People Make Pathways

Product Programming Manager, Julio Ordonez, has been an integral part of our Pathways Training and eLearning team for seven years now.

Julio holds a Bachelor’s degree in Multimedia Engineering from Universidad Militar Nueva Granada in Bogota, Columbia.

Today, we chatted with Julio about quarantine hobbies, adjusting to working from home, and the future of eLearning.

Hi Julio! You’ve worked on loads of amazing projects during your seven years with Pathways. What’s been your favourite one so far?

A few years ago, we created a couple of games for a client. Being a gamer at heart, I enjoyed the opportunity to develop a video game from conception to delivery, even at a smaller scale. Seeing it in action on different devices was really cool.

It’s always fun when you get to bring one of your hobbies into work. What changes or developments do you anticipate in the eLearning space now that more and more people are transitioning to working and studying online?

I think we will see more adaptive learning, where the content you see and the complexity of learning activities vary depending on your performance.

Also, I think more and more tools that are usually available for other fields (like entertainment) will now be available to training, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.

I think these tools will have a great impact on accessibility, making the learning and working experience as seamless as possible for people with disabilities.

Those would certainly be nice changes to see. Speaking of changes… how has your work life changed now that you’re working from home?

It’s been an interesting year in more ways than one. I never really looked forward to commuting since I live quite far from the office, and I always thought working from home would be great.

Now that I actually work from home full time, I kind of miss that morning and afternoon commute. The time I spent on the subway and in my car gave me the chance to change my state of mind, as it were, from being at home to being in the office and vice versa.

The way I socialise with my colleagues has definitely changed a lot too. I miss being able to turn my chair and start a conversation with one of my coworkers. But not everything is negative — I think working from home allows me to manage my time in a different, more efficient way, while also taking care of things around the house.

It’s definitely been an adjustment, but it seems you’ve adapted really well. Have you discovered any new media obsessions during lockdown? Podcasts, books, TV shows?

Netflix has always been an obsession and people in the office will attest that I would stream Champions League games when they were on.

As for hobbies, I'm finding more and more enjoyment in cooking. I paint Warhammer miniatures but lately I've found myself into other activities like playing guitar and taking walks more often.

We expect a full concert from you in the future. What are you looking forward to in 2021?

I'm looking forward to seeing the different projects we’ll get to work on this year, and how the different available technologies will allow us to create richer eLearning modules.