What is a Learning Technologist for? – David Hopkins / Education & Leadership

Ask someone what a learning technologist does and there is a reasonable chance the answer will involve the VLE/virtual learning environment, staff training or helping when something does not work.

None of these answers is necessarily wrong. Learning technologists do support platforms, deliver training and help solve problems. But these activities describe only part of the role – they tell us some of what a learning technologist does without really answering the more interesting question: what is a learning technologist for?

It is a question worth asking because learning technology has changed since my first role in learning technology (Bournemouth University, 2007). The systems we work with have become more numerous, interconnected and institutionally important. The VLE remains central, but it now sits within a much wider digital ecosystem that will include some or all of the following – assessment platforms, video and media services, collaboration tools, accessibility technologies, student information systems, analytics, artificial intelligence and a growing collection of integrations between them.

The work is not simply about keeping these systems running. It is about understanding how they fit together, how people use them and how they can support better teaching and learning.

One of the difficulties in answering the question is that learning technology is not a single, clearly defined role. Across the sector, we have learning technologists, educational technologists, instructional designers, learning designers, digital education specialists, digital pedagogy leads and several other variations. Sometimes these titles describe genuinely different areas of practice. Sometimes remarkably similar jobs are given different names. In other cases, people with the same title may be doing very different work.

These roles are distinct and valuable professions in their own right:

• A learning designer may concentrate on the structure of a learning experience, working with subject specialists to consider activities, sequencing, engagement and assessment.
• An instructional designer might take a more systematic approach to the development of learning materials and instruction.
• An educational technologist may have greater responsibility for evaluating and embedding technology across teaching practice.
• A learning technologist might work more directly with platforms, implementation, staff development and support.

But these descriptions are neither universal nor exclusive. The boundaries change between organisations and frequently overlap: a learning technologist may contribute to course design, a learning designer needs to understand what the technology can and cannot do, an educational technologist may be involved in system administration, implementation or support. All three can expect to facilitate workshops, advise academics, explore new tools, contribute to policy and help an institution respond to changes in student expectations.

The answer is not to collapse these roles into one. Their different perspectives and areas of expertise are important. However, pretending that they operate within tidy professional boundaries does not reflect how digital education actually works. Learning technologists often need to be a little bit of everything. They need enough technical understanding to know how a system works, how it connects to other systems and what might happen when something changes. They need sufficient pedagogical knowledge to recognise that a technically possible solution is not necessarily an educationally useful one.

They need to understand accessibility, inclusion, assessment, copyright, data protection and the policies or regulations within which their institution operates. They may need skills in communication, training, project management, evaluation, procurement and organisational change. They must also be able to work with people whose needs, confidence and priorities vary enormously. That does not mean every learning technologist is an expert in everything. Nor should it become an excuse for poorly defined roles or unrealistic expectations. Being a multidisciplinary practitioner is not the same as being an endlessly available source of general support.

The breadth of the role is nevertheless one of its strengths. Learning technologists see the connections between areas that might otherwise be treated separately. They understand the technical implications of a pedagogical decision, the staff-development implications of a system change, or the effect that an apparently minor configuration choice could have on a student’s experience.

Other roles within digital education need some of this breadth too. Learning designers cannot design in isolation from the platforms through which learning will be delivered. Technical specialists need to understand the people and practices affected by the systems they manage. Digital pedagogy specialists need to recognise the institutional, technical and operational conditions within which their ideas must work.

As individuals, we bring different experiences and interests but we operate in shared territory – the learning technologist is still sometimes understood as the person who makes the technology work. There will always be an operational element to the role. Platforms need configuring. Problems need investigating. Staff and students need support. These are necessary and skilled activities, and we should not diminish them in an attempt to make the profession sound more strategic.

Making the technology work is not the same as making it work for learning – a platform can be technically available while being confusing to navigate. A new tool can function exactly as intended while adding unnecessary complexity to teaching. A system can meet its specification without meeting the needs of the people expected to use it.

This is where the learning technologist’s combination of perspectives becomes particularly important. The role often sits between technology, pedagogy, institutional policy and everyday practice. It involves translating between people who may be approaching the same issue from very different positions. An academic colleague may begin with what they want students to experience. A systems team may need to consider security, integration and support. Institutional leaders may be concerned with consistency, cost, risk and regulation. Students may simply want to know what they need to do, where they need to do it and when.

The learning technologist helps connect those perspectives – that might mean finding the right technology or improving how an existing system is used. Sometimes it means questioning whether technology is needed at all. There can be a tendency to associate learning technology with novelty: new platforms, emerging tools and the next supposedly transformative development.

Exploration is an important part of the profession, but improvement does not always require something new. It might involve simplifying a module template, improving the accessibility of existing content, removing an unnecessary step from a process or making expectations clearer for staff and students. It might mean connecting systems more effectively, addressing inconsistent practice or helping colleagues make better use of tools the institution already owns. It may also involve recognising when people need time to become comfortable with a change before another one is introduced.

The value of a learning technologist is not measured by the number of technologies they introduce. It can be found in the quality of the questions they ask about technology: Who is this for? What problem does it solve? How will it improve learning? What additional work will it create? Is it accessible? Is it sustainable? What else will need to change?

Those questions become more important as the digital ecosystem grows. Every additional platform, integration and process brings possibilities, but it also adds complexity. Someone needs to understand not only the individual components, but the experience created by their combination.

Perhaps a learning technologist is there to help an institution make thoughtful connections between technology and learning. That includes making systems work, but it also means helping people use them purposefully. It means contributing to the design of better learning experiences, supporting colleagues through change and identifying where technology creates barriers as well as opportunities.

It means moving between the operational and the strategic, the technical and the pedagogical, and the immediate problem and its wider implications.

The title will continue to mean different things in different organisations. That variety is not necessarily a weakness. Learning technology responds to local structures, priorities, people and needs. It is therefore unlikely to become a profession in which every role looks the same. But we should be clearer about its purpose.

A learning technologist is not simply there because an institution has technology that needs supporting. They are there because teaching and learning increasingly take place within a complex digital environment, and making that environment useful, inclusive and sustainable requires people who understand more than the technology alone.

Photo by Matthew Waring on Unsplash

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