Future Implications

Brock Hoffman
bshoffman@vt.edu
4/2/22

I believe being in the ITMA Program I have been affected in a number of different ways for me
as I am planning to be a Spring 2022 Graduate of the program while also training and preparing
for the NFL I have a lot of different avenues I could take once my playing days of football are
over whenever that may be. My dream job after playing football in the NFL is to be a collegiate
football coach which requires one to have a ton of football knowledge but I believe having the
experience of being in the ITMA program as well as my football knowledge will set me apart
from other coaches in the game. To start, I believe there is a lot of crossover when designing
instruction and installing an offense. These are the things that I believe will affect me the most
from the ITMA program to my future career:
- Design Process: As a whole the entire design process has affected me to be more
thorough in my work and see the bigger picture of things no matter what I am doing.
When talking about the bigger picture in the process I mean that being in ITMA has
shown me that when designing instruction or installing an offense like a football coach
does you have to account for more things than just speaking the material to your
players. You have to one know who you are teaching it too and find different ways to
best motivate them to learn the material.
- Learner Characteristics: As I mentioned earlier in the design process bullet you have to
know who you are teaching the material to. I believe that the ITMA Program has
affected me for my future job the most out of anything. I learned quickly when talking
about who your learners are you have to be specific. Not just in the age of them but in
their demographics, psychographics, best ways they learn, different ways they’re
motivated, etc. Being in the ITMA program has given me a great appreciation for this
because when I become a collegiate football coach I will be able to break down all the
characteristics of my players and figure out different ways to install an offense to them
so they can best learn it and play to the best of their abilities.
- Message Design: Lastly, I believe being in the ITMA program has affected me through
message design by showing me the different avenues and how complex a message is in
order to motivate individuals. Being a collegiate coach, you go through the ups and
downs of a season just like the players do finding different ways to motivate your
players when they are down or keep them motivated when they are at the highest of
highs comes down to the message design and having the experience in the work I’ve
done in an entire course of the ITMA program will affect me in my future career.
After completing the majority of the course work for the ITMA Program I believe that I am an
instructional technologist because of the ways that the program has affected me and how I will
carry the tools I’ve learned with me throughout my future careers. I will use the tools I have
learned in the program in order to learn who my athletes are and how they best learn in order
to design an instruction that will help my athletes learn the playbook as best as possible.