Mindsets & skills

The Changing Field of Learning Design: Six Steps to Get Ready for Online Learning

Originally published on December 28, 2016.

A man writing in a notebook seated at a desk. Photo by Erfan Amiri on Unsplash

As I finish another semester in education at the University of Toronto, I am reminded of the exciting opportunities for online learning. With learning moving from the classroom to the computer and, more recently, to mobile devices it has pulled the learning designer in me in many different directions. Although one is not easier than another, the different learning methods require different knowledge and skills. In the classroom, I am able to adjust my teaching style to suit my students as we progress through a lesson. I can answer immediately if a student has a question. I change my pace if the class starts losing interest or if we want to spend more time on a certain interesting or challenging subject. I have less of this flexibility in an online space. The process of “creating learning” includes the intelligence-gathering of classroom education, but with the new steps required to publish online. I needed to learn more about it.

Hands holding pencil and writing tools with phone nearby. Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Free your inner artist.

Taking an online course was my first step to understanding the online environment. I realized that publishing learning material online is not as easy as cutting and pasting existing text into a web page. You risk losing your audience early on if you ask them to turn pages endlessly. Even as I write this post, I am conscious of my audience’s attention span. As we speak, many of you probably have another browser (or ten!) open. So, without further ado, here are six things you should do when designing online learning:

1. Become a marketing expert. Your content needs to be interesting, useful, and to the point. Otherwise, the learner’s attention will wander. Online marketing sites are among the best places to learn.
2. Free your inner artist. The visuals of your user interface (UI) are as important as your text. The more welcome your audience feels, the longer they will stay.
3. Make media production your new best friend. Videos are extremely popular on social media platforms. The stories they tell touch your audience quicker than almost anything else. There is a reason why YouTube and Vimeo are so popular.
4. Take on a new hobby: computer science. You may not like it, but a strong grasp of basic computer science will help when it comes time to choosing a platform to host your content.
5. Then add another: information science. In addition to knowing about platforms, the user information (data) you extract from these platforms will show you the best and most popular products. Just ask Google or Facebook.

Taken together, these five points seem like a tall order — and they are. But don’t worry. Just take it a day at a time, one thing at a time, and you will be on your way. Oh, and the sixth and perhaps the most important of all: keep learning! Online learning is still young. I will probably have six more things to share with you by the time you read this! Until then, I encourage you to look at the courses offered by the School, as well as some of the other open online course platforms. The three links below will get you started. You can also leave me a note in the Comment section.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.