Week 1 of 6 — Getting started with learning theories
7 August 2025 · Rich Bartlett
Over the next six weeks, I'll be sharing a short post each week as I work through the Think: Learning Theories and Implications for Learning Design microcredential with Cameron Murray.
It's part of my Professional Development Review (PDR) goals at the University of Adelaide, and a great chance to step back from day-to-day projects and reflect on the theory, craft, and creativity behind learning design.
Through Module 1, we looked at what a learning designer actually does, and the many ways people find their way into the role. Rieber's idea that there's no one 'correct' path really landed with me. He talks about how tools are great, but it's the craft that matters. I'm no coder, but my tech background has definitely helped in projects where others bring the deep subject expertise, and I bring the "how do we make this work?" know-how.
I also liked the point that you don't have to stick to one learning theory. Sometimes the best approach is to pick what works for the situation, rather than follow a single playbook.
During our live session break, Regina Bruce, Matt, and I used AI to create Professor Tentacle — a Spiderman and nature-inspired character. The prompt was to create an octopus/human hybrid like Otto Octavius (Dr Oc from Spiderman), based on what we think skills and knowledge make up a Learning Designer. We wanted him friendly, not evil. We based the design on learning designer skills like collaboration, gamification, design thinking, and project management.
The generated image still had some quirks — repetitive labels and some typos — so it wasn't perfect, but it was a great bit of fun.
Great to see my colleague Demian Figueroa also in the course, and Thy M Pham in the sister course, Design: Designing for Learning.
A big thanks to the University of Adelaide for supporting my career development and making it possible to enrol as part of my PDR goals.
Next week, we'll dive into behavioural learning theories — looking at how behaviour can be shaped, measured, and applied in learning design.