Why We Need Learning Engineers and Faculty who Know Learning Sciences

I agree strongly with the idea of “learning engineers.” Having learning engineers doesn’t relieve faculty who teach from the responsibility to learn more about learning sciences (see my blog post about testing teachers about PCK). Just teaming up subject-matter experts with learning engineers does not inform a teacher’s day-to-day and in-class decision-making.  The general theme below is one I strongly agree with — we should rely more on evidence-based and research-based teaching.

We are missing a job category: Where are our talented, creative, user-­centric “learning engineers” — professionals who understand the research about learning, test it, and apply it to help more students learn more effectively?

Jobs are becoming more and more cognitively complex, while simpler work is disappearing. (Even that old standby, cab driving, may one day be at risk from driverless cars from Google!) Our learning environments need to do a better job of helping more people of all ages master the complex skills now needed in many occupations.

I am not suggesting that all subject-matter experts (meaning faculty members) need to become learning engineers, although some might. However, students and faculty members alike would benefit from increased collaboration between faculty members and learning experts — specialists who would respect each other’s expertise — rather than relying on a single craftsman in the classroom, which is often the case in higher education today.

via Why We Need Learning Engineers – The Digital Campus – The Chronicle of Higher Education.