tips and tricks for awesome learning design
How fictional scenarios deliver workplace-ready talent
Your blood pressure is normal at home, but the moment that well-meaning medical professional wraps that cuff around your arm, it spikes. The act of measuring creates the very problem it's trying to...
Using fiction to improve the effectiveness of learning and training
For over eight centuries, roses have symbolised profound knowledge—wisdom that's precious because it demands real effort to obtain. Persian mystic Rumi wrote of roses as divine secrets locked within...
Why scenarios are more effective than a best practice approach to learning
Picture this: you're at a friend of a friend's flat-warming. There's an underwhelming selection of supermarket nibbles on paper plates and your host is stress-eating Pringles straight from the tube....
How scenario-based learning delivers skills in improvisation and adaptability
In the 1940s and 50s, Viola Spolin was transforming how we understand learning through her pioneering work in improvisational theatre. Working with the Compass Players in Chicago, Spolin developed a...
How to (really) improve teaching excellence
If you work in further or higher education, you’re probably sick of hearing about the need to improve teaching excellence. The term itself has become deeply problematic, and so Phil and I thought we...
Producing employable graduates: integrating employability into the curriculum
Whether we like it or not, producing employable graduates is the number one currency in Higher Education. Yet despite the hard work of many dedicated professionals to improve graduate employability,...
Getting your casting right
Think about your favourite film or TV show for a moment. Now imagine if all the same words were spoken, but by completely different actors. Wild, right? That's the power of casting – get it right,...
The Kuleshov Effect and why learning designers are editors
In one of our Friday chats, Phil and I recently explored the Kuleshov Effect and its implications for learning design. While Phil is something of a film buff, I’m definitely not – so I spent some...
Open Day: PGCert, PGDip, MA in Creative Teaching and Learning Design
If you want to teach in higher education (HE), you'll need a PGCert. And if you want to work in a professional learning role, you'll benefit from having a PGDip or MA. So we thought we'd make it...
Callum Goodwilliam: Leadership Through Learning Design
The skillset of a learning leader Working in a senior learning role requires a complex set of skills. You need to both understand the needs of the business and also be able to design learning...
The Art of Employability: How To Design Learning Experiences That Close the Skills Gap
When Phil from Ding said, 'I'm fed up with talking about employability,' we thought we'd better do something about how to close the skills gap. So we put our heads together and took a long, hard...
The Art of Impact: How Creative Learning Design Can Increase Access and Engagement
Museums and cultural organisations have to create truly engaging and accessible experiences. But how do you move beyond simply broadcasting information to producing genuine participation and...
Matt Dowling: Preparing graduates to be freelancers
Why graduates need a freelancer mindset Freelancing is increasingly a career option for young professionals. This is partly as a result of the gig economy, but also because it is a natural fit for...
The Art of AI in Assessment: How Creative Learning Design Can Deliver Robust Outcomes
In Ding's recent webinar on the Art of AI in Assessment, we explored how creative learning design can produce more robust outcomes in the age of AI. If you missed it, don't worry - in this blog post...
Artificial intelligence and other boogey men
Everybody Panic! As night follows day, new technologies trigger moral panics. In the 1980s, the “video nasties” controversy erupted in Britain—as home video allowed unprecedented access to scary...
Leaving HE? You have more skills than you think
‘A shrinkage is taking place,’ says Ding! co-founder Phil Gomm. Then, warming to his theme: ‘There’s an extinction event going on.’ And if, as he suggests, ‘you look at all the reports and if you...
How to (actually) widen participation in higher education
‘It’s not enough’, says John Blake, ‘that learners from underrepresented groups can get into college and university – access is about successful higher education, not just any higher education’...
Increasing belonging through course design
Increasing belonging is now a priority in both education and business. ‘Belonging’, says Tony Bond (2022), ‘is one of the biggest buzzwords in business today.’ And he goes on, ‘It’s about time.’ He...
