Learning Design

Personal Professional Development — Course Design (ENTREP1002)

A full design and build of ENTREP1002 Personal Professional Development: aligning outcomes, assessments and weekly learning to help students form a professional identity and portfolio. Deliverables included course alignment, personas and narrative, UX copy, assessment exemplars, and data visualisation upgrades. Collaboration across academics, learning designers and media resulted in a coherent, visual, week-by-week student experience.

RoleLearning DesignerYear2022Duration8 MonthsTeamCourse Authors, Learning Designers, Media Team

Instructional DesignConstructive AlignmentUX WritingHigher EducationPersonas

Project scope & tools

The Personal Professional Development course equips students with practical professional skills and a strong sense of professional identity. It blends theory with application so learners can navigate ethics, build personal learning ecosystems, and work cooperatively.

Tools

Canva · Canvas (LMS) · Zoom

Team & timeline

Course Authors — Stella Bachtis, Rea Bachtis
Learning Designers — Andrew Beatton, Richard Bartlett, Danielle Rhianna Lemieux, Tim Klapdor
Media Team — Aaron Honson, Michael Brockhouse

Timeline — August 2021 → March 2022

Process overview

Course alignment
PPD personas
UX copywriting
Assessment exemplars
Visualising data
Polish & publish in Canvas

Constructive alignment

We began with a full constructive alignment pass—mapping outcomes to assessments, weekly activities and resources across 12 weeks.

12-week PPD planning board: outcomes, assessments and weekly tasks

Assessments scaffold into a final portfolio that evidences growth and readiness for the business environment. A week-by-week guide clarifies expectations and milestones. Design was iteratively refined via stakeholder feedback and collaboration.

Concept map

The initial planning board was distilled into a concept map—a navigable, student-friendly visual that keeps the structure obvious and the journey clear.

The map emphasises hierarchy, colour and flow so learners can see how topics connect and where they're heading each week.

Key design artefacts — the PPD cycle

Lesson 1.1 introduces the Personal Professional Development cycle that frames the course. We evolved it from sketch → mock → animated final, in partnership with the media team.

Initial circular sketch of the PPD cycle

Mock with University branding and clearer labels

Finalised animated PPD cycle with distinct colour steps

The final chooses distinct colours for each step (rather than UoA palette) to emphasise differences and aid recall.

Personas & narrative

Story drives memory (Simmons, 2006), so we embedded a light narrative through two personas—Sarah and Alex—inspired by 16personalities MBTI patterns. Students follow their choices across Determine → Develop → Grow → Reflect → Apply and map their own growth alongside.

Three emotional journey maps showing highs and lows across the PPD journey

Sarah and Alex: final journey maps across five stages

Inclusivity note: we used gender-neutral language and AI-assisted imagery to reflect diverse identities.

UX copy & student resources

We wrote UX copy to make optional resources feel invitational, not remedial—"Dive into PPD with selected reads that mirror the diversity and potential of your personal growth journey."

Each resource has a short overview so learners can decide quickly what's useful and why it matters to their goals.

Visual concepts — Maslow's hierarchy

To reduce cognitive load, we translated text-heavy theory into concise visuals. Example: Maslow's hierarchy, using a calm monochrome palette and simple icons for fast scanning.

Minimal, icon-based Maslow hierarchy for quick comprehension

Presentations (embedded)

We also built mini-presentations inside the LMS for targeted lessons—e.g., Professionalism (respect, dress, punctuality, time management).

Open the full presentation

Assessment exemplars

Assessments build to a professional portfolio in Microsoft Sway. We supplied:
a branded banner,
step-by-step guidance and links,
a duplicate-ready Sway template so students focus on content—not layout.