How to build a learning designer

Co-designing a training program for/with/as novice learning designers

Abstract

The practice and profession of learning design has grown significantly in recent years. However, there remains a scarcity of formal qualifications and training specifically designed for learning designers. This paper describes a work-in-progress initiative to co-design a training program for/with/as a team of novice learning designers. The question driving our practice-led and design-based investigation is not just what but how learning designers should learn. The team conducted research into the requisite knowledge, skills, and capabilities that make a successful learning designer, including an informal learning needs analysis. Based on this research and analysis, this paper explores the question of how learning designers should learn by discussing four guiding theoretical principles and related design components consequently ideated by the team: learner agency; becoming professional; novice/expert mentorship; and community of practice. It then turns to the question of what, describing the core curriculum and program structure through which these principles will be enacted. These questions are critical to the present and future of the profession as we collectively articulate our shared practices and identity, and what it means to be a learning designer.