A pilot that set the standard
I led the redesign of an executive education course as my organization moved to in-house design on a new platform. It earned a TELAS Diamond rating and the strongest learner feedback in eleven offerings.
- Role
- Design lead
- Sector
- Executive education
- Outcome
- TELAS Diamond rating
- Tools
- Authoring tool · Generative AI · Canvas
The problem
This course was the test case for the move to in-house design on the new platform. Whatever worked in it would set the pattern for every course that followed.
The original course was academically sound but built for a different era of digital learning. The course would also go to external review, making it an important test of the new in-house capability.
Success meant more than a better course. It had to prove a repeatable approach.
Digging deeper
Multiple independent design reviews produced a large volume of detailed feedback. I used affinity analysis to find the patterns underneath it, then translated those patterns into seven design priorities.
Multiple reviewers, working independently
Grouped comments by what they resembled, then named
What the themes converged on
Every cluster was a different symptom of the same missing frame. Learners were not short of material or contact — they could not see why it mattered.
Coherence, not volume, was the problem to solve.
What I designed
Those seven priorities resolved into five design moves. Rather than adding to the course, each one supplied part of the frame that was missing.
Course structure
Made the course shape and its weekly rhythm legible in one place, with stated times that matched the actual task.
Purposeful context
Collaborated with subject matter experts to frame every reading and activity, so learners saw why it was there and what it built toward.
Authentic practice
Reframed assessment as developmental and matched to real communication demands, with debate-style prompts turning forums into genuine exchanges.
Support made obvious
Communicated a clear pattern for live sessions, forums and help, so learners knew when and how to use each.
Quality that holds
Turned peer review into shared problem-solving, supported by living templates, so coherence held across designers and courses.
On AI
I used generative AI for ideation and to automate repetitive development, which cut topic build time by around half and freed effort for framing and feedback. Every design judgment stayed mine.
Nothing went into the course unchecked: I reviewed every output against the learning outcomes, SMEs verified accuracy in their own fields, and peer review inside the design team caught what I had stopped noticing.
Results
External review
TELAS Diamond
The highest rating available under Australia's internationally benchmarked review of technology enhanced learning.
View accreditationLearner feedback
+23 percentage points
The strongest result in eleven offerings of the course.
Strong agreement on overall quality
Reflection
Quality emerges from coherence rather than complexity.
I learned that the gains came from consistent structure, purposeful scaffolding and sustainable feedback, not from more features or more content.
It also taught me to build quality into how a team works. Living templates and constructive review made delivery consistent across several designers, extending quality beyond one course.