Dan Lance
Content Writing and Design
I'm Dan, a Content Writer/Designer with a background in ed-tech and game development.
About
I'm an instructional designer with 8+ years of experience creating multimedia eLearning and interactive curriculum. At RoboKind, I served as a senior content developer and product owner for internal authoring tools, building self‑paced courses, partnering with SMEs and leadership, and delivering fast‑turnaround learning solutions - including an 11‑lesson pilot course completed in two weeks.My background includes developing using ADDIE and Backwards Design, deploying SCORM content, integrating narrative design and game-based elements, and documenting processes that support onboarding and long-term content management. I excel at collaborating across developer, marketing, and professional learning teams to create engaging, standards-aligned materials.I'm experienced with Adobe Creative Suite, Affinity, Canva, Rise360, and more. I pick up new software easily thanks to my strong technical literacy and background with comparable tools.Overall, I bring a strong skillset from technical writing, multimedia production, and cross-functional collaboration that enhances teams to build strong, engaging, learner-focused training experiences.
Portfolio
robots4autism
Self-Paced Professional Development Course Collateral
Company: RoboKind
Platform: Live and Virtual Instructor-Led Training Sessions
Tools: Canva, Adobe Creative SuiteFor the live sessions, I worked with the SMEs who would be facilitating the courses to develop some of the decks and collateral they would use.The SMEs acted as both stakeholder and collaborator on the project, While I was the design consultant, building media and occasionally mentoring them on design principles while ensuring visual fidelity across all three presentation decks.
robots4autism
Self-Paced Professional Development Courses & PD Design
Company: RoboKind
Platform: Moodle LMS
Tools: Rise360I collaborated with a professional development subject matter expert to determine their needs and visual requirements. I then used the live session collateral we created as a reference for building the three sessions.Each eLearning module covered the core material of each live session (beginning-of-year, middle-of-year, and end-of-year sessions) while using the interactive format to enhance engagement.Rise360 allowed me to easily collaborate with the SME and other stakeholders through its review functionality and collaborative iteration. Once complete, I deployed the SCORM modules to the learning management system, complete with course descriptions and lesson gating. I then worked ensure learner profiles and accounts were properly registered for course access.
robots4autism
Curriculum Lessons
Company: RoboKind
Platform: Physical Robot & Tablet, Facilitator-Led Instruction
Tools: Internal, Adobe Creative SuiteAs part of the Content Team, I worked as part of a cross-functional team of SMEs, software developers, writers, artists, and mechanical engineers to develop an interactive, instructor-led lessons taught by a robotic facilitator with animations and AI-powered text-to-speech software. We expanded the initial suite of lessons into a full curriculum consisting of over 140 lessons covering a wide range of topics.My role was taking initial outlines from SMEs and developing them into multimedia lessons with branching paths, student-robot interaction, and quizzes. This required refining dialogue, testing pathing, and other tweaks to ensure the product met the needs of its intended audience. I also developed two digital games for the lessons, designed to highlight and develop turn-taking skills.While working on this product, I onboarded and mentored new hires to acquaint them with internal tools and standard operating practices. Eventually, I wrote training guidelines for internal and external use. I was also primary stakeholder for the development of new internal tools, providing software teams with needs analysis, wireframes, and more.
robots4STEM
Lessons
Company: RoboKind
Platform: Moodle LMS, IOMAD LMS
Tools: MS PowerPoint, iSpring Suite, Unity, Scratch, Adobe Creative Suite, OBSrobots4STEM was a massive, interactive curriculum that attempted to teach core programming concepts at an early age using a combination of interactive storytelling mechanics, traditional lectures, videos, quizzes, and hands-on learning.I managed parts of the curriculum design and assisted in developing self-paced content. We worked with SMEs to ensure the lessons aligned with academic standards across multiple states. We built and deployed a scaffolded, self-paced learning course that guided learners through several interactive projects meant to enhance learning.I deployed SCORM courses onto a modified LMS platform where I managed the curriculum by adding lesson descriptions and establishing learning gates to ensure knowledge scaffolding and successful course progress.We actually had an issue with the initial pilot program where students were disengaging with the course only after a few lessons. It was after we discovered the actual issue, that the students were hopping around resulting in them getting confused and bored, that I implemented learning gates. These prevented them from advancing until they passed the previous lesson.
STEM Crash Course
Company: RoboKind (on behalf of client)
Platform: Moodle LMS
Tools: iSpring Suite, Scratch, Unity, Adobe Creative SuiteAfter production of robots4STEM course 2 ended, I was tasked with taking course 1 and recreating it as a 1-week bootcamp for a specific client. I managed to condense the 10-lesson course into a 5-day curriculum in a short turnaround.
RoboKind Phonics
Lessons
Company: RoboKind
Platform: Physical Robot & Tablet, Facilitator-Led Instruction
Tools: Internal, Canva, IllustratorRoboKind Phonics is a play-based phonics program that utilizes RoboKind’s humanoid robot to aid with reinforcement.I worked to build an 11-lesson pilot program within a 2-week timeframe. I worked with the development team to build a new content creation tool that aligned with the project's needs. After the pilot, we began production on a full, 4-unit curriculum within a 2-month period.While I built lessons, I was also part of a backup team working to cover the Creative Director during a leave of absence. Tasks included modifying draft lesson decks into finalized versions and creating image packs for the robot.
RoboKind Blog Article
Why We Choose Identity-First Language
Company: RoboKind
Platform: Blog Post
Tools: WordAs part of the upcoming Autism Acceptance Month in April, I was asked to write a blog post and contribute to several other articles. The article for the blog was about the company's recent switch from person-first (person with autism) to identity-first (autistic person) language. The switch was prompted by an internal push from me and a few others to change the company's messaging and move away from support of groups the autistic community finds questionable.I wrote and submitted the article for an April 1 launch. The section What is the difference between identity- and person-first language? was later added by someone else.LINK TO ARTICLE
Autism Messaging Training
Internal Onboarding
Company: RoboKind
Platform: Virtual Instructor-Led Training
Tools: MS Word, MS PowerPointI partnered with the HR department to develop a training presentation about aligning the company's messaging and stance surrounding autism and the autism community.The idea came after I pushed back against the company's then-stance on Autism Speaks and how some people at the company spoke about the topic of autism. I felt the company should distance itself from such a controversial organization and its parent-first stance on autistic individuals. After some discussion with the CEO and HR, all involved agreed and we began working on materials for an all-hands meeting to align the company behind a more inclusive message.While I did not craft the final deck for what eventually became a new part of mandatory onboarding, the presentation I made was the bedrock for what became the onboarding deck.