Describe what you do
A week ago I asked the question on LinkedIn “how would you describe to a family member what it is you do?”
A big thank you to those who answered, here is a summary of what you said:
“I help lecturers augment their teaching with appropriate technologies and test if they have a demonstrable impact on students’ learning.” Robin Gissing
“I say I help people learn, mainly online, in their own time and try to do it in a way that is as easy as possible for them (but it is never “easy”).” Brendan Strong
“If I’m feeling geeky about it, I tell people I use a hierarchical model of cognitive function to create structured learning programmes. Once I’ve lost my audience, I just tell them I write training courses.” Maggie Halpin
“I design and develop education and training to enable someone to do/say something they were unable to do beforehand, usually in a business setting to achieve the goals of the business or address an issue or opportunity. To do that, I do analysis on the need and the learners and environment and tools/resources, I prepare objectives and a way to test if the objectives have been met, develop a strategy, design resources and practice activities per the strategy and test, and develop the content.” Clare Ruckdeschel
“I transcreate online training courses. This means I translate them into another language, whereby I take the extra step of ensuring that this language is appropriate to the location and culture of the students, to produce maximum results.” Cornelis Kranendonk
“I am the voice of the learner.” S. H.
“I would say in its simplest form I create and piece together learning experiences that help people do their job better!” Carrie Butler
“I help people to use technology to learn new skills.” Beth Martin
“I would say an intervention Specialist.” Razia Pilodia
How would you describe your role and what you do?
At the moment I’m not sure I could articulate my current role, other than trying desperately to keep up with the volume and scope of changes during this lockdown. Normally I’d say I manage individual Learning Designers and their projects and workload. I liaise and communicate/collaborate with colleauges on matters of Learning Design and resourcing, availability and scope of projects they’re involved in. I may be titled as ‘Senior Learning Designers’ but it’s more like ‘Learning Design Manager’ in reality. How we use Learning Design skills and experience strategically across the business and in support of the wider institution’s needs is becoming, in these times, more important and more relavent.
- This reflection is the 20th entry in my ‘what is a learning technologist’ series. All posts currently part of the What is a Learning Technologist series can be found here.
Photo by James Coleman on Unsplash
