learningdesign

we ease the learner’s path

At Ease, we work backwards from outcomes to design the learner’s path to performance.

Ease designers construct each achievement to reduce learner friction.

Engaged learners achieve outcomes faster.

Engaged learners retain what’s learned  to apply to real-world challenges.

Engaged learners who stay with you become your top performers.

Get in touch…

How long does it take to build a new online program?

Key steps in our process

• Create a program framework to establish consistency in student experience 

• Embed the most engaging learning best practices possible and collaborate with faculty experts to ensure rigor and outcome alignment

• Establish key supports for faculty subject matter experts by scaffolding the course design that follows this pre design phase

• Establish a cadence with faculty that balances their workload with course design

Design Plus - we do the work for you

Effective program design in this manner takes 24-32 weeks of collaborative work.  Here’s what needs to happen as part of the process:

• Before an engagement with Design Plus can begin, vendor onboarding is necessary. This may possibly involve a RFP process, and will definitely involve legal review. Once you have determined when you want to launch a program to your students, you should plan a year out for a new launch, assuming that your internal procurement process takes no more than 1-2 months.

• After the framework is in place, we would need time to work through the blueprinting of each module with subject matter experts, and iterate on each module to finalize for production into the LMS. Part of this timeline also allows for suggestions on interactive media development, and thinking about skills and competencies in the learning. 

Want to launch faster? check out accelerated plus

With Accelerated Plus, you can shorten the timeline to 8-12 weeks; with our team, followed by your internal course design and production schedule. We train and support your faculty to design courses themselves and get consistency for the student experience within a program.

• We create the framework we are known for, and then shift to an upskilling mode where we provide the tools, and know how, but your team follows through with the design.

• Faculty have ownership of course design with expert guidance around best practices with the content, collaboration and assessment from our learning experience designers on best engagement methods for online and blended formats.

• The tools, documentation and workshops are applicable to ongoing development, and establish a core of consistent best practices. Even in this instance - you should consider building a buffer from launch to allow more time for faculty to apply the learning we are offering to them in the Accelerated model training within their own design.
  

our design services

A path to performance

At Ease, we work backwards from outcomes to design the learner’s path to performance.  Learner-centered engagement is the driver for equity in learning.  Our team of designers takes into consideration all learning styles throughout the design process and we use methods grounded in Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to ensure that all learners’ needs are being met. 

We construct each achievement to reduce learner friction and engage learners right from the start because we understand that engaged learners achieve outcomes faster. Engaged learners also retain what’s learned and can apply it to real-world challenges.  These learners stay with you and become your top performers.

Our record of success  

We have created online learning products for some of the most recognizable institutions including SNHU, Boston College, Temple University,  Johns Hopkins University, San Diego Continuing Education and so many more.

Ease Learning Design in practice

Here’s what an engagement with our design services looks like

Program Framework

To ensure scalable, effective and measurable programs, a key aspect of our design services is the creation of a sustainable Program Framework.  This Framework defines the learner's journey and helps ensure that outcomes are met on a variety of levels across your entire program. It also serves as an ongoing useful reference for the design and development of your online courses so you can create a learning product that meets mutually agreed upon benchmarks of quality, brand alignment, and academic rigor.

Creating an Effective Student Experience Through Curriculum Design

The learner experience is at the center of our design process. Incorporating best practice for online learning with faculty input and your brand, we create a consistent learning journey and set a high bar for pedagogy and user experience. Our process moves your team from just teaching virtually to delivering optimized online learning.

Learner Centered

Course activities are designed with a learner-centered approach, shifting the focus of instruction from the instructor to your learners. It acknowledges the learner's voice as central to the learning experience. Instruction of complex topics scaffold from formative to summative, leading to direct application and/or connection to a learner’s end goals (e.g., on the job/real-world application).

Course Design

The course content is developed from a blueprint created by your Ease Learning team.  The blueprint is a document that matches the learning path and is the foundation of your courses.

Your Course Design Blueprint:

• Contains sections for the course description, course outcomes, module titles/descriptions, module learning objectives, module resources, tasks, and other relevant information. 

• Is used to write the course content and ensures that the process is efficient, consistent and transparent. 

• All associated course files are created by Ease Learning in our traditional service and Design Plus offerings.

Ease Learning Design Plus

Ease Learning Design Plus is a learning design service where we provide the full turnkey program & curriculum development your institution needs to successfully develop and build your online learning product. In addition to everything listed above, your learning products are developed with Skillways, a tool that allows our experts to have insight into actionable learner data which we constantly review and analyze for you. These courses are designed to be compatible with your existing LMS, there is no need to move off of the existing platform your learners already know.

With Ease Learning Design Plus option, you can be assured that your learners will have access to a high-quality learning experience, one that reflects your branding, academic standards and meets the expectations of your learners.  Additionally, you will have access to actionable learner insights that will inform continuous improvement to your outcome-aligned, fully online or hybrid programs. 

Working with your faculty or subject matter experts (SMEs), this model is the most comprehensive way to ensure your team is supported and an active part of the process, without having a heavy burden on their time and without pushing the boundaries of their expertise.  

Modular Course Design

Ease Learning modules are aligned to competencies and defined as 7-10 learner hours and can be stacked into traditional courses.  This is a flexible model—modules can easily be reconfigured/combined into different offerings or act as stand-alone modules.

Our support doesn’t end when the course is built

We use the information gleaned from Skillways to report back to identify key areas of improvement. Think of it as getting a subscription to a team of learning design experts that proactively share their recommendations on how to build improvements and optimize outcomes.

Why Ease Learning Design Plus?

• Ensure learners and faculty or instructors have the platform support they need, when they need it, with a 24/7 end user support helpdesk for both Skillways support and your existing LMS.

• Leverage your SME’s content knowledge to develop the most effective learner experience for the online modality. 

• SkillwaysTM proprietary data and learning analytics software ensures your courses are optimized to produce actionable data.

• Review learner outcomes and drive retention and success in a continuous improvement model.
  

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