The Learning Experience Ops Show

In this conversation, Jason Gorman talks with Alex Bayer and Henri Maindidze, two professionals entering the learning field from very different directions. Alex, an emergency room nurse and EMS instructor draws a striking parallel between clinical triage and the diagnostic process of instructional design. Henri, a PhD in industrial organizational psychology at Portland State University, researched what actually motivates employees to engage in learning opportunities. Together they discuss what attracted them to the learning professions, the transferable skills they carry from emergency medicine and structural engineering, and what the ideal training pathway should look like for people doing this work. The conversation also explores how generative AI creates both opportunity and anxiety for newer professionals, why scientific communication is one of the hardest skills to build in a formal program, and what early career professionals want more experienced ones to understand about how work and learning are changing.

Episode 30: What the Field Looks Like When You Are Just Getting Started: Alex Bayer and Henri Maindidze on Opportunity, Threat, and the Skills That Actually Prepare You for This Work

The Diagnosis Before the Design: Alex Bayer and Henri Maindidze On Their L&D Journey So Far

In this conversation, Jason Gorman talks with Emily Johnson and Andrew Fassett, two professionals who are newer to the learning design field but bring deep experience from very different backgrounds. Emily saw firsthand how students and teachers lacked the support they needed. Andrew recognized that the lecture-based model of training in faith communities was not producing real change and turned to AI simulation to build Kairos Ready, a platform for practicing high-stakes interpersonal conversations. Together they discuss what drew them into instructional design, what transferable skills they brought with them, and what they wish the training pathway looked like. The conversation also covers how early career professionals can navigate a field being reshaped by AI, the value of apprenticeship and shadowing over isolated internships, and what newer professionals want experienced ones to understand about their perspective.

Episode 29: Nobody Says I Want to Be an Instructional Designer When I Grow Up- Emily Johnson and Andrew Fassett on Accidental Careers, Broken Systems & Deciding to Fix Something That Was Not Working

Everyone Comes Through a Different Door: Emily Johnson and Andrew Fassett on What the Learning Profession Looks Like From the Beginning

In this conversation, Jason Gorman talks with Kristen Bourgault, director of instructional design programs at Quinnipiac University, where she co-developed and has taught in a fully online master's and certificate program for the past 12 years. With 25 years in higher education and nonprofit settings, Kristen has been a persistent advocate for the legitimacy of online learning, a cause she says has required fighting for the entire span of her career. They discuss what got her hooked on instructional design as a student worker building courses in Web CT, why online education has always been treated as the ugly stepchild of the university, and how her initial excitement about ChatGPT forcing better assessment design gave way to harder questions when her own students used AI to shortcut assignments she thought were AI-proof. Kristen also shares what hiring managers are telling her they actually want in instructional design candidates, why her graduates leave the program unwilling to chase shiny technology, and what quality really looks like when a student comes back ten years later to tell you what stuck.

What Hiring Managers Want From Instructional Designers Right Now- Kristen Bourgault on AI Literacy, Core Skills, and the Three Buckets Every ID Needs to Cover

“The Ugly Stepchildren of the University:” Kristen Bourgault on Twenty-Five Years of Fighting for Online Learning to Be Taken Seriously

In this conversation, Jason Gorman talks with Brenda Boyd, founder of Practice Learning and a former senior leader at Quality Matters for more than 14 years. They discuss what quality actually means in online education, why standards should read like carrots rather than sticks, and how her own experience as a returning college student with a terrible online course became the origin story for her career. The conversation covers the maturity of the learning design profession, how assessment needs to evolve beyond the five-paragraph essay, the National Accreditation Commission's AI hub for workforce Pell compliance, and why measuring ROI in education requires knowing where you are before you can know where you're going. Brenda also makes the case that critical thinking and discernment are the skills that matter most as AI becomes embedded in every corner of education.

Quality Is Not a Destination: Brenda Boyd on Continuous Improvement, ROI in Higher Ed, and the Frameworks That Make Better Learning Possible

There Has to Be a Better Way: Brenda Boyd on Quality, Standards, and the Students Who Never Know Your Name

In this conversation, Jason Gorman talks with Hamit Hamutcu, founder of AIx Ed, an event and community platform that brings together K-12 teachers, university leaders, ed tech founders, and policymakers to make sense of what AI means for education. They discuss the striking leap in maturity he observed between the November 2025 and May 2026 AIx Ed conferences, the danger of siloing conversations by sector, and why education is making more progress on how we teach than on what we teach. Hamit also shares lessons from co-founding a data science skills taxonomy, offers practical advice for professionals drowning in AI news, and predicts a calmer near future where AI becomes embedded in workflows rather than remaining the dominant topic of conversation.

