By Sara Hinds
Learning new things can be hard. Maybe it’s the subject matter itself that’s complex. A language barrier or technology gap can also present challenges. How an instructor teaches can also impact how well a student learns.
Whitney Fritzinger ’21B, ’23T looks at all those factors and says, “game on.”
Falling into instructional design
Fritzinger herself fell in love with chemistry, all because of how her high school teacher taught it. After graduating from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2010 with a degree in chemistry and working in a laboratory for eight years, she pivoted to a career in information technology.
Fritzinger served as an administrator for her company’s learning management system (LMS). She wrote procedures and led employee training. Despite having a strong skill for technical writing, Fritzinger felt an advanced degree would complement her career change.
While in Doane’s Master of Business Administration (MBA) program, she took a learning management systems class. One wasn’t enough to quench her passion for the subject matter. Luckily, Doane also offered a Master of Science in Instructional Design (IDT) program. Fritzinger earned her MBA in 2021 and graduated from the IDT program two years later.
“I just love looking at ‘How do we learn?’ How do we have better learning experiences?’ and ‘How do we make it more meaningful?” Fritzinger said.
Putting her degree to work
The propensity to problem solve and think critically stems from her chemistry background. So when it came time to complete her capstone project for the IDT program, Fritzinger jumped at the opportunity to help ECHO Collective.
Fritzinger was, and still is, a volunteer with ECHO, which stands for “empowering communities through her opportunities.” The nonprofit in Lincoln provides learning opportunities for new American women. Fritzinger taught cybersecurity classes, showing the women how to be safe online.
The class was part of ECHO’s refinery cohort, which offers broader business and personal development subjects like entrepreneurship and financial literacy with the ultimate goal to set up the women to run successful businesses.
“It gives them autonomy, it gives them independence, it allows them more flexibility [and] financial freedom,” Fritzinger said of the cohort. “Seeing that program really got me interested in ECHO and what ECHO was doing.”
She noticed an opportunity for ECHO to invest in an LMS. Technology is an expensive investment, especially for nonprofits that operate on tight budgets and grants. For her IDT capstone, Fritzinger researched LMS options and provided recommendations to leadership. She collaborated with students and staff and redesigned classes to move to the chosen LMS.
The new American women could now access classwork, quizzes, calendars, presentations and a way to communicate with instructors from anywhere.
Frtizinger ensured the LMS was also easy to understand for the ECHO women, who come from different backgrounds of technology and English literacy.
“That's what really excited me about doing this project for my capstone, because I could build something really practical,” Fritzinger said. “I could build something that they could turn around and use. I could build something that would immediately support the existing students in the program.”
Fritzinger’s love of instructional design didn’t stop at her capstone. She still volunteers with ECHO and serves as secretary on their Board of Directors. In her role as program manager at Perceptyx, she manages surveys for customers and provides software training. She also started her own instructional design consulting business in 2024, Jade Winds, LLC. And she teaches Visual Design & Accessibility as an adjunct faculty for Doane’s IDT program.
Instructional design, Fritzinger said, is valuable and versatile even if it isn’t your job title. It’s at the core of developing employees, company culture and student learning.
“The more we can make our instructional design effective, meaningful, engaging, all those things, the better experience it is for the learners — and that's what I care about,” Fritzinger said. “Can we make it better?”
