I’m a freelance Learning Experience Designer. In the past I worked as an LXD for Baringa Partners and PA Consulting, and as an ID for LSEG Refinitiv, Kaplan Financial, Learning Pool and QA Training, managing learning and content management projects, writing storyboards and doing lots and lots of quality control. Before QA I was employed as an instructional designer specialising in systems training (mostly Eikon and Datastream) at Thomson Reuters.

I’m a certificated 5 Moments of Need Designer, I’ve done Cathy Moore’s excellent training course on scenario-based learning, and I have an Open MA which includes Technology Enhanced Learning.

For me learning design isn’t about the technology; it’s about understanding your audience and creating learning that combines excellent writing with the tools your learners need to develop their minds. It doesn’t matter how whizzy your graphics are, or how interactive your course is, if it’s badly written or sloppily constructed or if it doesn’t  meet the learner’s needs, it won’t work as a learning experience.

My recent work (and the MA) got me interested in the concept of social learning, where you deliver what people need, when they need it, and encourage learners to share their knowledge and experiences. It’s a tough sell (and I say, “…what we didn’t isn’t exactly elearning, it’s much better than that…” a LOT), and I do like Articulate Rise and I’m trying to transfer my Adobe Captivate skills to Storyline.

If you would like to discuss anything to do with designing learning that helps people do their jobs better please contact me via my LinkedIn profile.