Welcome to my first post! This blog will be dedicated to chronicling my journey as a learning designer. I will be posting my thoughts, projects, along with my challenges and successes along the way.
My interest in learning design started as a small spark back in 2024. I was working as an enrollment coach with Arizona State University. In this role, I would provide information to prospective students about our wide variety of online programs. One day, I was tasked with walking someone through our Master of Education in Learning Design and Technologies program. As we looked through the transferrable skills of this program along with the prospective career paths, I found myself tucking away these bits of knowledge. After our conversation, I began researching about the learning design field. I found myself enticed by its dynamic nature. Every organization, business, and classroom has their own unique set of objectives and people who must meet them. A learning designer is tasked with creating the pathway to accessible knowledge to ensure these objectives are met. This work sounded challenging and rewarding, and I was eager to learn more!
Fast forward to August 2025, and I am now enrolled in the same program I was counseling my student on a year ago. As I start with my first course, LDT501 - Foundations of Learning Design and Technologies, I am most passionate about learning more about learning theories and instructional strategies. How do people learn best? How can I differentiate my learning experiences to make them accessible for all adult learners? How can I ensure everyone achieves the desired objective? These are questions I will be digging into throughout this course. As I equip myself with this knowledge, I can begin to recommend the "appropriate instructional strategies for a given learner population, content domain and delivery format" (Wagner, 2021).
One aspect of learning design that I am interested in exploring further is the use of technology. Technology is the through line of learning design. The tools I will utilize on a daily basis are important for the "communication, collaboration, management, and development of instructional resources" (Ritzhaupt, Kumar, & Martin, 2021). Therefore, it’s extremely important I know how to utilize a wide variety of tools to my advantage. The main tools I would like to learn more about are multimedia tools such as Photoshop, Canva, and Adobe Creative Suite. I am not the most well-versed in these types of applications, but I am open to learning and challenging myself to take on these new skills. Another vital tool I would like to harness is generative AI. In this world, AI is unavoidable. We must learn how to work with it because it will not be going away anytime soon. By finding ways to add it into my workflow as a learning designer, I believe it will help manage my workflows and allow me to become more productive in my creative processes.
As I begin developing my identity as a learning designer, I find myself thinking back to my time as a middle school science teacher. As an educator, I was expected to identify learning objectives, create instructional materials, facilitate learning experiences, and then evaluate and assess my students. Although the design process will vary in settings outside of education, these soft skills provide me with a solid framework to build upon. Another perspective I bring to the table is one of accessibility and inclusivity. In the classroom, my team and I would keep our learner's needs in mind. We would collaborate and work together to ensure the learning was scaffolded for our different populations of students, such as those who have special needs, those who learned English as a second language, and those who were gifted. I am looking forward to continuing to use this mindset in my work with adult learners. It is vital that we identify the needs of learner populations and ensure they are properly met. I believe my experience and perspective as a teacher can help me stand out within the field of learning design.
Next, I’ve been thinking about my short-term and long-term career goals. Short-term, I am looking to gain as much knowledge as I can through my master’s degree program, which I am projected to complete in May 2027. It feels so far away, but I know time will fly by quicker than I think! I will continue to build my portfolio and work on creating my personal brand through my LinkedIn profile. Once I graduate, I will plan to start job-hunting. I can envision myself as a training specialist or a learning and development specialist within an organization or business; however, I would ideally like to pursue this role with my current employer, ASU. In this role, I would like to be responsible for designing and facilitating training programs for both new hires and seasoned employees. By using my perspectives from my master’s program and my time in teaching, I plan to make an impact by delivering powerful learning experiences to the learners I will be serving. I would like to identify the gaps and find ways to ensure the training materials are accessible to all employees. Long-term, I would like to gain the necessary expertise to lead a team of my own and become a manager or head of training and development.
Ultimately, I envision making a difference in the broader community or learning design professionals by focusing on creating engaging and inclusive content. I hope to collaborate with other professionals who have the same goals. Together, we can work to optimize materials within the training and professional development realm to ensure they are relevant, informative, and accessible to all in every organization we serve. Feel free to follow along as I embark on this exciting journey, and here’s to new beginnings!
References:
Ritzhaupt, A. D., Kumar, S., & Martin, F. (2021). The competencies for instructional designers in higher education. In S. Conklin, B. Oyarzun, R. M. Reese, & J. E. Stefaniak (Eds.), A practitioner's guide to instructional design in higher education. EdTech Books. https://dx.doi.org/10.59668/164.4268
Wagner, E. D. (2021). Becoming a learning designer. In J. K. McDonald & R. E. West (Eds.), Design for learning: Principles, processes, and praxis. EdTech Books. https://edtechbooks.org/id/learning_designer
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