LXD: Rethinking the Position of Tech in Education

I’m sure we’re all aware of training platforms like e-learning and MOOC which began integrating with web 2.0 technology over the past decade. But in recent years there have been more phrases coming into the public eye: virtual or augmented reality (VR/AR), gamification, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud-based learning, and learning behaviour tracking. Many of these claim that they will reform the education industry and methods of teaching and learning.

For education providers with little tech background, it can be difficult to process the true product behind these phrases. For some practitioners this can lead to a confused uncertainty about what the future of education is shaping to be, and how they can best adapt to the evolving landscape.

Enter “learning experience design,” a concept which helps to rethink the position of education in the era of the technology boom.

Achieving more

Learning experience design (LXD) is the creation of intuitive, interactive learner-centric interfaces for online learning. It came about as an answer to the divergence of formal and informal teaching that occurs in online learning — and with trends like customer experience design (CXD) transforming the user experience of the screen to the user experience of the whole service, LXD expands the boundary to allow students to achieve their outcomes in a human-centered, goal-oriented way.

While UX designers are concerned with crafting the user’s experience of a product, learning experience designers go beyond this by seeking to enhance the cognitive learning processes and learning outcomes for a student. Based on this model, LXD brings understanding to the relationship between emerging technologies and their potential to influence learning. It should also serve to help designers deliver a better learning experience and enable students to achieve more.

Revolutionise training

So, how do you begin incorporating LXD into your training? A great starting point is Learning Experience Canvas, a tool which helps give structure to the process of designing a great learning experience.

Firstly, it identifies the learning goals, who the learners are, where they’re learning, and the resources available to them. These compose the overall picture of potential learning. Using these insights, consider how you can best deliver the learning experience — keep thinking and researching, talk over your ideas with your peers, and revisit the experience when needed to update according to new understanding.

Although learning experience design is a nascent idea with few materials in the field, fortunately it does have a well-developed sibling: user experience design. By transplanting frameworks, methods, and tool kits from the UXD community, you’re well on your way to creating incredible learning experiences for your students.