Sam King
Instructional Designer & Content Developer
Hey! I'm Sam, and I design and create awesome content 🔥My work ranges from e-learning to marketing, social media to technical documentation, and other exciting stuff in between.I specialize in copywriting and videos and have a strong eye for visual design and user engagement. I have 10+ years of experience ranging across SaaS, e-commerce, and marketing agencies.Learn more about me and check out some of my work below!
My Work
Thanks for your interest in my work! I've included some samples of recent projects I've designed and developed below. If there's something you're curious about that you're not seeing, just let me know!
e-Learning Development
BGC Canada
As Canada's largest dedicated child- and youth-serving organization, BGC clubs help kids and teens develop the skills they need to succeed. The MyBGC online learning platform is a critical part of this work, providing comprehensive training to staff and volunteers, as well as an accessible and safe educational platform for youth.I designed and developed multiple e-Learning programs utilizing the ADDIE method and employing best practices for both andragogy and pedagogy, adjusting voice, tone, and content based on whether the learning audience was intended for youth or adult audiences.
Click here to view excerpts from MyBGC.
ARTICULATE 360 COURSES
VARIOUS
As an instructional designer, I've had the opportunity to develop content in multiple authoring tools, including Articulate Storyline and Articulate Rise (plus a variety of other authoring tools, including those built into LMS systems, that generally provide similar functionality).In this select demo module built in Articulate Rise, I paid particular attention to elements of Keller's ARCS Model and Knowles' 4 Principles by looking for ways to establish a strong thread of relevance, connecting the content to the learner's "why" and emphasizing the benefits of putting their new knowledge into practice.
Click here to view a sample module in Articulate Rise.
LMS IMPLEMENTATION
VARIOUS, TRAINUAL
At Bright Light Content, I provided strategic direction and recommendations for implementation of various LMS depending on the specific needs of individual clients. Part of this work included deep-dive research and cross-comparison of 100+ different systems. I'm confidently able to pick up most systems and begin working with them. I have experience managing and owning overall LMS and training program organization, including reporting on metrics and gap analysis.
PROMOTIONAL VIDEO
PURPLE OTTER
The Purple Otter team needed a concise, compelling introduction to their core services to be played at a conference to attract new clientele. The key challenge was pairing an eye-catching visual appeal with a very concise and direct message to ensure the audience was able to recognize themselves as someone who could specifically benefit from Purple Otter's services.Created using Adobe Premiere Pro. I wrote the script and storyboard based off a discovery discussion with the client. I based the visual design on their website and provided guidelines, bringing their brand to life.
TRAILER VIDEO
MYBGC
This video was created to pair with the Lead Up e-Learning program I designed and developed for the MyBGC platform. The goal was to provide an overview of the key topics that learners could expect to cover in the program, generating an interesting "hook" to inspire youth to begin the program.Created in Adobe Premiere Pro, with my audio voice over recorded and edited in Audition.
TUTORIAL VIDEO
ALIDA
This screencast video is one of many created during my time as Video Documentation Specialist at Alida. These videos covered a variety of specific topics to provide a visual aid for clients to quickly get up and running with the core workflows of the platform. They're relatively swift-paced and concise, and cover a variety of topics at a high level, focusing on the "what's possible" and "why."Created using Camtasia.
DEMO VIDEO
NeonMob
NeonMob was encountering a challenge in acquiring new users and gaining traction with funding initiatives. I designed this video to be featured on both the NeonMob homepage as well as included in social media and crowdfunding promotion.It received glowing feedback from longtime users of the platform who felt that it featured their art in a unique way while explaining the core features of the platform in a concise timeframe.Created using Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects and OBS.
TRAINING FACILITATION
Throughout my various roles, I've had many opportunities to regularly design and develop effective training presentations and slide decks (often facilitating 3 or more presentations per week!)Public speaking, visual design, and instructional design best practices all need to be combined to capture your audience's attention and ensure retention.I've also designed branded slide deck templates using Canva, PowerPoint, and Google Sheets.
DOCUMENT DESIGN
From internal documentation to proposals and strategic playbooks, I employ my background in professional writing and copy editing to design documents that are readable, organized, and visually appealing.I'm confident using a variety of tools including Canva, Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Microsoft Suite, Google Docs, and more.Click here for samples from a submitted proposal.
WEB COPY AND BLOGS
Writing well means being able to adapt your voice and tone to your audience. I've written technical documentation for lawyers, approachable educational materials for teens, and catchy copy for social media.
Click here to read a sample blog post.
About Me
My name is Sam (she/they), and I live in sunny, snowy Edmonton with my wife and three cats. Prior to moving here, I lived in BC for over a decade and attended the University of Victoria, where I studied professional writing and political science. Recently, I also studied e-Learning and instructional design theory as part of UVic's Certificate in Adult & Continuing Education program.In my spare time, I love to get creative with art—in particular, designing stickers, cards, and stationery to send to my unsuspecting friends and family. I'm also into reading and video games, with a soft spot for fantasy and happy endings.
