It is, if you design, develop, facilitate or improve learning and want to do so with greater rigour, evidence and confidence.

You may want to strengthen your own design practice, or you may have a specific challenge, initiative or mandate that would benefit from structure and expert feedback.

You do not need “learning experience designer” in your title. What matters is that you are close to the work of designing or improving learning, and ready to own an applied project for the full 12 weeks.

We recommend two or more years of relevant professional experience in learning, education, training, instructional design, professional development or a related area.

This is an advanced, applied program, not an introduction to learning design. You will be expected to weigh real design decisions, work independently between facilitated activities and apply what you learn to a substantial professional challenge or opportunity. Your experience is part of what you contribute to the cohort.

No. You do not need to arrive with a fully developed solution. You may bring a learning challenge, opportunity, early concept or existing initiative that you want to investigate and advance.

You will need two things: a clear area of focus that can lead to the design or improvement of a learning experience, program or solution, and enough access to the relevant learners, stakeholders or setting to investigate it properly.

Any project where the learning experience itself is what you are designing or improving. This could include redesigning an onboarding experience that isn’t landing, developing a professional learning program, improving a digital learning experience, creating a mentorship or development initiative, or rethinking an existing program that no longer meets learners’ needs.

The topic matters less than the focus of your inquiry. If your central question is “How do we design this learning better?”, this program is the right fit.

Advanced Learning Experience Design focuses on the learning experience itself. It is intended for professionals who create or improve learning directly and want to grow as learning designers.

Advanced Workplace Learning and Development Performance takes a wider view. It is designed for experienced professionals addressing workforce capability and performance challenges that span teams, functions, systems or the broader organization.

The same topic can sometimes be approached through either program. The difference is the problem you are trying to solve, your role in addressing it and the scope of the work. In short: are you designing the learning, or solving a broader performance problem?

Not sure which program is the better fit? Contact our team and we will help you choose.

The program combines self-directed learning and applied project work with facilitated learning and peer collaboration anchored by four scheduled Skills Labs.

Over 12 weeks, you will work through a structured 4D process (Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver) to investigate your context and learners' needs, define your design challenge, develop and test ideas, and establish a path toward implementation.

Plan for approximately 10 hours of learning and project work per week.

Feedback is built into every stage. Through Skills Labs and facilitated activities, you will share work in progress, receive feedback from experienced learning professionals and learn from a small cohort of peers working on challenges of their own.

This is where thinking gets tested, assumptions get challenged and ideas get sharper, helping you make informed decisions as your work develops through each stage of the 4D process.

Between facilitated activities, you will continue your inquiry and project work independently, applying what you are learning directly to your own area of focus.

By the end of the program, you will have substantially advanced a real learning experience, program or solution through a structured process of investigation, design, testing and refinement.

Because participants enter with different challenges and at different stages of development, final outputs may vary. Every participant leaves with a clear design rationale they can stand behind and a practical path toward implementation. Just as importantly, you will leave with a design approach you can return to on every project that follows.

Upon successful completion, you will receive a Master Certificate of Completion from OISE Continuing & Professional Learning at the University of Toronto.

The certificate recognizes completion of a 125-hour applied professional learning program and your work advancing a learning design challenge through investigation, development, feedback and refinement.