Laura Butler Semethy

Laura Butler Semethy has been practicing in the field of instructional design for more than 20 years. Instructional design is both a science and an art in which she enjoys the challenges of designing effective learning solutions. Faced with a corporate culture that rejected instructional design methodologies, she created and managed an instructional design community of practice (CoP) for a major telecommunications corporation. The community was created with all employees in mind and served as a central repository for resources and a hub for several training programs. In addition to the CoP, Laura designed and developed introductory courses on instructional design and item writing for colleagues. She has a bachelor’s in education from Illinois State University; a master’s in information technology, systems design, and development; and a master’s in instructional design for online learning from Capella University. She proudly holds the Certified Professional in Learning and Performance certification from the Association for Talent Development. Laura is a senior instructional designer at 3D Systems.