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Sharing our latest insights, views and opinions on designing for learning

Latest posts

A depiction of many people working together
Written by
Matt
September 5, 2025
The value of real time collaboration during the learning design process

Real time collaboration transforms how learning design teams work together. Instead of passing drafts around or working in silos, designers, educators, and subject experts can see contributions as they happen. This visibility reduces duplication, builds trust, and creates genuine co-design rather than a sequence of handoffs. For learners, it results in stronger, more aligned courses delivered faster. For teams, it turns collaboration into a shared process where every contribution is visible and valued. With Coursensu’s new real time collaboration feature, teams can work together in context, ensuring design is transparent, efficient, and focused on outcomes.

A visual depiction of modularity
Written by
Matt
August 14, 2025
The strengths of a design system - creating reusable learning objects and modular learning design

Modular learning design focuses on creating reusable elements (such as pedagogies, activities, content, assessments, media, and layouts) that can be applied across multiple courses. Done well, this approach delivers efficiency, consistency, and higher value for both learners and educators. Familiar elements create flow and reduce friction, while reusable assets speed up production and simplify quality control. However, overuse without variety, lack of updates, and poor initial setup can lead to stale or outdated learning. By identifying and curating reusable elements, you can start each new design with a solid foundation and achieve more with less effort, without sacrificing learner experience.

An expression of time, a wall of clocks
Written by
Matt
July 28, 2025
How ten extra minutes in a learning design becomes a month of effort

Time is one of the most powerful tools in learning design. Adding even a few extra minutes at the design stage helps balance the learner journey, avoids costly revisions, and ensures every activity adds value. For professional, time-poor learners, clear durations make it easier to plan study and stay engaged. For employers, it demonstrates that training time is being invested wisely. By setting and agreeing durations early, you improve stakeholder confidence, prevent overproduction and protect learner motivation. The result is a more efficient process and a stronger, more impactful learning experience.

A decorative image showing a more engaging, active learning experience
Written by
Matt
July 22, 2025
Applying the ASSURE model to your next learning design storyboard

The ASSURE model remains a valuable framework for instructional and learning designers. When combined with Coursensu’s structured, visual approach to storyboarding, it provides a clear, collaborative path to better course design. By analysing learners, setting clear objectives, selecting and utilising media effectively, designing for participation and building evaluation into your workflow, you can deliver learner-focused courses that meet outcomes and exceed expectations. Most importantly, treating this as a cycle allows you to improve continuously, get stakeholder input earlier, and avoid waiting for learners to discover issues that could have been addressed at the design stage.

A human interacting with an AI
Written by
Matt
July 18, 2025
Writing effective prompts when using AI to create learning experiences

Prompting is a core skill for modern learning designers. The clearer your request, the better the AI will perform. Define your outcome, specify the output format, add detail and context, provide examples and iterate if needed. AI tools work best when we treat them as collaborators. Everyone’s use of AI will vary, and there is no one perfect way to prompt. What matters is that you refine your approach over time, keep learning and focus on making the output genuinely useful for your work and your learners.

A depiction of moving from lower to higher quality - bursting with colours
Written by
Matt
July 9, 2025
Self-led quality control: championing high standards in learning design

Self-led quality control is about taking ownership of learning design standards before issues reach learners. Rather than relying on external reviewers or waiting for feedback from frustrated users, designers can use structured checks to improve clarity, accessibility, flow, engagement and alignment. This blog post outlines why quality matters, how to make it part of your workflow, and what to look for at different stages of course development.

Course Companion's learning outcome alignment tool
Written by
Matt
June 23, 2025
Introducing Course Companion: On-demand learning design inside any Moodle course

Great online learning doesn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of intentional design; aligning content, outcomes, activities, and experience. But for many educators using Moodle, that design support isn’t always available. You're juggling course editing with content creation, assessment design and learner support, mostly without dedicated learning design support. That’s where the Course Companion comes in. It brings expert support directly into your Moodle course - for educators, SMEs, and teams to improve learning experiences at the exact moment they’re building them.

An image showing how as AI evolves, you can further consider how AI works for you
Written by
Matt
June 9, 2025
Beyond AI learning content generation: How AI works for you

This blog post explores how AI in education is evolving beyond basic content generation. While AI tools can efficiently produce learning outcomes, personas, and quiz questions, their real value lies in what comes next. We examine the rise of AI learning agents that support educators by reviewing, aligning, and transforming content, even simulating browser actions to streamline digital workflows. The post highlights current limits, risks, and the skills needed to use AI responsibly. As AI capabilities rapidly expand, learning designs teams must adapt to stay effective. We offer practical guidance to help you move from content generation to a collaborative partner.

Image depicting a system with many moving parts
Written by
Matt
May 28, 2025
Finding efficiencies in learning design: Are you creating value where it matters most? Ten areas to explore

This post explores 10 ways to streamline your learning design workflow, from early ideation and blueprinting to AI-assisted content transformation, stakeholder alignment, and structured sign-off. It highlights how tools, processes, and mindset shifts can reduce friction, cut wasted time, and boost quality. Even high performing teams have room to improve. By focusing on where time is spent versus value created, you can unlock smarter, faster, and more scalable learning design system for the future.

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