Nora L Cloonan
an Instructional Design company by
The Power of Earth
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In the fall of 2009, my husband was offered a job in Portland, Oregon. After much deliberation, we decided he would move without me for a time to test the waters. Finally, in the summer of 2010, I left my job at UPS, and moved out to join him. We loved Portland and were determined to stay west of the Rockies. However, life doesn't always go the way you plan it! Almost one year exactly after I got there, my husband was laid off due to his company being acquired. Our lease was up in three weeks! We threw caution to the wind, put all our stuff in storage, purchased an RV and toured the west while he looked for a new job. As luck would have it, he found a job (much too soon for my taste) and we landed right back in Atlanta. I made this time in our lives the topic of one of my school projects entitled "The Ramble". It can be found under the Themes & Artifacts section of this website. It was incredibly enjoyable to see the wonders of the United States and learn the history behind their natural formations and preservation. We barely got started before it was time to stop and return to reality. We have a huge list of places we intend to return to. I encourage everyone to take advantage of a chance to do something like this if it ever comes your way!
Work History Continued
Glacier National Park, Montana
Professional Goals
I performed a lot of training during my time in retail management. I was even trained as a "train the trainer". I experienced many initiatives being rolled out either with so much support that there was no way to ignore them or practically no support at all. It is disheartening to be told you need to do something a new way when the only instructions you receive may be a single piece of paper. I also experienced compliance training that insulted the intelligence of most of my associates yet we were forced to take valuable time away from other duties to complete it regularly. At UPS, I wrote the documentation meant to train my successor. Any changes in the system would need to be laboriously inserted into a lengthy Word-based document. I hope for a better way! My training as an Instructional Designer has led me to that better way. Sometimes face-to-face instruction is still appropriate. It can be augmented with technological materials that help with retention. Many times the cost of providing face-to-face instruction across an organization is prohibitive and e learning becomes a viable alternative.
Arches National Park, Utah
About Me
Punchbowl Falls, Oregon
I attended college at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio where I studied Biology. Xavier, being a liberal arts college also required I undertake a Core Curriculum in addition to my major field of study. I was required to take a number of credit hours in Philosophy, Theology, Humanities, Foreign Language, and Social Science coursework. I had the privilege to take classes in literature, criminal justice, history, scripture, Spanish, and other similarly non-biology subjects while I was earning my degree. I value the diversity of this education for its exposure to other topics and ideas, thoughts and thought processes. Go Muskies!
I completed my MEd in Instructional Design and Development in 2016 from the University of Georgia. This is my calling. All of my strengths, talents and things I love to do come together in Instructional Design.
Education
I've worked at many different types of jobs over the years and enjoyed most of them. The thread that runs through them all is customer service - whether internal or external. After college, I began working part-time retail. I sold coffee and tea, bath products in gift baskets, housewares and decorative items. This later opportunity turned into my first management position with a mall-based retail outfit called Kirkland's. I simultaneously bought into a coffee shop of my own. Being a business owner was rewarding and extremely scary! I also spent a short time with a floral wholesale supplier.
At this point I landed with Office Depot. It was Office Depot who eventually moved me from Fort Wayne to Indianapolis, Indiana. They continued to be very generous with me as I moved two more times by choice: to Cincinnati, Ohio to marry my husband and then here to Atlanta when his company transferred us. In all I worked in five stores for them. I was chosen to open a store here in Georgia, doing the mass hire, fixturing, and inventory set up from the ground up. After seven years, the heavy lifting and long days had taken their toll, so I left Office Depot. I began a 4 1/2 year stint with UPS in the Transportation Headquarters. I worked as the system administrator for their routing and rating software. The most interesting part of my work there was the implementation our team did of the new Oracle software system.
Work History
