A day in the life of a... Senior Learning Designer

Wojciech's Business Function - Quantexa Academy

The Education Services Team, commonly known as the Academy, provides Quantexa customers and partners with learning resources and support needed to realize the full value of our platform in the shortest time possible.

The Team’s responsibilities are very diverse. First, we develop eLearning content, working in cooperation with internal SMEs. We then organize it into learning paths and share those with learners using our LMS platform.

Second, we run instructor-led sessions and blended training programs for customers across the globe. We also issue the sleek purple badges you might have seen on LinkedIn to the graduates of our Academies.

And then, there are the intrepid Academy Team Leads. They offer personalized support to learners, coach them throughout their learning experience, and evaluate their projects. If you’re an active Q-Community user, you’ll also notice our ATLs tirelessly responding to users’ queries.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the massive amount of admin work handled my colleagues when onboarding new learners and managing the existing ones.

In this article, we find out from Wojciech what being a Senior Learning Designer is all about.

Meet Wojciech…

I majored in English linguistics, and a big part of my professional life was spent on working with language. For quite a few years, I was a freelance translator, editor, and content writer, always somehow linked to the field of education.

My speciality was designing story-driven, offbeat educational products, with the crowning achievement being the interactive crime drama “Olive Green” – my little attempt at gaining Hollywood fame.

In 2017, I became a full-time corporate Instructional Designer, working for Lidl Poland and then Lidl UK, and then transitioned to the field of IT.

In my free time, I do a bit of good-old karate, trading clumsy kicks and punches with other middle-aged people doing office jobs. On Saturday evenings, you will find me entertaining my kids or trying to follow some Palme d'Or arthouse movie handpicked by my wife.

As an educator by trade, I do my best to keep learning new things all the time. I am currently doing an L&D apprenticeship, kindly supported by Quantexa, and try to stay up to date with all the exciting new things revolutionizing education (AI, of course).

But what does a Senior Learning Designer actually do?

Learning Designers identify training needs and build learning interventions to address those. I intentionally used the word “interventions” rather than “content” as offering access to training content is just part of it.

In other words, we create solutions to problems linked to users not having the skills, knowledge, or confidence needed to successfully work with Quantexa.

How do you normally start your working day?

Mornings are all about hectic children management. Once you made sure they are well-fed, properly clothed, and safely delivered to schools, the rest of the day is plain sailing.

Coffee is very important - ground and brewed at home, and consumed in life-threatening amounts. Caffeine addiction will be the end of me, but I’m not yet ready to give up.

How would you describe a typical day?

I usually spend considerable amount of time handling all sorts of design tasks. This might include researching, storyboarding, eLearning development, bits of graphic design or video editing, or reviewing content created by my colleagues.

There’s also lots of communication with SMEs taking place when I’m trying to better understand platform features so that I can explain them to our learners.

What do you enjoy most in your role?

Instructional design has been described as “art and science”, and it’s the diversity element that I enjoy most. It sits at the intersection of so many exciting fields: psychology, UX, technology, business, even art (if you want to get fancy).

For me, it’s all about creating experiences that are effective, motivational, but also, where applicable, delightful for learners.

What are your main goals as a Senior Learning Designer?

• To help drive platform adoption and customer self-sufficiency by creating effective training solutions.
• To identify and address knowledge, skills, and confidence gaps experienced by Quantexa customers and partners.
• To continuously improve our Academies to make them increasingly user-centric and accessible.

What are your most memorable moments?

Each launch of a new Academy is an exciting “theatre premiere moment”. We live for the words: “I liked the training AND it was easy to use, AND I learnt a lot.”

What do you think are the most important attributes of a Senior Learning Designer?

Creative and inquisitive mind, communication skills, and unwavering devotion to the cause of user-centricity. But, as I mentioned, it’s a multi-discipline field, and the backgrounds of my Team members are proof of that.

What are you excited about at the moment?

We’re currently working intensively on launching revamped Academies, which will be shorter, easier to use, and more accessible. This is a massive piece of work that keeps us on our toes.

What is the best tip you have learnt for using Quantexa?

For me working with the platform is a continuous discovery of its features and potential. It offers so many ways of doing things. It’s fascinating, but at the same time, it makes my work a little more challenging.

What is your favorite feature of the Quantexa Community?

I enjoy people discussing how they used Quantexa to solve big real-life problems that affect everyone, such as financial fraud. It makes you feel that as a Quantexan you are part of a positive change.