggling with how do I design things that are beautiful, but also accessible and sort of feeling paralyzed that that idea because it's your well being those two are like challenging, so I tried to create had a book you kind of was supposed to be a handbook, but it's very big. Turned out to be big. Just like to guide people on how to create digitally accessible, visually appealing courses. So like kind of filling those two gaps.

Heidi Kirby:

Yeah, and I think that's one of my favorite things. As I've kind of been skimming the book and going through some of the different I was picking and choosing which chapters I wanted to do, of course, like color theory and stuff like that, right? The fun ones. But that's one of the things that I really appreciated about the book is that the amount of emphasis that you place on accessibility as a foundation, and then every how everything else kind of falls into line from there. So can you tell me a little bit about your like, process? You don't have to go into too much detail, but like, how did how does one write a book?

Dawn DiPeri:

Sure. So I I do love to write, and I've written a lot of blogs and academic articles, and a dissertation, of course, and writing is something I enjoy. I love writing courses, I just love to write. So that part was it hard, like the very initial stage. I wrote my first draft in six weeks. And it was like, easy for me. But part of the reason it was easy is because I had a buddy so like I like if you asked me what resource I would share, it would be accountability. I'm like kind of a social. I'm an introvert but I'm a social online social community. Sure, me to you know, to have that, like accountability buddy was so important. And we woke up together, my friend Heather and I at 6am every day or before that. And from six to 7am We wrote every single day for six weeks straight, even on weekends. And they were like sprints, we called it like the pajama brigade. We literally mess with her coffee. And we would go on like, you know, camera, but we would shut off the audio, we would type and then at the end, we would tell each other like how many words we wrote and stuff. Hey, and we would like read each other's manuscript and kinda like cheer each other on. That's so cool. So that was the first process their first step. Nice. That's

Heidi Kirby:

awesome. So at some point along the way, you decided to make the online version of this as part as open source right? In Creative Commons open educational resource. Tell me about that.

Dawn DiPeri:

Yeah, so I looked into the idea of publishing. With publishing companies, I thought about self publishing, I actually spoke to Tim Slade since he has self published and his book was such a success. And I've been following him for a while. And I've just been like, his cheerleader, because I just love that he's promoting visual communications. And that's why I asked him to write my foward because he has a good design aesthetic. And I love that, like, teaches in an approachable way. That's not like, too technical. And it's like, he's just such a great guy. So. But anyways, so I looked into all these different avenues and weighed the pros and cons. And then when I got my role at UNICEF, I had already been into so many revisions by then that was November. Because I had my first draft, then I hired an editor that I had BETA readers. So I had like six BETA readers, I did another revision self edits. And I hired a second editor to do a development, editing. So I did a lot of editing and changes. And that's what took me so long. But by the time November came around, and I started working for UNICEF, and the role that I'm in now, with part of my role is finding open educational resources across the globe to fill like these content gaps of our most underserved learners. Yeah, and I found that there was like, not a lot of open educational resources for like that were in different languages, like a lot of it was English or from the Global North. And so I wanted to create a resources with a cc v y license, which means that it can be translated, adapted and mixed and reshard. And I also wanted to be able to create different versions of it like PDF and XML and that it was accessible and resourceful for different settings, and that it wasn't going to be costly so that if it were to become a textbook, then my students who use it wouldn't have to pay for it. So really just became passionate about like, and that's in line with my mission, though, just like inclusive education and equity and education and I think Open Educational Resources promote equity.

Heidi Kirby:

Yeah, I love it. That's so awesome. Like what a great gift to share with people like you're just awesome. I love it. It's so great. And I love open source. textbooks to like I use one for the class that I'm teaching right now on podcasting. Like, there's so great because there's this component to it, where it's almost like a living document, right? Yeah. If there's links or something in it that become outdated, or there's examples that you use that become outdated, you can just update them, right? Like, it's, ya know, like a living, breathing thing. And you don't have to, like, go through the process of like doing another edition or, you know, like coming out with multiple different, you know, it's kind of like this living thing, which is really cool.

Dawn DiPeri:

Yeah, especially because technology changes quickly. And what if there's an error, which is what caught like, I had, like, so much paralysis, like, someone's gonna find an error, or someone's gonna call me, or something I create, it's not going to be perfectly accessible. And like, I almost didn't publish my book over this, like crazy impostor syndrome. But then like, feeling like, Okay, well, it's just like you said, this living, breathing thing, it's editable. And like, I can immediately change it, which like, makes me feel better, because it's like, we're not perfect. And I did that in my book. I'm like, it's a process, just like teaching online didn't come natural to me, like, accessibility doesn't come natural to anybody, you have to learn to revise, and you have to, like, you know, own up your errors and fix them. And just for the purpose of the greater good. Yeah,

Heidi Kirby:

absolutely. And, you know, number one, instructional designers of all people should understand that it's a learning process, and that mistakes will be made. But number two, like, part of me is like, well, beggars can't be choosers, and it's free. So what do you want? To hear?