Philosophy
Being an instructional designer and content developer go hand in hand. A lot of what we know about andragogy and the science of learning can be applied to creating marketing and communications to design content that's fresh, compelling, and effective.On the flip side, writing with a strong brand voice, designing and creating professional-looking videos, and enhancing learning experiences with elegant and branded visuals can really elevate your e-learning to a new level.Bringing it all together is what I do! ✨ Let's chat!
What I Do
✔️ Instructional Design
✔️ e-Learning Development
✔️ Training Facilitation
✔️ Needs Assessment
✔️ Video Editing
✔️ Graphic Design
✔️ Copywriting & Editing
✔️ Technical Writing
✔️ Brand Strategy
✔️ Social Media Management
✔️ SEO Optimization
✔️ Project Management (Agile)
What I Use
✔️ Authoring Tools
✔️ Articulate 360 (Rise, Storyline)
✔️ Adobe Captivate
✔️ Learning Management Systems
✔️ Adobe Creative Cloud
✔️ Adobe Premiere Pro
✔️ Adobe After Effects
✔️ Adobe Illustrator
✔️ Adobe Photoshop
✔️ Camtasia / OBS
✔️ Asana / Trello
✔️ Canva
Experience
Senior Instructional & Content Designer
Bright Light Content (March to October 2024)
Lead instructional designer and content developer at a digital marketing agency specializing in small business and nonprofits.Responsibilities in my role included:➜ Developing multiple e-learning programs and activities for clients such as BGC Canada (formerly Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada) as part of their MyBGC (youth-oriented) and BGCU (staff training) online learning platforms.➜ Managing LMS implementation and internal staff training content for clients.➜ Designing and creating multimedia and marketing content including: promotional and trailer videos, social media reels, SEO-driven web copy, brand strategy, newsletters, and blog posts; as well as graphic design for social media, proposal documents, internal templates, slide decks, and landing pages.➜ Establishing internal e-learning and instructional design strategy, including a deep dive analysis of 100+ learning management systems, internal templates and project guidelines based on ADDIE & SAM best practices, and LMS selection.
Video Documentation Specialist
Alida (2022–2023)
E-learning content designer for a multi-product CXM and survey platform. Designed and created 50+ product training videos for over 500+ employees and 175+ million users serving Fortune 500 companies.
Manager & Team Lead, Customer Support
Clio (2018-2022)
Coach & trainer at Clio, a hypergrowth global leader in legal technology. Led 8 junior managers & 60+ contact center specialists to support 150,000+ customers with over US$100 million ARR. Scaled the team by 60+ hires in 2021 to reach 40% YoY growth, and was responsible for analyzing and tracking departmental metrics. Designed launch plans and training content for self-paced learning & instructor-led onboarding, resulting in a positive ROI in industry-leading CSAT scores and implementation of a revenue-generating cross-sell program.
Application Support Analyst
Eventbase (2018)
Client and staff training specialist and knowledge base manager for a leading event app platform. Provided remote support and onsite training for global conferences.
Team Lead, Customer Support
AbeBooks, an Amazon Company (2013–2018)
Lead onboarding trainer. Developed a scalable agent onboarding and QA program, resulting in onboarding time-to-proficiency improvement of over 50% and 40% YoY increase in CES metrics. Facilitated train-the-trainer sessions to upskill new managers and trainers across four global locations and onboarded over 30 new hires.
Kristy Guthrie
Founder & Principal Strategist @ Bright Light
"Sam is a strong and intuitive communicator. She exceeded my expectations in developing a variety of creative deliverables, from eLearning course modules to presentation decks to client video projects. Sam works well with little direction and - bonus! - is a pleasure to spend time with. "
Julia Nathanson
Principal Solution Engineer & Team Lead @ Alida
"l worked closely with Sam in support of her incredible work producing eLearning videos for the Alida platform. They quickly delivered high quality videos covering simple to advanced platform capabilities in a consistent, easy-to-understand way. Sam was always an absolute pleasure to work with and struck the perfect balance between self-led learning and engaging other SMEs for help or validation. Any organization would be lucky to have Sam on their team."
Jennifer Li
Instructional Designer @ Alida
"I've had the pleasure of knowing Sam for almost 2 years at Alida, collaborating with her on video content development for product training on multiple projects. She is a great listener, talented at working with SMEs from other departments, and a very creative developer. I was impressed with her ability to clearly understand the business vision and then come up with innovate ways of presenting training content in an engaging way. Sam would be a true asset for any position requiring dedication and ingenuity and comes with my heartfelt recommendation."
