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I’m Annie — I spent twelve years in the classroom figuring out how people actually learn. Now I build eLearning your teams will finish, remember, and maybe even enjoy.
12 years teaching · 6 courses shipped · 12,000+ learners
A few favorites. Each opens into a short case study — the problem, what I built, and what changed.
For twelve years I taught middle-school science — 140 students a day, every level of motivation, every kind of learner. You learn fast that clear beats clever, and practice beats lecture.
In 2024 I rebuilt my district’s teacher professional development, discovered the work I’d been doing had a name — instructional design — and never looked back. Since then I’ve shipped onboarding, scenario practice, and software training for teams from 40 to 4,000.
What I kept from teaching: relentless empathy for the learner, and zero patience for content that wastes their time.
Talk to learners and stakeholders, watch the actual work, and name the real gap — it isn’t always training.
Objectives first: define what people should do differently on the job, then map the shortest path there.
Prototype early in Storyline or Rise, test ugly drafts with real learners, and polish only what survives.
Completion isn’t learning. I track behavior and business signals, then iterate on the evidence.
Annie took our messiest compliance deck and turned it into training people actually finish — and then talk about in the hallway.
She asks the questions nobody else asks, then builds exactly the thing learners needed — usually smaller and sharper than what we requested.
I’m currently interviewing for instructional design roles and taking select freelance projects. I usually reply within a day.
© 2026 Annie Swayze · Made with care (and a lot of sticky notes)