Dan Lance
Content Writing and Design
I'm Dan, a Content Writer/Designer with a background in ed-tech and game development.
About
I am a content writer/designer for learning materials with nearly 8 years of experience. Over the years I've done things including instructional design, product ownership, research/information organization, graphic design, technical writing, project management, and being a consultant on tool design and user needs. My background as a generalist allows me to be a liaison for teams of varying technical expertise, breaking down concepts into digestible chunks, or expanding upon team needs and feedback within a more developer-oriented context.
Portfolio
robots4autism
Self-Paced Professional Development Courses & PD Design
Company: RoboKind
Platform: LMS
Tools: Rise360On this project, I collaborated with a professional development subject matter expert to determine their needs and how these courses needed to appear. I then used the live session collateral we created as a reference for building the three sessions.Each covered the core material of each live session (beginning, middle, and end-of-year sessions) while using the interactive, self-paced format to enhance engagement.Rise360 allowed me to easily collaborate with the subject matter expert through its review functionality and collaborative iteration.
robots4autism
Curriculum Lessons
Company: RoboKind
Platform: Physical Robot & Tablet
Tools: InternalThe content team collaborated with subject matter experts to develop course scripts which we then converted into interactive lessons that are performed by a robot.During this project, I led the push for several improvements to internal content tools and multiple full redesigns. I also developed two digital games for the lessons, designed to highlight and develop turn-taking skills.There isn't a good way for me to showcase the work I did on this project due to the unique nature of the lesson format. It is a multimedia presentation that combines a physical robot, tablets, video, graphics, and web formatting.
robots4STEM
Lessons
Company: RoboKind
Platform: Physical Robot & Tablet
Tools: InternalThis was a 2-part STEM curriculum that sought to teach programming concepts at an early age using the visual programming language Scratch.We combined art, narrative, engineering, and programming disciplines to create a full Phase 1 curriculum within a 3-month timeframe. We then created the Phase 2 curriculum that scaffolded from concepts learned in Phase 1.After building the lessons, I deployed the course to an LMS, wrote the descriptions, and established learning gates to ensure students grasped key concepts before progressing.
RoboKind Phonics
Lessons
Company: RoboKind
Platform: Physical Robot & Tablet
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 tasks assigned to us by the Creative Director. 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