David Perry
Director, Customer Implementation & Success
"Sam was the first leadership hire I sourced outside of [Clio's] internal talent pool - and it was one of the best career decisions I have made. As a leader, we are made better by the people around us - Sam is the living embodiment of this statement in my early career. She brought a culture of analysis and detail orientation to the leadership table that we lacked before her arrival.Sam never came to me with a problem without offering some kind of solution or a set of follow-up questions that would get us started towards a solution. She was not only an outstanding leader but a thorough contributor.If given the opportunity, I would hire Sam again in a hearbeat - and I hope I am presented with such an opportunity again!"
David Lewis
Senior Technical Writer @ Alida
"Sam is a highly skilled video specialist who I really enjoyed working with. She worked on our documentation team to write, narrate, and produce explanatory videos to supplement and enhance the written documentation on key features, and to support visual learners. Sam has an amazing ability to capture the key points about complex features and concepts and present them in an engaging and understandable way."
Wow!
Please look at my cat.
Sometimes we just need a little break 💕 Enjoy a moment with Guen before taking a look at the rest of my portfolio.
Project Sample
Web Copy
The secret to (actually effective) interactive e-learning
Designing interactive e-learning content seems pretty straightforward—so why does so much of it totally miss the mark? Here's how to do it right.
As a learning or training professional, you've heard it time and time again: it's super important to make your e-learning content interactive.Sure, you've got this. You've added a few click-to-reveal elements in your course. There's a bit of animation, and maybe some confetti. Great! Pat yourself on the back. Your work here is done! 🎉… right?
Let's do better than that.
Chances are that you've experienced poorly designed "interactivity" on the learner side of things. You remember, right? That one e-learning module where you had to read page after page after page of information, clicking over and over again to advance to the next screen or image or individual answer without it actually… doing anything? Like, ever?It never asks you a question. You're never required to think, or solve a problem.Click, click, click.Maybe you could set up one of those dunking birds on your keyboard to do this for you.Click, click, click.Should you get bubble tea later today? It's only been three times this week…Click, click, click.Why are people mad at Taylor Swift this time?Click, click, click.… and so on. Nothing is learned, nothing is enhanced, and nothing is gained (except maybe a pervasive sleepiness and a craving for boba).
Make it purposeful.
The secret to making your interactivity effective—and the reason why a lot of attempts fall flat on their face—is that it needs to be implemented with intention and purpose.When they're done right, interactive elements can add a huge boost to a lot of key learning elements:+ Learner engagement: If learners know they'll be quizzed on the content or presented with a scenario or puzzle to solve, they'll focus more on the material and less on dinner plans.+ A sense of accomplishment: Your learners get a boost of confidence and a sense that the training has been valuable (!!) when they can actively put their new knowledge or skills into action.+ Improved retention: Remember all your instructional design theory and adult learning best practices that point out that adults learn better when they're motivated, challenged, involved, find the content relevant, and are able to solve problems using their acquired skills? Yeah, that.Really great interactive elements can even provide a safe environment for learners to be able to experience firsthand the outcomes and emotions of making a wrong decision—without having to actually live out the consequences of that in the real world.
Focus on the results.
I'll tell you a secret: not all e-learning content actually needs to be interactive (gasp!)If you're creating a short how-to video helping users navigate a fairly straightforward piece of software, or sharing information about company initiatives that are need-to-know but not need-to-really-do-anything-about, then trying to jam in interactivity may not be worth the effort.Before you wrack your brain trying to come up with creative and purposeful interactive elements, think to yourself:+ What exactly is the learning outcome? Do you have a firm understanding of what your learners need to be able to know or do, and are you able to clearly define how your interactive elements are helping them reach those goals?+ Is this doing anything, or just ticking a box? Poorly implemented design elements like unnecessary clicks or pointless sound effects can actually harm the learner experience rather than enhance it. The same goes for those knowledge checks with one right answer and three that are so wildly incorrect that it's almost insulting. If they don't have a purpose, they need to go.+ Are there other opportunities for learners to practice their skills? If it's a blended training solution or a flipped classroom situation, is your e-learning course actually the best place for practice?+ What's the project's scope, capacity, and impact? While you may come up with an absolutely breathtakingly creative and interactive idea involving elaborate maps and a treasure hunt through forgotten ruins to unlock the learner's Super Sales Potential… keep in mind that your creativity may need to be reined in a little if you have two weeks to finish five modules (and you're not even sure if your authoring tool can customize title screens…)Remember: matching your solution to your learner's needs is a key facet of designing intentionally and purposefully. You don't want your e-learning to be devoid of interactivity where it would be useful, but you also don't want to implement unnecessary interactivity with no value.
Get creative!
There are countless ways to elevate your e-learning content with thoughtful interactive elements. Scenario-based decision-making, gamification, storytelling, thought-provoking knowledge checks, and opportunities for practice and feedback can all be absolute game-changers when it comes to the success of your course. But just like all of us, they work best when they know what their purpose is.