From AI Disorientation to Traction: Hamit Hamutcu on the Six-Month Shift in How Educators Are Thinking and Talking About AI

From AI Disorientation to Traction: Hamit Hamutcu on How Educators are Finding Their Footing

In this conversation, Jason Gorman talks with Anand Shekhar and Ram Iyer, co-founders of ClaraLearn, a workforce intelligence platform built on a thesis that runs against the grain: the global talent crisis is not a skills shortage but a clarity shortage. Anand and Ram explain how AI is collapsing both the skills and scarcity that have historically determined professional value. They walk through their model for helping professionals discover their identity beyond job titles, explore adjacent career paths without starting from scratch, and retain what they learn rather than just consuming content. The conversation also covers why learning must be treated as infrastructure rather than a cost center, how critical thinking and domain knowledge are becoming the real differentiators, and why governments and institutions need to step in as the pace of disruption accelerates.

The Talent Crisis Is Not a Skills Shortage- Anand Shekhar and Ram Iyer on What AI Is Doing to Labor Market Value and the Human Capabilities That Survive It

Would You Do This Job If Nobody Paid You? Anand Shekhar and Ram Iyer on the Human Capabilities AI Cannot Touch

DOWNLOAD THE JLX FUTURE SKILLS SURVEY REPORT: https://jackrabbitlx.com/fss_report/

In this conversation, Jason Gorman and James Altman unpack the findings of the JLX Future Skills Survey, which asked 197 learning professionals across six regions and multiple sectors to rate nine skills on how important they believe each will be in the next three years. The results revealed three statistically distinct tiers, with learning strategy and design thinking at the top alongside AI tools and stakeholder influence, while traditional staples like LMS authoring tools and content development landed at the bottom. James walks through the methodology, the debates around the term "learning professional," and the surprising gaps between what practitioners value and what they believe their employers value, particularly around storytelling and data analysis. They also discuss the wide spectrum of AI adoption in the field, the qualitative responses that read as a general indictment of a profession without a roadmap, and the early vision for a cross-sector skills roadmap for learning professionals.

Toward a Skills Roadmap for Learning Professionals- James Altman on 197 Survey Responses, Three Tiers, and the Crucial Work Ahead

No One Has the Answer: James Altman on What 197 Learning Professionals Actually Think Will Matter in the Next Three Years

In this conversation, Jason Gorman and Heather Xu dig into the human side of AI transformation and the growing pace gap between technology, people, and organizations. Heather is the founder of Design for Flow and a former director at KPMG. They explore why learning teams must shift from being course creators to business-aligned capability builders, how to design workflows that preserve human thinking rather than surrendering it to AI, and why human connection is increasing in value, not decreasing. Heather introduces two practical frameworks: one for mapping AI relationships across a workflow (coach, thought partner, accelerator, automator) and another for personal AI value (amplify, unblock, stretch, free). The conversation closes with a discussion on human agency as the foundational skill for navigating an uncertain future.

Brain Fry Is Real and Organizations Are Causing It: Heather Xu on Cognitive Burden, Pace Gaps, and the Human Cost of Too Much AI Too Fast

The Three-Body Problem: Heather Xu on Designing Work That Actually Flows When Everything Is Moving at Different Speeds

In this conversation, Jason Gorman and Adarsh Lathika explore what happens to human capability when AI starts doing more of the thinking. Adarsh, a strategy and learning systems practitioner, introduces concepts like the shadow curriculum, cognitive debt, and the Anatomy of Work framework to explain how learners and employees are increasingly bypassing formal learning systems and building their own AI-powered solutions. They discuss why institutions and employers are losing relevance as learning providers, how prioritizing speed and output over depth is eroding foundational skills, and why human biology, judgment, and context are becoming the true competitive advantages in an AI-first world. Adarsh also unpacks three major shifts reshaping the field: from institutions to individuals, from courses to systems, and from knowledge to judgment.

The Shadow Curriculum Is Already Here- Adarsh Lathika on What Happens When Learners Stop Waiting for Institutions and Start Building Their Own Systems

The Shadow Curriculum: Adarsh Lathika on What Employees Are Teaching Themselves and What That Means for Every Learning Professional

In this conversation, Jason Gorman and Simon Greenwold discuss the power of storytelling as a strategic tool for organizations, particularly in higher education. Simon, co-founder and CEO of Story as a Service and Jason's business partner, draws on over 25 years of experience at Northwestern University and EdTech company 2U to explain how organizations can clarify their core story and communicate it effectively, both internally and externally. They explore real client work at Princeton and Excelsior University, the current state of higher education under political and economic pressure, and why storytelling is a practical superpower for faculty, learning designers, and institutional leaders.

Your Story From the Inside Out- Simon Greenwold on Why Internal Communications Is the Most Underestimated Driver of Organizational Health

The Story Is the Strategy: Simon Greenwold on Why Higher Ed Cannot Afford to Get This Wrong