tips and tricks for awesome learning design
Supporting learners with dyspraxia
We are trying harder than you can imagine,’ says dyspraxic teacher Kerry Pace (2015). She suggests that we – non-dyspraxics – might think about how we feel when we’re exhausted: the things we...
The role of personas in learning design
What are learner personas? Learner personas provide a practical way for us learning designers to focus our empathy. But why do we need to do this? The reason is to help us determine the difficulty...
Anticipating dyslexia benefits all learners
The UK government spends a great deal on supporting dyslexic students in HE – and they almost certainly get value back on that money in the workplace. At the same time, many dyslexic students go...
ChatGPT: embracing a brave new world
Some two months after the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a LinkedIn tech editor asked how I felt about students writing essays with it. Swiftly I replied: ‘There's a whole industry out there writing...
Are you a hidden learning designer?
Learning designers are everywhere, but they're often hiding in plain sight. Over the past 18 months, demand for learning designers has increased significantly. Companies have been hiring people who...
Learning to experiment takes practice
Few learning designers and educators will disagree with the value of learning by doing. But learning to experiment takes practice, and we mustn't assume that learners are confident and comfortable...
Addressing care in learning design
If we're not thinking about care when we designing learning, we risk doing more harm than good. China, like many of advanced nations, is seeing mental health problems rising among its...
Designing for learners with autism
Autism is ‘a diverse and mystifying condition’ (National Autism Society), where people live in their own world and communication is almost impossible. Learners with autism experience difficulty with...
Why ‘little and often’ delivers flexible learning
At some point in our lives, most of us will have had to write an essay. And many of us will have left that essay until the last minute. This situation is the product of poor learning design. It's...
Supporting teamwork through learning design
‘ … offering students the opportunity to work in groups on projects or development, without also attending to process, has created a vacuum of responsibility’ (Brockbank and McGill, 1998.) Teach...
Tackling procrastination with learning design
Piers Steel is an expert in procrastination at the University of Calgary. In an interview on the BBC's One to One programme, Steel comments that by tracing our social media activity,...
Writing aims, learning outcomes and assessment criteria
Writing aims, learning outcomes and assessment criteria can seem onerous. However, it’s well worth spending time to get them as you want them. In this post, Ding's Dr. Nicholas Houghton explains the...
Rob Hamblen: How design sprints can guide learning design
What is a design sprint, and how does it relate to learning design? In this episode, we talk with Rob Hamblen, founder of the LEAP design agency where he helps companies build better digital...
Andragogy, motivation, and how learning designers add value to businesses
Geraldine Murphy was a learning designer before learning design was invented. After completing her teacher training back in 2009, Geraldine has applied her knowledge of learning and technology in...
Agnese Spona: Exploring the intersection of customer experience, service and learning design
What is service design? How does it relate to learning design, user experience (UX) and customer experience (CX) design? And what can service design teach learning designers about great...
Design learning for accountability
Learning anything is an effort. As learning designers, we have to convince learners that it's worth them making the effort to learn. One way of doing this is to design activities that require...
Alice Brazil-Burns: How human-centred storytelling can lead to better experience design
Storytelling may sound like something more suited to children, and human-centred storytelling may make you raise your eyebrows. But it's increasingly recognised as a valuable counterpart to the...
The power of team-based learning
Most people accept the value of group work in learning design. But team-based learning extends the learning power of group work even further. But what is team-based learning (TBL), and how does it...
