Designing Learning at Scale

The majority of my current work sits within ICEF Academy, ICEF's professional learning platform serving more than 24,000 learners worldwide.

Working alongside subject matter experts, business stakeholders, marketing and technology teams, I help design, build, launch and maintain digital learning experiences that support education professionals across international markets.

While every course has its own objectives, audiences and subject matter, my role remains remarkably consistent: transforming complex expertise into practical, engaging learning experiences that help people do their jobs more effectively.

Today, my responsibilities extend across the entire learning lifecycle—from early research and instructional design through assessment development, production, launch and long-term maintenance.

Professional education presents a unique design challenge.

Unlike academic learning, learners aren't studying simply to pass an exam. They're looking for practical knowledge they can apply immediately within their organisations.

That means every learning experience needs to balance several competing priorities:

• Educational quality
• Subject matter accuracy
• Business objectives
• Accessibility
• Learner engagement
• Long-term maintainability

The challenge isn't simply presenting information.

It's helping busy professionals build confidence, make better decisions and apply new knowledge in real-world situations.

My work spans multiple stages of the learning design process.

Rather than specialising in only one area, I contribute throughout the complete development lifecycle. This includes:

• Researching complex topics and policy developments
• Collaborating closely with subject matter experts
• Structuring learning journeys
• Writing instructional content
• Designing assessments aligned to learning outcomes
• Working with marketing and technology teams before launch
• Maintaining existing courses through regular updates and fact-checking
• Identifying opportunities for continuous improvement

I particularly enjoy working at the point where expertise becomes learning—helping transform specialist knowledge into experiences that are accurate, engaging and genuinely useful.

Every course is a collaborative effort.

Subject matter experts bring years of experience and specialist knowledge. My responsibility is to help shape that expertise into a structured learning experience without losing the nuance that makes it valuable.

This often means asking questions such as:

• What does the learner actually need to be able to do after completing this course?
• What misconceptions are likely to exist?
• What sequence will make the content easiest to understand?
• How can assessment reinforce learning rather than simply test memory?
• How can we make complex ideas accessible without oversimplifying them?

Those conversations are often just as valuable as the writing itself.

Good instructional design isn't about adding information. It's about deciding what matters most and presenting it in the clearest possible way.

One aspect of the role I particularly value is that learning doesn't stop at publication.

Policies change. Industry practices evolve. Markets develop. New learner needs emerge.

Because of this, I also maintain and continuously improve a portfolio of more than fifteen existing courses. That work involves reviewing policy updates, fact-checking content, collaborating with subject matter experts and ensuring every learning experience continues to reflect current best practice.

I see maintenance as an essential part of instructional design rather than an afterthought. Well-designed learning should remain valuable over time, and that requires continuous attention rather than one-off delivery.

Although the finished course is what learners see, its development depends on collaboration across many different functions.

Throughout the process, I regularly work with:

• Subject matter experts
• Internal business stakeholders
• Marketing teams
• Technology teams
• Product colleagues
• Learning professionals

One of the parts of my work I enjoy most is translating between these different perspectives, ensuring educational quality while keeping projects moving towards successful delivery.

During my time in this role I have contributed to:

• Designing, producing and launching more than five professional development courses, each exceeding twenty hours of learning.
• Supporting a global learning community of more than 24,000 learners.
• Maintaining a portfolio of over fifteen learning programmes through structured review and continuous improvement.
• Developing assessments aligned with meaningful learning outcomes.
• Contributing Knowledge Hub articles and supporting wider organisational initiatives beyond my core responsibilities.

While those outputs are important, I consider the most valuable outcome to be something less tangible: helping learners build confidence in applying new knowledge within their own organisations.

Working at ICEF has fundamentally changed how I think about learning.

I've learned that effective instructional design is rarely about creating more content. It's about asking better questions.

It's about understanding learners before writing for them. It's about balancing educational principles with operational realities. It's about listening carefully to subject matter experts while advocating for the learner's perspective.

Most importantly, it's taught me that great learning experiences are built through collaboration. No single person creates them alone. The best outcomes emerge when specialists from different disciplines work together towards a shared goal.