The document discusses designing learner experiences for online learning management systems (LMS). It emphasizes understanding learner personas and designing for different learner types and their needs. The key learner personas discussed are the browser learner, self-developer learner, involuntary learner, and programmed learner. It recommends a collaborative design process that involves identifying learner types, developing learner personas, defining tasks and information needs, and validating designs with real users. An example is provided of learner personas developed for MindEd, an online resource for mental health education. The document concludes that success requires measuring and evolving the design after launch based on findings and feedback.

1. 1
Learner
Experience
Design –
Where the LMS
meets the
learningAre you thinking enough about your learners?
Mark Harrison, Director, City & Guilds Kineo
Totara User Group | London | May 15, 2014

2. 2
What’s the best LMS user interface?
It’s not best practice.
It’s not based on what they need to know.
It’s about them being human beings.

3. 3
What’s the best LMS user interface?
What’s your learning style?

4. 4
Catering for personas is the key to success
Theorist
Activist
Pragmatist

5. 5
Why are they coming to the LMS?
The Browser Learner
The Self Developer Learner
The Involuntary Learner
Theorist
The Programmed Learner
Theorist

6. 6
The main types of LMS design
User-controlled Structured paths

7. 7
What kind of experience do they want?
The Browser Learner
User-controlled
The Self Developer Learner
User-controlled
The Involuntary Learner
Structured paths
The Programmed Learner
Structured paths

8. 8
Catering for everyone?
User-controlled
Structured
User-controlled

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Recommended LMS design steps
• Get a clear and shared understanding of the project’s
objectives through Stakeholder interviews
• Define and agree primary and secondary objectives –
immediate and longer term
• Confirm the success criteria
• Define and agree KPIs – what does good look like?

10. 10
Catering for personas is the key to success
Theorist
Activist
Pragmatist

11. 11
Key principles of designing for learners
• Collaborative design process working with subject matter experts
and end-users
• Identify the key users/audiences and categorise them and develop
personas (through dialogue with end users)
• Give the personas names, characteristics and constraints e.g. time
pressures, technical-competency, devices they’ll be using etc. to bring them
to life
• Define their keys tasks/information-requirements, to feed into the design
and validation – the aim to solve users’ [real] needs/problems
• Adopt ‘Lean’ design over heavy-weight documentation/specifications
• Validate designs with ‘real’ users (if at all possible) – usability and visual
design / aesthetics

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MindEd – Designed for everyone with no personal plans

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Who are MindEd learners?

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MindEd Example Personas
Phil
Sports Coach
− Professional sports coach
− Ex-professional footballer himself – wants the kids to
achieve the success he never got
− Lives and breathes sport
− Personality type: Activist
− Dismissive of kids who don’t get involved
− Trigger: Has a star striker who is ‘weird’
− Phil has a fear of the ‘unknown’ (he doesn’t know what
is wrong with the kid, and that worries him)
− Found MindEd by googling it. Also saw it mentioned in
a coaching group newsletter
− Wants the site to be straightforward to use
− Turned off by jargon
Essential content / functionality
for Phil:
MindEd Core Curriculum Section 5 –
presentations
Would like to search using key words
Won’t log on to the site – he won’t be
willing to spend 5 minutes putting in
his personal details and won’t stay
longer than 30 minutes

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MindEd Example Personas
Jennie
Sports Coach
− Keen to explore the MindEd site (has more of a
general interest in the content than Phil).
− Trigger for interest: She has an unreliable
player in her team who never turns up for
practice. Wants to find out how she can
connect with this kid.
− Dedicated to her job
− Would spend 2 hours on the site
Essential content / functionality for
Jennie:
Recommend MindEd Core Curriculum
Section 5 – presentations
Would like to search using key words
As Jennie is an interested user, she will
want to explore the content more and
take advantage of other sessions
Site should steer Jennie towards a
learning path without overwhelming her
with too much content.

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After the launch!
• Measure and evolve the solution after launch by responding to early
findings: The launch is just the beginning!
• Set up criteria to answer the key question: How do we know if it’s
working?
• Measure against the success criteria / KPIs: Analytics and MI
• Iterate (where possible!) with phasing delivery/releases; fully functional
deployments evolving the solution over time
• Content curation: Nurture your content and keep it targeted