I think this is a theme that I’ve addressed before, but I think it’s worth revisiting it regularly, as my thinking regarding the development of a learning design curriculum changes. I’m also thinking that it might be worth writing up some of these thoughts in a more formal sense as I continue, as I’m sure there might be interest in what I’ve done and the kinds of decisions that I’ve made in developing the Graduate Certificate in Learning Design.
The first thing that I think is worth mentioning that the course that I’m developing is not particularly new; rather, if one acknowledges the development of learning design as being in someway related to instructional design and technology (which is by no means an unproblematic assertion), then one must also acknowledge that there have been courses in instructional design in the US for at least the last 50 years or so. These courses are still popular today, and I recognise that my own, very small course, has developed and been informed in some respect by them.
Having said that, I think there are contextual differences between those courses and my work to develop a learning design course. Australia, for the most part, doesn’t have the same tradition of instructional design; here, most education is focused more narrowly on school education. Of course, there are some notable differences, such as Sydney University’s work on Learning Science and other examples such as Deakin and UNE. But in terms of a credential that explicitly names Learning Design: not so much. That’s reflective of the fact that Learning Design has only limited prominence within Australia. The term is relatively unknown, but that is changing rapidly, as more and more industries consider how best to meet the training and development needs of their staff. Indeed, learning designers are in demand, not just in higher education industries, but much more broadly, in banking, finance, not-for-profit, entrepreneurial and start ups and of course in primary and secondary education too.
But, of course, these industries all have very different ideas of what a learning designer might want or need; some have a focus on online or technology enhanced learning, others want learning designers who have the capacity to develop apps, others have an interest in learning analytics, big data and multimedia. This means that deciding what should be in a Learning Design course might be difficult if one tries to meet all of these desires. More realistically, it will become a matter of selecting one or the other, and deciding what not to include.
There are other considerations, too. For example, with a Graduate Certificate of Learning Design, entry is restricted to people with a degree, or at least similar experience in industry. But there’s no guarantee that the original degree is in any kind of education our training degree – and yet, for many of the anticipated participants in the course, especially those coming from schools or higher education – there will be a significant level of knowledge about pedagogical approaches and learning. So, the question then is how to pitch the content at the right level to match differing levels of expertise.