Hi, I'm Cindy Mui Perez
I'm a Senior Instructional Designer from San Diego, California.​
​
I have 8 years of experience designing online courses in higher education and public, non-profit settings. My biggest passion is designing equitable learning experiences, particularly for first-generation and underrepresented students.
When I'm not designing courses, you can find me stargazing, reading a good book, or hanging out with my two cats, Sushi and Rory.
My journey into Instructional Design
I began my undergraduate studies at the University of California, San Diego. As a first-generation college student, I had no idea what it meant to be attending a research institution. I floundered for those first few years, with none of the knowledge of what I was supposed to be doing (Four year plan? What's that?). As a practitioner, I now know as "assumed knowledge".
​
As an upperclassman, I worked in various Cognitive Science research labs, studying how learners build and conceive of knowledge through the minuatae of working memory and attention. At the same time, I worked a full-time job as an EdTech Support specialist on campus to support myself. In this position, I assisted instructors and faculty with technology-related questions.
​
As I helped instructors answer the how question (How do I set this up? What technology can do this specific thing?), I found myself reaching for the why questions. Why does a specific technology help my students learn? Why should I pick one teaching approach over another? This led me to Instructional Design, a field I had no conception of until a former colleague encouraged me to apply for a junior Instructional Design position. ​
The path to Instructional Design is a circuitous one. My work is grounded in my diverse experience in learning theory, user design principles, and the scholarship of teaching
and learning.
In 2019, I switched from my Educational Technology support position to a Junior Instructional Design position at my university's Teaching and Learning Commons. As overwhelmed as I felt in this new role, I quickly learned that my prior experiences working in research labs and educational technology, as well as my personal passion for graphic and user experience design, and my formal education in the science of cognition, all gave me a passable approximation of what it means to be an Instructional Designer.
​
Despite my hodgepodge of skills, I still felt something fundamentally lacking as I shadowed more experienced designers. I felt a lack of foundational teaching theory, both in formal Instructional Design theory and, further, a lack of personal learning theory. This pushed me to enroll in the Instructional Systems and Learning Technologies (ISLT) Master's program at Florida State University.
​
During my time at FSU, I took courses that challenged me to improve in areas where I struggled and further developed my personal learning theory - one that tied in my personal background as a first-generation college student and gave me practical knowledge to help other students like me build their sense of belonging and self-efficacy (or their belief in their ability to succeed in college), and take ownership of their learning.​
​
Now, in my final semester of my Master's program, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to study directly with the brilliant faculty and students in the ISLT program. I am even more grateful that I was able to directly apply my studies to my professional work, both as a junior ID and later when I was promoted to a Senior ID role.
​​As an Instructional Designer, my goal is to lower barriers to education for other first-generation and underrepresented students.
