Good learning design is now essential. Here’s how to make it work

Look at university recruitment pages over the past year and you’ll have no doubt seen an increase in the number of job adverts for learning designers and those with learning design experience. But this isn’t a new role or area of expertise − effective learning design is the basis of all successful courses − so what’s driving the demand?

The move to different modes of delivery and assessment has seen most academic teams navigating uncharted waters, trying to do their best for students in extraordinary times. Pandemic-enforced changes have certainly been reactive, but with the stakes so high for students who invest heavily in their education, they had to be up to scratch.

With student expectations for blended delivery being high, despite the circumstances, good learning design was and is essential. While this has proved challenging, it also provides an opportunity for us to reflect on current practice and evolve our curriculum.

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Effective use of learning designers as part of curriculum development starts with respect for what each party brings to the process. Academics are experts in their field of study, bring experiences of taught delivery and have a deep understanding of the history and the future of their area of specialism.

Learning designers are pedagogic experts with extensive online experience, and through facilitation they help course teams with digital transition, assessing the student academic journey, evaluating learning activities and ensuring that students have opportunities to achieve the outcomes required. They bring evidence-based practices from a departmental, institutional or wider educational sphere to provide insights that can bring fresh perspectives.

Successful learning design can happen only when academics and learning designers work in partnership. Neither is using the process to the detriment of the other, and they are ultimately working towards the same thing: an engaging and meaningful experience for students.

There have sometimes been misconceptions about why learning designers are involved as part of the curriculum development process. Some courses can be very personal to those who have written them, and having others involved can be perceived negatively. To those staff who have yet to work with a learning designer and are apprehensive about what’s involved, please be assured that you should gain new insights and come away feeling energised and positive about new possibilities.

Learning design is becoming more embedded across higher education, and at Falmouth University we’ve been running structured learning design sessions for the past few years. Our approach, like many others’, is loosely based on UCL’s ABC method along with elements of other models and bespoke activities.

Course teams are actively engaged using a visual storyboard approach to map out their courses. Visualising the curriculum in this way and breaking down weekly activities is beneficial and allows teams to see the wider picture before focusing on the details. Using Diana Laurillard’s six learning types to help categorise activities ensures that a mix is included as part of curriculum development, thereby supporting strong learning outcomes.

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Different approaches can be incorporated to make up a learning design process, but ultimately the method must fit the needs of the institution and critically examine the student journey from an experience perspective. By evaluating activities in this way, the learning design process ensures that subjects can adapt and evolve − pivoting to changing demands for future graduate skills, the need to decolonise curricula or a desire to embed sustainability.

Working with learning designers should be a fulfilling process; common feedback centres around gaining new perspectives on a course and reimagining how to adapt previously used learning activities. Similarly, incorporating learning design helps to recognise previous approaches that have worked well and provides a space for academic reflection. Too often, achievements within teaching and learning aren’t celebrated as much as they should be, so discussing them helps build on good practice and enables dissemination to wider teams.

As well as broader curriculum design, learning designers can be used to solve smaller, more nuanced problems or challenges, such as an assessment that hasn’t quite worked the way it was expected or an activity that didn’t seem to facilitate much engagement. Talking these through with experts in learning design might provide an alternative solution or new approach to try next time.

Not everything that’s had learning design input will succeed first time. Part of the joy of experimenting and adapting learning activities is that some approaches throw up unforeseen issues; an activity might work for one cohort and not another for a variety of factors. There’s as much to be gained from reflecting on something that didn’t go as planned as something that did. Ultimately, that’s how we learn, evolve and innovate.

Having the opportunity to discuss learning and teaching approaches has been genuinely appreciated, especially where delivery has taken up much of the academic focus.

As we look towards a future where blended learning is more prominent, there is so much to be gained from investing in learning design. Those studying our courses have high expectations of what higher education should be providing, and it is essential that we regularly evaluate our educational approaches to ensure that they’re as enriching as they can be − for our students and for ourselves as teaching professionals.

Amy Sampson is head of digital learning at Falmouth University. She is passionate about creative arts education and is experienced in technical implementation of learning technologies, online course development and content production.