The Future of Instructional Design and Job Titles

During a webinar, someone asked me what instructional designers will be called in the future. What’s interesting to think about is that our field has gone by many names since it began. In the 1940s and 50s, we were training specialists and instructional developers. In the 60s and 70s, the term “instructional designer” became popular, along with titles like instructional technologist and curriculum developer. Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction and the rise of ADDIE certainly influenced these names.

In the 80s and 90s, we saw the boom of computer-based learning. Technology took center stage, and we were called multimedia developers, eLearning designers, and learning systems designers. With the rise of LMSs and authoring tools in the 2000s, titles like eLearning developer, learning experience designer, and learning architect became more common. Then, in the 2010s and beyond, new roles emerged: learning strategists, learning engineers, digital learning designers, and more.

So, what does the future hold for us? Sure, this is a bit of a silly exercise—titles change, but the core competencies stay the same. I don’t have a crystal ball, and I get that your company or institution ultimately decides what to call your role. But hey, it’s Friday, so let’s have some fun with it!

Personalized Learning Strategist

Personalized learning isn’t new. One of the main critiques of personalized learning is how difficult it is to enact. Customizing learning to align with each student's strengths, needs, and interests while offering them choice, voice, and flexibility in achieving their learning goals and the learning outcomes is a herculean effort. One project that you may have seen was with Eduflow academy and the Instructional Design Principles for Course Creation. This was a course spearheaded by William Cronje and Terra van der Lugt. In the course, students had options of selecting different learning tracks. If you wanted to learn about instructional design from a higher education perspective, you had the ability to select this pathway and then you were placed in a minicohort of higher ed instructional designers. The content would even adapt to be more higher ed focused. You could do this with each kind of sector and it was amazing to see how students interacted with this kind of flexibility.

However, there is one massive problem with this. It took so much time. It’s almost as if we need some kind of advanced technology to help us with pulling off this feat again, and oh wait, there’s that whole AI movement thing. With the right blend of human and AI power, I think we could take the personalized learning concept and truly kick it up several notches. What once would’ve taken weeks to do, could now be done in days. Do you need to use AI for this kind of role? No, not necessarily. I could see this being more of a niche where a smaller or private learning experience would be created.

Learning Experience Engineer (LXE)

If we took a systems-thinking approach and blended learning sciences, UX, and data analytics, we get LXE. Imagine a field where structured courses were frowned upon, and instead, intelligent, adaptive learning ecosystems where the focus. The learning environment would be a living breathing thing that would adapt based off of performance, tracking metrics, and making predictions.

LXEs would design adaptive learning platforms that leverage machine learning to adjust the difficulty and sequence of content based on each learner’s progress. Every kind of advancement with AI would be used. AI tutors would be utilized and provide real-time feedback, chatbots answer learner questions asynchronously, and natural language processing (NLP) systems generate customized learning materials on demand.

In higher education, LXEs might develop adaptive courseware that adjusts in real time based on cognitive load detection, ensuring students receive personalized challenges without becoming overwhelmed. In corporate America, an LXE might build skills-based AI systems that assess an employee’s competencies and automatically recommend hyper-personalized learning interventions.

Could you imagine a world where we had enough time to do A/B testing and using predictive analytics? This role would be fully capturing the learning nerd vibes. Another defining characteristic of the LXE role would be the integration of UX research and human-centered design. Think of taking the learning experience and making sure the interfaces are intuitive, interactions are seamless, and organic engagement remains high.

This role will not be for every organization. It’s going to need the right home to make it flourish.

Immersive Learning Designer (ILD)

Immersive learning is already a specialty of some designers, but with a title like this, it means their world is immersive learning. This role specializes in designing immersive, experience-driven learning environments that leverage XR technology. For this kind of designer, static modules don’t exist. This would be a deep focus on sensory-rich experiences that connect knowledge in real-world contexts.

The best example of this kind of designer in the real-world, would be with what the Washington Commanders are doing with their quarterback, Jayden Daniels. Daniels is a long-time proponent of using virtual reality to train and did so all throughout college. A requirement for whatever team drafted him was that he was allowed to prepare for games with VR. What was once laughed at in the NFL, was attributed to the massive success of his rookie year and he was only a play or two away from going to the Super Bowl.

Knowing how to build the right kind of learning experience in a virtual space is a talent and a skill. This is where I see the field heading is with specialty instructional design positions. You could have a specialist in VR, micro-learning, CBE, or more. Instructional designers today take pride in being generalists because we can handle anything. No task is too daunting. No challenge is too great. However, for organizations who know that their employees or students need specific skills to be developed, they could call on a specialist. We are starting to see this with AI, where job postings have AI and learning design together in the same title. The idea is that the instructional designer also happens to be proficient with AI. This could certainly bleed into other areas and I think we will only see more of these titles emerge.

What do you think? What new titles are you envisioning for our field?

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