“Why did we do that?” A Systematic Approach to Tracking Decisions in the Design and Iteration of Learning Experiences

Abstract

Practitioners today are often tasked with designing learning experiences situated in increasingly complex contexts where defining the challenge, understanding learners and stakeholders, and being informed by theory and evidence must all be taken into consideration when planning and implementing a solution. The Learning Engineering Evidence and Decision (LEED) tracker is one possible tool for managing these various channels of influence by recording, revisiting, and iterating upon actionable design decisions in an evidence-grounded way. Emerging from specific examples of LEED tracker use by a learning engineering team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are general benefits for others engaging in design for learning: it concretizes decisions grounded in understandings of pedagogical approaches and context, facilitates iteration and improvement based on data, and serves as a communication tool among stakeholders.