Learning experience design course helps students dive head-first into client consulting

Learning doesn’t stop when you finish school. Whenever you start a new job or a new program, you learn new rules, new strategies, and new systems. And just like classroom education, there’s science behind how that learning can be best supported.

“Large multinational or national organizations need people with knowledge of how people learn and how to create systems and supports for learning and development,” explained Lisa Giacumo, associate professor of learning design and technology in George Mason University’s College of Education and Human Development (CEHD).

Learning experience design (LXD) and user experience (UX) research are two key pillars of the CEHD’s learning design and technology master’s program. Giacumo has spent her faculty career developing courses on accessible workplace learning, needs assessment, and evaluation, that merge theory with hands-on application to give students a “nuanced” understanding of real-world use cases. The research and design courses (i.e., EDIT 732 and EDIT 752) she leads currently pair students with live clients to develop solutions for LXD problems or new opportunities.

“The recursive loop of asking for input, getting feedback, professional reflection, and making revisions is an important part of the process that is hard to conceptualize from textbook alone,” said Giacumo. “With live clients, students get a chance to see how things might work outside of a textbook while learning how to communicate as a consultant.”

This semester, students worked with two startups: EMK Learning Solutions LLC and Research Sphere.

“Working with a live client and a team really made the whole experience feel more like a UX job. You have deadlines, you have limitations, you have to make decisions and iterate. It feels very realistic,” said George Mason alumna Georgiana Patrichi-Abarca, BA Conflict Analysis and Resolution ’15, a current student in the learning design and technology master’s program. She’s been able to apply what she’s learned in class to her full-time job with the U.S. Department of State, developing training for a new piece of software.  

Master’s student Tyler Girvan came into the learning design and technology program with a background in video game design and graphic design. “Getting that practical experience from research inception to executing a prototype was the stand-out element of the course for me,” said Girvan. “It helped me understand where I can feed my past skills through these new filters.”

Girvan continued, “You have to balance meeting the needs of the user while negotiating the ideas and goals of the client, and that’s a skill we were able to develop working with real clients as opposed to simulations."

“The closer you connect what you do in the learning environment to what you need done in the performance environment, the easier it is for learners to transfer what they learned into desired performance on the job,” said Giacumo.

Maurine Kwende, MEd Curriculum and Instruction ’15, CERG Learning Technologies ’15, and PhD Education ’23, is the founder and CEO of EMK Learning Solutions LLC, one of the participating businesses for the course. Her business works with companies to help improve their training and leadership capabilities, leveraging Kwende’s own expertise in learning systems and design. This semester, students worked on developing a professional development chatbot for EMK Learning Solutions that could coach employees when a human coach and trainer isn’t available or isn’t an option. The bot will also be a thinking and brainstorming partner for new employees to get a head start on ideas prior to meeting with their supervisors or stakeholders.

Kwende found the commitment of the students in the course commendable. “They’re dedicated and passionate about our field,” she said. “In the beginning, it felt like a mentoring process ,which was very exciting. Then it became a two-way process: I mentored them as a consultant, and they reverse-mentored me in the areas of technology. In the end, the students helped expand my thinking and showed me the potential of the product. They grew a seed into a full tree.”  

“George Mason attracts many very talented, smart, and driven individuals,” said Giacumo. “These students contribute to these organizations’ success stories. And after the classes are over, my students build their own success stories by landing their next job or promotion and continue developing their consulting practices on a solid foundation.”