Karen Caldwell, 23 November 2021

Learning design is a magical mix of key ingredients, portion control, proven techniques and attention to timing. When you put a chef’s hat on and think not only about the tastes of your dinner guests but also their nourishment and nutritional needs, you’re setting everyone up for the rewards of learning: memory, transfer, and lifelong learning habits.

Before we move on, ask yourself what your own recipe is for your own learning. What are the main ingredients? What recipe works for you? Now you’re ready to think about other learners.

If you’re new to learning design, start with these three steps for the perfect recipe. They’re mostly for adult learners in online courses. Once you’re comfortable and see how things go with different learners, you can free style a little.

3 Step Recipe:

FOCUS: Attention, Interest
DO: Activity, Mistakes, Feedback
PERSONALIZE: Reflection, Meaning-making

FOCUS: Attention & Interest

Without alertness and focus, there’s just no point continuing with a learning experience. Help your learners to perk up, be attentive, and even be interested by connecting to what matters to them.

Get learners motivated to seek or learn by fostering curiosity
Trigger an emotional connection through story-telling

DO: Activity, Mistakes, Feedback

Build on the spark created through curiosity and emotion to get learners involved. Set up activities for them to scratch their itchy, curious brains with a task or two to check a guess or predictions or answer a question about a story.

Design activities to apply the lesson content, beginning with low risk and fun tasks
See mistakes for what they are: brain candy that increases alertness in the brain
Make sure learners notice the mistake by using helpful feedback strategies

PERSONALIZE: Reflection, Meaning-making

Learners benefit from connecting learning to themselves and what’s important to them. Extend and deepen their learning by having learners

ponder the topic on a personal level by following a framework for reflection
make meaning about the experience in a “visible” way by creating their own performance aid

Rinse & Repeat

You’ve gone to all the trouble of baking in the ingredients and checking how everyone’s doing (don’t forget that part). Start your next learning activity with a connection and recap – but have learners themselves do the work.

design tasks for learners to recall earlier lessons in online (eLearning) environments
better still, bake in a reflection activity about the value of active recall, and share ways that learners can do this on their own

Now that everyone’s connected to earlier lessons, rinse and repeat with the no-fail recipe:

gain attention & interest,
engage in activities where mistakes & feedback go hand in hand, and
pause to reflect on the experience and create meaning for lifelong learning, well beyond your lesson!