Design For How People Learn

Introduction

Think about the best learning experience you’ve ever had. What was it like?

Got one? I’ve asked this question dozens of times, and gotten a variety of answers. Sometimes the answer is that someone was really passionate about what they were learning, but the most frequent answer is:

Nobody ever says “I had the most amazing textbook” or “There was this really great PowerPoint deck!”

That suggests that a lot of what makes for a great learning experience is not about the content, but is about the way the content is taught. In fact, a class ...