Dawn DiPeri:

Nobody can tell me that I'm scamming anybody. I'm like, free stuff away. So that was another rationale for doing this too, because I didn't really create it to make money.

Heidi Kirby:

So what about other mediums? Like? Are you going to do a print version? Are you going to do an audiobook version?

Dawn DiPeri:

Yeah. Well, I need to get a better microphone. But I've been wanting to do that. And we're building a, like a pool house slash, I'm calling it also like a podcast studio, because eventually it will love more of that stuff. So then I'll have like a better setup. But yes, I do have a plan to make it the audio book for sure. Because I love that stuff. And it right now it is a print book, I think it's about 250 pages, I just have to, like do some formatting and double check it. But that should be out in the next couple of weeks. And then there's a PDF that's already linked into the web book. So it could be downloaded right from there. And then I haven't figured out how to embed an XML yet. I tried a couple of different ways, but I'm gonna troubleshoot that, but I put that if anybody would like an XML, that's the best format for screen readers, and I can send it. So I do have the file, I just have to figure sure disseminate it.

Heidi Kirby:

Nice. I love it. So what would you say is the most difficult thing that you ran into throughout this whole process?

Dawn DiPeri:

Goodness, um, I guess just myself, you know, like, you're you just get in the way of your own success, you feel like, like I mentioned, I had all this imposter syndrome, it's not going to be perfect. People will call me out on it. That was my fear. And I just had to get past it, it feels so incredibly vulnerable to like, put out a piece of work. But like, in my head, I keep saying like, I've always been an artist. So I just think to myself, like it's easy to criticize, but it's hard to create. And I've been creating for decades and like this something I've had to just kind of like get a cold, you know, what's the word like have a tough shoulder? What

Heidi Kirby:

do you word, that phrase? Yeah, I know what you mean. It's like, you just have to roll

Dawn DiPeri:

off your shoulder. Yeah. Like not let that bother you. Because sometimes you'll get trolls or haters or whatever. And I guess that was my biggest fear. It's silly. That was my biggest obstacle was that?

Heidi Kirby:

No, I think I don't think that's silly. I think that that's probably a lot of people's. I mean, I have like the plans for a book in this, like Sketchpad right here that I'm holding up and like, it's like, I have it all outlined. But for me, it's a combination of that same kind of fear, where I'm like, is this really different than what's already out there than what's already available? And then on top of that, like, you know, do I do I have time? Yeah, I have time to do it, too. You know, especially now that I'm currently writing my dissertation. And so one of the things is, I'm like, I'm not going to even begin to think about writing a book until that process is done.

Dawn DiPeri:

I hear you because it's the same thing with the podcast. I'm like, I'm not going to start that till I finish this book. And I also have to revise my courses. To launch, so whatever last week that you knew about, and then like last year, I just put too much on my plate. So my biggest accomplishment is that I wrote this thing in the middle of a pandemic with three kids like two jobs like, pandemic, so, yeah, you like you have to be careful. I feel like sometimes you say yes to things. And yeah, it's better to say no and do less and do them better. And I've been doing that I feel like I've been so much more successful feeling like, my work is so much more rewarding and fulfilling, because I'm able to focus so much of it. And on just like one or two things versus 5 million.

Heidi Kirby:

Yeah, I've had to do the same thing. And part of it is like, saying, like only saying yes to the things that I want to do, and not like refusing to feel obligated, right? Because a lot of times, you're like, Oh, well, you know, if I have this certain, like persona online, or if I, you know, do certain things and like I am obligated to help someone who asks for it, or I'm obligated to give my time and yeah, whatever way, but like, really, you're not. And you should do the things that mean the most to you. And what I found, like, I know, this is totally off topic at this point. But like, you know, when setting boundaries, like the people who really care about you, they may not be thrilled about it, but they are typically respectful, right? Yeah,

