What is Learning Experience Design (LXD)?
A lot of friends ask what I’m going to school for and my response is usually “I’ll make instructional materials for schools or businesses” to keep it simple. The field itself is relatively new. To make it more confusing, some companies have positions with the title of "Learning Experience Designer” but the job description doesn’t necessarily sound much different from Instructional Design (ID).
What exactly is Learning Experience Design (LXD)?
Learning experience design (LXD) is a holistic approach to designing educational or training programs. The focus of these programs is on the overall learner experience. Many K-12 schools already employ a more holistic approach. Businesses tend to be more “hit or miss” with their employee training, making the contrast between traditional ID and LXD more pronounced. LXD emphasizes creating a positive and engaging experience that both delivers the intended knowledge and skills but also motivates learners to continue their learning journey. LXD takes into account factors such as emotions, motivation, engagement, and overall satisfaction in addition to the content itself.
What exactly is Instructional Design (ID)?
Instructional design (ID) on the other hand, is a systematic approach to creating educational and training programs that focuses on the instructional strategies, materials, and methods used. The primary focus of ID is on the content and how it is delivered to the learners, with the goal of ensuring that the learning objectives are met. There is less freedom with Instructional Design, especially with a diverse group of learners (like new and experienced employees in a company). ID often follows a structured process, such as ADDIE, SAM, UbD, or others to create instructional materials and evaluate if they were effective.
LXD takes a wider perspective on the learning experience to create more enjoyable and memorable learning experiences, while ID focuses primarily on meeting learning objectives through the design and delivery of the instructional materials.
