Learning Architecture Portfolio

Matthew K. Grunewald

Senior Instructional Designer  ·  Facilitator

Two ways to explore — choose the one that best fits your time and need. You can always return here by clicking the home button in the top right corner.

Micro  ·  ~5 min

Key ideas, one scenario, the essentials. If you have 5 minutes.

Macro  ·  ~30 min

Deep dives, interactive decisions, global context, full career arc.

Research + Design Methodology
How Matthew K. Grunewald developed this interactive field guide
Reflective research into Matthew’s professional history, AI-assisted prototyping, human-led instructional design, accessibility refinement, and responsive development.

This experience was developed through a reflective research and design process grounded in over 20 years of professional instructional design work. Historical documents, project artifacts, evaluations, and professional records were reviewed to identify recurring themes, design patterns, and evidence of practice across multiple roles and learning environments.

Using those findings as a foundation, scenario-based structures, interaction flows, and narrative frameworks were iteratively developed through collaboration with multiple generative AI platforms, including ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. AI tools were used to support prototyping, storyboard generation, accessibility refinement, responsive development, code validation, and iterative critique throughout the design process.

All instructional strategy, learning objectives, scenario architecture, visual direction, interaction design, content refinement, and final creative decisions remained human-led and were continuously reviewed, rewritten, refined, and implemented by Matthew K. Grunewald throughout development — including direct modification of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, typography, visual styling, accessibility adjustments, and responsive behavior across mobile, tablet, and desktop environments.

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Matthew K. Grunewald
Micro Experience
01 — Who

A learning architect who has designed in the field, not just in the studio.

Matthew K. Grunewald is a senior instructional designer and learning experience architect with over 20 years of experience across defense, aviation, healthcare, enterprise technology, legal, and education — in environments where bad learning design had real consequences.

20+
years designing
8
countries
10+
industries
🇺🇸 USA🇯🇵 Japan🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia🇮🇶 Iraq🇦🇫 Afghanistan🇨🇳 China🇰🇷 South Korea🇨🇿 Czech Republic
02 — How he thinks

Performance problems are rarely training problems.

Before a slide is built, Matthew asks: is this actually a training problem? At the U.S. Department of Defense, diagnosing the real issue first produced a 70% increase in participation and a 40% increase in course scores — not from building more, but from building the right thing.

“If you put a good performer in a bad system, the system wins every time.” — Geary Rummler & Alan Brache, Improving Performance, 1990
03 — A quick decision

What would you do?

Scenario

"Our sales team isn't hitting targets. We need a training course on the product line. Can you build it?"

04 — Where he has worked

All over the world and across industries.

Apple Inc. via TCS — 7 years

Slack adoption and generative AI training for ~154,000 employees. Section 508 & WCAG compliant.

U.S. DoD — Afghanistan & Iraq

Pilot, maintenance & anti-terrorism training. U.S. and NATO standards. 70%/40% outcome gains.

CMS via TDP LLC — Washington D.C.

ILT-to-VILT/WBT for RN surveyors nationwide. SCORM & 508 compliant. Beyond client expectations.

EF Education First — Shanghai

ILT & WBT for a major international airline's cabin crew. Managed global project teams.

05 — Credentials

The qualifications behind the work.

PhD

Instructional Design & Technology

Keiser University, July 2025. Dissertation: innovation diffusion in corporate L&D during COVID-19.

MA

Curriculum Design

University of Phoenix.

PMP

Project Management Professional

PMI certification #4194755E2, 2016.

MMT

Mindfulness Meditation Teacher

Certified mindfulness meditation teacher, 2026. Trained by Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield through the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (Sounds True).

“Matt's expertise in the field of Instructional Design coupled with his innovative approach to large-scale training projects continues to serve the interests and projects of the United States DOD.” — Wells Rutland, U.S. Department of Defense, 2014

Want the bigger picture?

This was the 5-minute micro experience. The full macro version goes deeper — interactive scenarios, design strategy tools, global facilitation case studies, AI workflow transparency, and the complete career arc.

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Matthew K. Grunewald
Design Field Guide
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