Dawn DiPeri:

no, it's true. And I think overall, the community has been so wonderful and like, grateful. Like I've hopped on so many phone calls with different people that like that have maybe like more junior in their career, and whether it's graphic design or instructional design, and like chatting with them about like my, you know, how I came about, like, where I started with my instructional design journey, like going from writer higher ed to Harvard to now UNICEF and like, how that happens. And like, I mean, but the biggest thing I say, and this is kind of off topic, but I've always been just driven by a mission. Like, yeah, that have felt like I value and then that has, like, led to my success. Like I haven't, like applied to roles that didn't feel in line with what I believe in. And then I feel like kind of the universe like kind of opens for Yeah, do that. Like, you know, I don't know if that makes sense. But no, I totally does. And then I know how your, your niche too. It's like, it's about like finding your niche. And they are specific things that you're good at. And like finding that instead of just like throwing out a big net into the instructional design area, and just saying like, what am I good at? What am I going to focus on? What do I love to do? And like, pursuing that, and then you're more successful? I think,

Heidi Kirby:

for sure. And I don't think that's necessarily off topic, right? Well, we're like, we're basically talking about like, how do you how does one decide to write a book, right? Like, it has to be aligned with your mission, like you have to enjoy writing, right? If you're someone who likes writing, I have an undergrad degree in English literary. And so I love writing. Yeah, right. So I know, people have been telling me that since then, like before, even instructional design. So it's, it's got to happen one day, right? Like, but you also have to, like find the things that make the most sense for you. And something that's like, pretty low stakes, easy to do is this podcast, right? Like, I spend a couple hours every other week recording and editing and putting it out there and like it's just the time is so beyond worth the the output of like me being able to learn from people but then to like, get to share that out with like everyone, right?

Dawn DiPeri:

Yeah, no, I admire that you do this. I think it's brave and amazing. And like, for me writing is easier than podcasting. Because I feel like it must feel vulnerable for you to be like, always on air and doing that too. So it's like a different I mean, being an introvert, you know, for

Heidi Kirby:

sure, well, and technically I'm also an introvert, but record like voice recording my voice is way easier for me. I really don't like doing like the video stuff. Yeah, me too. For me, like and I'll do it but I'm always like, and what's nice about like, zoom and like, you know, virtual video things is like people can't see how much I'm sweating. And I always like to say that they're like you're nervous before you like, say like do some sort of video appearance. I'm like, Oh my gosh, it's like the worst thing in the world. For me, much rather do the podcast recorded and like, there's like this, this thing that comes with knowing that like, if things go really south, I can edit it. Yeah, that's true. That helps.

Dawn DiPeri:

And like I feel like I can improv pretty well and wing it like today. I'm winging this right now without preparation, because I've been working all day. So like, you know, in some ways, I'm not afraid. But again, this the time, so like speaking about time, again, the accountability and like, we can always find time if we know what we want and what our goals are like you, it's like. The other thing that helps me is I did, I had a book coach. So Empire book coaching I used and they have an online class and an accountability. Like, every week, we had a call with the other authors, and there was an online community. And so that kept me on track. And she would check in, there's a lot of resources with her course, like, you know, PDFs and checklists. And, you know, a lot of the preliminary stuff you need to do before you write a book, like, who is your audience? Like, what's the purpose of this book? What kind of genre is it, like, if you just start writing, then you're gonna end up like just going all these rabbit holes. So like, it helps to have structure, I think it's like one of my biggest tips to like writing regularly will help you kind of like overcome your fear of writing, and you'll get better at it. But you definitely need the structure. Because otherwise, you're going to be like going off into tangents like so knowing like, what are going to you're going to be your chapters, what are you going to talk about, originally, my book was going to be way bigger, I was going to have a third section, all about like Myers principles. And I even got permission from him to like, use it and incorporate it into like the checklist and like compare and contrast it with, like visual design and digital accessibility and Myers principles. And I was like, in my book coaches like this is really overwhelming. And I was like, Yeah, you're right, because I want it to be approachable. Like I'm used to writing for academic audiences. And I'm like, I don't I even found myself going down like rabbit holes with the cognitive load theory. And I'm like, This is so dry. So I'm really I really tried to work hard at making it something bite size ish that people could this, like, peruse or flip through. I didn't want like this giant encyclopedia type of thing.

Heidi Kirby:

Yeah, I think that's one of the hardest things for me right now to do anything, like create any kind of content is that my default setting right now is academic writing, right? And I can't wait to be done with that face. So I can try to be more like conversational, because like if I, if I take my current writing style and try to write a book, oh, it would not go well, no one would want to read, like, I'm just in that academic.

