How do you currently design lessons or training programs?
Take a moment and think about your own process. Better yet, grab a pen and paper,
and take a few moments to sketch your process. Yes, right now! We’ll give you a few
moments. (It’s okay, you may pause reading here and come back with your sketch!)
Now look at what you’ve just drawn. What do you notice about it?
When we talk to other educators, or even think back on our own practices, there
is a tendency to approach lesson planning in a very linear way: we start with the
outcomes, then we think about the content and activities, then we think about
assessments. When you look at your process, is there space to think deeply about
our learners and how they might experience the lesson plan? Is there space to think
about what their environment looks like, the tools they interact with, and how these
might affect their learning? Is there space to try out the plan and revise it based on
feedback?
Learning experience design is an approach that combines the field of
education with the field of design. If you’re familiar with Design Thinking, or
human-centered design, you can think of LX Design as applying Design
Thinking tools and mindsets to build lessons, training programs, courses, and
materials to achieve the learning goals in a more empathetic and intentional
way.
When the pandemic happened, the shift to remote learning really highlighted the
fact that our learners are very different. They have different needs, different
environments, different strengths and barriers to learning. Knowing this, we
empathize with our learners, using what we know about them, and what we
know about effective and engaging teaching and learning to select our
strategies and tools. Then we prototype the learning experience, getting
feedback and improving on it. These are things that we might already be doing on
some level, but being a Learning Experience Designer means doing these more
intentionally to design more humane, and more accessible learning experiences.
In Habi, we’ve used LX Design to design workshops, modules, games, apps, posters,
infographics, speeches, worksheets, unconferences, webinars, even research papers!
Everything that has a learning goal can be a learning experience that we design.
When we think about our hopes and dreams for our learners, we don’t think, “I want
them to master my subject,” or “I want them to pass their exams.” We want them to
succeed outside of the classroom, to be active participants of both local and global
communities, working together to build more peaceful, inclusive, and secure
societies. We believe that the first step to achieving that dream is by thinking like a
designer - and this course will support us in doing that.
Here’s a recap of what we have learned so far:
● Our learners are really different and the traditional way of designing lessons
or training programs might not meet their diverse needs;
● Learning Experience Design combines the field of education and the field
of design to create human-centered, goal-oriented learning experiences.
● Everything that has a learning goal can be a learning experience that we
design.
As you start your journey in Learning Experience Design, try and ask yourself - what
are the ways that I’m already thinking and acting like a learning experience
designer? We’re excited to hear your stories!
Did you know?
● There is some debate on who first used the term “learning experience
designer” but one thing our friends from Six Red Marbles, and leaders in
the field such as Niels Floor and Connie Malamed agree that LX Design is
an evolution of instructional design that puts humans and learners at
the core of the design process.
● You may have already seen LX Designers at work through exercises like
user research, empathy maps, and journey maps inspired by the field
of user experience design but applied in a learning design.
● LX Design is a new paradigm that is gaining momentum especially
among learning and development specialists who acknowledge that,
indeed, learning happens even outside the four walls of a classroom
Do you want to know more about Learning Experience Design? Here are some
resources you might want to look at:
● [Article] The Evolution to Learning Experience Design
● [Article] Learning Experience Design Basics
● [Article] 10 Principles of Learning Experience Design
