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JOHN ORMOND

Chicago, IL // add89d@r.postjobfree.com // 773-***-**** // www.linkedin.com/in/john-t-ormond PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

I believe my colleagues and employers from the 25 years of my career would describe me as a natural writer, energetic thinker, compulsive reader, and ardent teacher. I have written in a wide range of styles and forms including technical requirements, white papers, organizational standards, user documentation, direct marketing, course instruction, fiction, and even sketch comedy. I am a diplomatic and articulate communicator who thrives in an environment where I can work quietly, believe fiercely, and thoughtfully consider the results of past efforts to inform my present and future decisions.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

PEARSON - Elk Grove Village, Illinois 2013–2019

Communications Specialist // Jan. 2019 – Dec. 2019

• Responsible for writing and editing internal and external communications, in a variety of formats, and socializing them to a wide spectrum of internal stakeholders as well as our diverse customer base.

• Wrote communications on behalf of our sales team, so they could deliver appropriate customer-facing updates about planned maintenance, as well as alerts about system downtime or performance issues; customer-facing announcements about changes to technology, including how customers can transition successfully to new environments; and a variety of other announcements, messages, blogs, etc., as requested.

• Solicited and published regular updates to our directories of contacts and subject-matter experts (SMEs) across the organization, as well as employee profiles for the Pearson social-media site. Instructional Designer // 2013 - Jan. 2019

• Partnered with university faculty to design and develop objective-based online courses in a variety of learning management systems (LMSes), using current best practices in the field.

• Collaborated with faculty in designing learning activities; conceived and storyboarded multimedia presentations; and reviewed existing courses and suggested avenues for improvement based on student feedback.

• Managed creating and revising eight to twelve courses simultaneously, every term, for a total of six different institutions in five different LMSes.

EMBANET - Elk Grove Village, Illinois 2010–2013

Project Manager // 2010 – 2013

• Served as a primary contact for resolving technical/LMS issues in eleven programs across six universities.

• Performed pre-launch checks on courses and suggested solutions for issues, where appropriate; and ensured that courses were duplicated and launched on time.

• Developed and managed project plans and timelines; produced and published regular status reports; managed third-party vendors; and thrived on tackling the flow of requests from demanding clients. SELF-EMPLOYED - Chicago, Illinois 1999–2010

Freelance Writer

Provided support and completed technology and education-related projects for a wide range of companies, including: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

• Performed detailed QA review on “virtual samples” of electronic textbooks.

• Tested performance, and reviewed and rewrote content, on a variety of websites for a national product- marketing campaign.

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SCORE! Educational Centers

• Managed development of QBox, a proprietary online question-item authoring and project-management tool.

• Supported curriculum developers, writers, and editors. Reported directly to VP of Instructional Technology and collaborated closely with QA staff.

• Developed curriculum and conducted training for QBox, both in person and remotely via web conference. BrainWorx Studio, Inc.

• Edited and rewrote four-volume English-language textbook series.

• Prepared materials for production. Extensively rewrote instructions, activities, and exercises on a wide variety of subjects (e.g., vocabulary, reading strategies, basic grammar, and elements of literature).

• Successfully completed more than 2,000 pages of editing within one month. McDougal Littell / Houghton Mifflin

• Performed detailed QA review on educational software.

• Edited reading selections and analyzed testing exercises to ensure accuracy, clarity, and consistency throughout.

TRANSUNION - Chicago, Illinois 1990–1999

Information Design Analyst // 1998 – 1999

• Directed team created specifically to design standards for online documentation; wrote and edited a wide variety of technical documents.

• Provided assistance to Documentation Manager with recruiting and hiring new staff; reviewed all resumes, evaluated writing samples, and devised questions to interview potential candidates.

• Designed screens for several web-based applications.

• Created RoboHELP software introductory training course for new members of the documentation team. Documentation Specialist // 1992 – 1998

• Responsible for writing and editing technical documents, including Sales Training Guide for TransUnion Credit Report (company’s flagship product), and Standard Operating Procedures manual for Corporate Operations division.

• Developed online help systems and user documentation for both PC and web-based applications.

• Designed all standard forms for Information Systems Division. SOFTWARE / LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Microsoft Office Google apps HTML / CSS

MySQL Adobe CC Audacity

Camtasia Dreamweaver Twine

Visio Join.me Zoom

JIRA Wrike

Moodle 1.6, 1.9, 2.1 Blackboard Canvas

Angel Sakai

EDUCATION

KNOX COLLEGE

Galesburg, Illinois

Bachelor of Arts in English Writing