Dawn DiPeri:

That third person and you feel like everyone else would be excited. That's what I was like doing at first. I'm like, What am I doing? Stop. Now I write like, blah. I've been writing blogs for this organization called West it's like women in the enterprise of science and technology. And that's kind of its its, its casual, but because it's like for more like academic or people who are involved in the sciences and engineering, it has that sort of like nerdy type of thing that I like, so good combination. And I get to like, talk to different accomplished academics and professionals. So I do that on the side. And I used to write blogs for brighter higher ed as well for them, like Sure. So I'm like, I'll do a little bit of that. So I can kind of keep like casual writing in there. But I actually miss like research and writing academically, but I don't I feel like I don't have time right now. And again, if I just make the time to do like research and publications and journals again, I haven't done that for like a year. I want to get back to that.

Heidi Kirby:

You can do like some research slash Myers principles. Yeah. Something hack it book. Like, I'm like one of those horrible people. I say horrible. That's not very nice. But like, that's, that was my honest thought. Like when people hit when you have a first child and someone asks you when they're a baby, when you're having your second one and you're like, hold on a minute, right? That's what I'm doing right now with you and your books.

Dawn DiPeri:

It's okay, I already want to write another one. But my next, my next big bucket list thing is a TED talk. So I said book and then that

Heidi Kirby:

night, I you know what I've decided and like I just like, it reminds me of the office. I don't know if you're an office fan. But there's a scene where Michael Scott is like yelling, I declare bankruptcy in there. Like that's not how that works. I'm like, I want to be a keynote speaker. How do I do that? I would love to do something like that like a TED talk or you know, like, be like a keynote speaker at something cool and you know, just talk about either my research or you know, just my experience or whatever, whatever. Whatever speakers talking about.

Dawn DiPeri:

You can do that now. You've been presenting at conferences has been had so much fun. So you're gonna be doing that.

Heidi Kirby:

Bankruptcy. Awesome. So what would you say has been like the, either your favorite part of the book or your favorite part of the process, like, what sticks out to you is like the oh my gosh, I love this.

Dawn DiPeri:

I love like the research stage. So like, anytime you write something, you know, like, the literature review is like my favorite, like, I love this disappearing down, like research rabbit holes forever and ever. So like, I just feel like, I can't get enough knowledge. I can't learn enough. I'm like insatiable. So at that moment, just learning more and more. I just sometimes have to self edit, like, Okay, I need to stop here. That's yeah, just just to be like, This is enough for a book. I know, there's more stuff out or like a new thing will come out. And I'm like, should I include it? Or like, oh, this software just came up with this update? That's a poor accessibility or design or whatever? Should I add that? And I'm like, Okay, I have to stop somewhere. And that was the other reason why it took me so long is because I kept like, sort of wrestling with that, like, should I include this way to do it? Should I include that way to do it? This resource? What if this changes? Because it is tech in it? It's so like, comic? Yeah. It feels to produce a book in a technology environment where like, tech just go so fast.

Heidi Kirby:

You're like, by the time this hits the Yeah. It might already be outdated.

Dawn DiPeri:

I know. Yeah. And then it's like, if you go with a regular publisher, it takes even longer. So that was like other reason for not doing that. Because I didn't want to have to wait like a year and a half or two years later.

Heidi Kirby:

Sure. That makes total sense. All right. So you kind of already answered my last question, but I want to revisit it a little bit. So you said that your resource that you would suggest for other people who are thinking about writing a book would be an accountability partner. But how do you go about finding one,

Dawn DiPeri:

join that community. So like, there's lots of online book communities that I've seen other companies and organizations that do this? Find it like, I don't know, whether it's on LinkedIn, or Facebook, or you can actually pay to join communities and courses, you can find a friend, you know, someone that you just know, that you just show up for, like, if you have, I don't know, I'm a runner. So like, I have like friends that I'll say, like, every Wednesday, we're gonna go for this three mile run, and then like we're accountable to each other, for example. And then the second thing is to have a support system. Like my kids and my husband have seen how many weekends and how many evenings just like with my dissertation, I have no place to work. I haven't, like socialize nearly as much. But it worked out that I wrote a book in the pandemic, because who was really socializing anyway, so yeah, and I've got a whole body worked out.

Heidi Kirby:

Nice. Awesome. Well, thank you, Don, for joining me, we will definitely be sharing the link to the book in the show notes. And I'm so excited to have everyone have way better graphic design skills and the entire instructional design field after this.

Dawn DiPeri:

Thank you, and I'll share with you the link for the printed version too, if anybody actually wants a physical copy. Great.

Heidi Kirby:

Okay, awesome. Thank you. Thanks, Heidi. Thanks again for joining me on the fly. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with friends and review us on your favorite podcast platform. I hope you'll tune in again soon.