Recently, we have been thinking about what makes a good learning designer within the current HE climate. There are lots of great posts about this. We have added the links to some of these at the bottom of this blog. Many of these posts focus on the skills and attributes a learning designer needs to have. These skills are crucial to be successful and deliver impact for the people they work with. Interestingly, we have found less reference to institutional understanding, the bigger picture and delivering impact against core KPIs and PIs. This is important. For a curriculum or course to succeed, other considerations need to inform the design. These include the alignment of subject learning with the learning and development of other essential knowledge, skills and literacies.
If we were to list the big core performance indicators or a curriculum, module, or course, they would like this:
We suggest that the above are based within the subject of the curriculum, and this is true. Importantly, they need to be augmented by additional considerations and aligned to the performance of the institution. There has been a lot of great work in this area. This involves how to make a curriculum work harder and smarter.
Employability
To give an example of employability. There are many dimensions for employability. Institutions will have their own employability frameworks. These comprise the skills and attributes they feel are necessary. A few are shown on the right. Additionally, there will be subject-specific skills and knowledge drawn from SMEs and industry partners.
A learning designer will need to support subject individuals and teams to create content, practices and assessments. These must constructively align with the subject matter and other areas. An example of this is seen in the book chapter by Walker & Kerrigan (Learning Design in the Digital Age, 2015) and the development of digital literacy. In this example, the teaching adapts to support the development of the subject matter. It also increases the use of technology to support the development of digital literacy. In Institutions which have a digital literacy framework, the learning designer will need to integrate this into their work.
Impact on learning design
What does this mean to be an effective and impactful learner designer? As well as the personal skills, knowledge and practice already identified by others, they will need to engage in critical analysis. Additionally, they must:
- Performance metrics of any curriculum + course they work on
- Knowledge of the strategies + KPIs and areas of focus for the institution they are working with
- Multiple pedagogical approaches linked to enhancing performance
We refer to this as institutional literacy. In other words, it is a deep understanding of an institution’s strengths, weaknesses, and strategic direction. It is also understanding at the module/course level, which we can integrated into curriculum design.
At Transform-ED our team are experts in learning design, curriculum design, and course development. Combined we have been doing it for many years. Contact us if you would like to talk about your needs. We are able to offer 1:1 support as well as work with module/course teams and wider, institutional contexts.
References:
- https://www.shiftelearning.com/blog/bid/331573/10-Super-Powers-of-the-World-s-Greatest-Instructional-Designer
- https://www.growthengineering.co.uk/12-must-have-characteristics-for-instructional-designers
- https://theelearningcoach.com/elearning_design/isd/10-qualities-of-the-ideal-instructional-designer
- https://elearningindustry.com/learning-designer-skills-look-hiring
- https://myelearningworld.com/qualities-good-instructional-designer