Anatomy of a Learning Experience Designer
“What is it that you do exactly?” has been the theme of a lot of conversations I have had with people in the past few weeks. In one of these conversations, someone very innocently said - “In our time a teacher only used to do everything!” - this stuck with me. So this article is an attempt to better explain what I do.
1/ Experience Design
At the heart of the practice is being able to champion the experience of the learner. This includes creating:
A seamless learning journey
Safe and comfortable learning spaces
A community around learning
Opportunities for reflection and sharing
2/ Content
Learning is often mistaken for content but content is only one of the many components that drives learning. As a LxDer (is that a word?) you create content for sync/ async learning using the following:
Media
Information design
Visual design
Writing
It’s important to note here that a LxDer might not be an expert in the field and often works with people who are subject matter experts in order to build this content.
3/ Assessment
Creating feedback loops is essential to gauge how much the learner has learnt but also to get feedback on the learning experience itself. Assessments can be designed to understand one/ more of the following:
Where the learner is before the learning experience aka diagnostic test
The current level of knowledge and understanding of the learner aka formative assessment
Overall learning outcomes after the learning experience aka summative assessment
4/ Facilitation
While LxDer needs to be a good facilitator - there are instances where the experience is designed for other facilitators. Depending on the topic, these could be subject matter experts or folks who are brought in purely to facilitate the session. The not-so-subtle art of facilitation includes mastery of:
Capturing the curiosity of your learners
Public speaking & managing a crowd
Activities for building engagement
Gauging the audience reactions
Spontaneity and iteration on the fly based on the reactions
5/ Learning Sciences
Understanding how might we create the best conditions for people to learn. A cocktail of:
Instructional Design
Neuroscience
Psychology
Cognitive science
Behavioural science
6/ Analytics
One of the most underrated skills for an LxD today and one that most LxDs run away from!
Setting success metrics to define the learning experience
Monitoring & tracking data
Consolidating learner analytics and data
Leverage product/ tool analytics effectively
Finding patterns & insights from data to act on
7/ Technology
If content is the ‘what’, technology is often the ‘where’. The basic ‘learning stack’ includes:
Devices - Laptop, mobile, tablet
Platforms for Live Learning - Zoom, Google Meet
Tools for teaching - Whiteboard, Videos, Presentations
Content storage, sharing - Google Drive, Google Classroom, Notion
Tools for assessment - Google Forms, Typeform, Menti, Kahoot
Learning communities - Chat, WhatsApp, Slack, Discord
While these are just basic use cases, there could also be custom LMS’s or platforms which combine one or more of these.
8/ Research
Iteration is at the heart of designing meaningful experiences - especially one’s designed for learning. As LxDers here are some of the methods we use:
Secondary research
1-1 interviews with learners
Live polls and async surveys
Session/classroom/field observations
Product analytics and data
Big shoutout to Ragini Lall and Harsh Doshi - conversations with them has evolved this piece.
Full disclosure, my practice as a Learning Experience Designer is constantly evolving, and there are days where I am still making sense of some things. Some circles have been left empty for things that might emerge in my practice - and just to also cover my bases you know!
I would love for you to share what you’re thinking - and become a collaborator in this sense making exercise :)
This article was featured in Offbeat’s 90th Issue
This article was modified on 15th March 2024 - just like all of us, writing needs to keep updating too!