Meet a Keypather: Tran Nguyen

What is your role at Keypath, and what does a day in the life of you here at work look like?

I am a Lead Instructional Designer specialising in processes with certain university partners and best-practice approaches to course development. On any given day, I am building content for one of our many programs, coordinating projects for our team and preparing informative materials for our instructional designers and broader team. It’s a great blend of current and future thinking.  

What is the most important skill someone in your job needs?

Empathy is a skill that will not only set you apart but also help you succeed in a Lead role. Leads are expected to maintain effective communication channels with the internal team, other departments such as marketing and student support, university partner stakeholders and most importantly the students who will be taking the courses we are designing. Because of this, you are constantly switching between roles and hats. 

Empathy allows you to step into the shoes of your colleagues and work collaboratively in an effective way. Empathy reminds you that your end-users are real people, looking to learn in a succinct, memorable and engaging way. Empathy is a skill that won’t become outdated. No matter what happens with technology, empathy will be relevant and advantageous, in my opinion.

Out of Keypath’s four core values, which resonates with you most and why? (be inventive, collaborate, lifelong learner, committed)

While all of Keypath’s values are highly relatable, in course design, I believe striving to be a lifelong learner resonates the most. Lifelong learning for me contributes to a growth mindset and leads to increased resilience and versatility. As a lifelong learner, you leave your door open to new ideas and therefore tend to perceive obstacles as opportunities. The glass is always half full ?.

How has Keypath aided your professional development or growth as a person?

Keypath continues to nurture professional development through its leadership team. Our managers are amazing at identifying opportunities for each member to further themselves, whether it be a conference presentation or a short course. A year ago, I would have avoided tackling the task of assessment design at all costs; now, I am the one running the assessment workshops for our academics and enjoying it!  

How does your role help our students succeed?

Online students should thank the team of instructional designers who have ensured that their studies do not revolve around a textbook and lecture slides! Our team are constantly finding ways to improve content presentation and learning strategies. This may be through gamification (my long-term goal is to create a Mario-esque game for a course), narrative or basic content interactivity. 

Through applying these innovative approaches to course development, we hope to build a learning experience that students look forward to diving into and also motivates them to take action in their own lives. And before they know it, the time has flown by, and they’ve graduated!  

What’s your favourite thing about working at Keypath?

What really sets Keypath apart is a consistent culture of collaboration and optimism. I feel invigorated by my colleagues and empowered to achieve goals not possible to do alone. We don’t let a day go by without sharing cat photos, gifs and a meme or two.