What Does it Mean to be an End-To-End Learning Designer?

What Does it Mean to be an End-To-End Learning Designer? 

The first thing to recognise is how interchangeable job titles are in the Digital Learning World.   

Within design alone, there are multiple different job titles, all meaning slightly different things and often inconsistent in their meaning across companies; Learning Experience Designer, Digital Learning Developer, Instructional Designer, Digital Learning Designer…..

A Digital Learning Designer at Company A might have a different remit to a Digital Learning Designer at Company B but the same remit as an Instructional Designer at Company C…!

When making sense of what these roles entail, it’s important to understand the overall Learning Design process first.  Even this will differ from company to company but generally we can take this to be.

1. Requirement gathering (working with the business to understand the need)

2. Creating an overall brief with the SME (the subject matter expert)

3. Storyboarding (visually designing mock-ups)

4. Scripting (writing the content and interactions)

5. Development / Multimedia / Graphics (creation of the content)

Some companies split these responsibilities out across a team.  Some designers may just be responsible for the earlier parts of this process.  In other company structures, individuals are responsible for the entirety of this process, from working with the SME right through to development of the finished product.   Internally at Instinct, and across much of the industry, we call these Learning Designers, End-to-end Learning Designers.

This term is not completely universal across the industry (that would be far too easy!) but it does adequately describe these responsibilities.

To be good at this role, you need to be an all-rounder.  You need strong client facing skills, understanding of pedagogy, creativity in concept design, strong writing skills for scripting and then excellent technical skills with authoring tools and graphics / multimedia tools.  

Keeping up to date with industry trends such as AI tools and human-centred design is also going to make you a compelling candidate.  It’s important to constantly upskill.

It’s natural for some professionals in this space to be better in some areas than others, so working out your strengths and what you ‘bring to the table’ in the learning design process is key when shaping your career in the industry.

If you’re interested in a career in Digital Learning, below are a couple of useful links to explore a little further;

A professional Diploma in Learning Design which covers the full end-to-end process;

https://www.digitallearninginstitute.com/courses/digital-learning-design-course

An Apprenticeship in Digital Learning, offering the opportunity to learn these skills ‘on the job’

https://www.ldnapprenticeships.com/ldn-digital-learning-design