The role

The QA Learning Designer is responsible for reviewing and signing off learning design outputs within the course development workflow, ensuring that course materials are pedagogically sound, learner-centred, and suitable for high-quality online delivery.

The role works alongside Subject Matter Experts, who are responsible for content accuracy. The QA Learning Designer provides the learning design and learning science quality lens at key workflow stages, ensuring that approved schemas, Learning Design Plans, modules, activities, and assessments are structured in ways that support effective learning.

The QA Learning Designer ensures that developed content meets agreed learning design, online delivery, and learner experience standards before progressing to the next stage.

Key responsibilities

Learning design quality assurance and sign-off

• Review and sign off course schemas, Learning Design Plans, modules, activities, and assessments from a learning design and online delivery perspective.
• Confirm that each output follows the agreed course development workflow, templates, QA checklists, and learning design standards.
• Check that learning outcomes, activities, assessments, and learner tasks are logically sequenced and support learner progression.
• Confirm that course materials are suitable for fully online delivery and do not rely on in-person explanation or unsupported facilitator intervention.
• Identify gaps, risks, or design weaknesses that may affect learner understanding, engagement, or readiness.
• Return outputs for correction where learning design, structure, scaffolding, clarity, or learner experience standards have not been met.
• Approve outputs to move to the next workflow stage once learning design requirements have been met.

Pedagogical and learner experience review

• Review whether learning materials reflect agreed learning science principles, including appropriate scaffolding, retrieval practice, practice opportunities, feedback loops, and learner reflection where relevant.
• Check that content is structured in a way that supports cognitive load, readability, visual clarity, and learner navigation.
• Confirm that activities are purposeful and aligned to learning outcomes rather than included as generic engagement tasks.
• Ensure that generated learning experiences are coherent across modules and do not feel fragmented or inconsistent.

• Review the use of multimedia, images, video, tables, examples, and other learning supports to ensure they meaningfully enhance understanding.
• Ensure that the learner experience is appropriate for the intended audience, reading level, delivery model, and course pacing.

Collaboration with SMEs and internal teams

• Work as a peer reviewer alongside SMEs, who remain accountable for content accuracy, occupational relevance, and curriculum alignment.
• Collaborate with SMEs to clarify learning design feedback without taking over subject matter ownership.
• Work with learning operations, content/project leads, and relevant internal stakeholders to ensure outputs are reviewed within agreed timelines.
• Escalate unresolved quality concerns where learning design and content accuracy decisions intersect.
• Support a shared understanding of what “good” looks like in AI-supported online course development.

Key deliverables

• Reviewed and signed-off course schemas from a learning design perspective.
• Reviewed and signed-off Learning Design Plans.
• Reviewed and signed-off module outputs and activity structures.
• Reviewed and signed-off assessment structures from a learning design perspective.
• Clear review comments and correction requests where outputs are not yet ready.
• Completed QA checklists and sign-off records within agreed timelines.
• Feedback on improvements needed to templates, QA standards, prompts, or workflow guidance.

In Scope

The QA Learning Designer is responsible for:

• Learning design quality assurance.
• Pedagogical review.
• Learner experience review.
• Online delivery suitability.
• Structure, sequencing, scaffolding, and activity logic.
• Review comments and sign-off recommendations.
• Escalating design risks or unresolved quality concerns.

Out of Scope

The QA Learning Designer is not responsible for:

• Line-managing SMEs.
• Owning SME delivery or performance management.
• Developing course content from scratch.
• Acting as the occupational or subject matter authority.
• Verifying technical occupational accuracy where this sits with the SME.
• Managing the project plan or chasing task completion.
• Owning Moodle/platform technical QA unless explicitly agreed.
• Replacing the Course Builder, SME, or learning operations roles.

Skills and experience required

Essential knowledge and experience

• A relevant qualification and/or 5 years hands-on experience, with enough practical expertise to verify whether content is accurate, current, and fit for purpose.
• Strong written communication skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to identify inaccuracies, gaps, weak explanations, or misalignment in content, and correct these effectively.
• Ability to recognise when an explanation is unclear, misleading, or likely to confuse a learner, and improve it.
• Ability to work independently and manage assigned deliverables with limited supervision.
• Ability to adapt quickly to new systems, platforms, and digital tools, including AI-enabled workflows.
• Ability to meet agreed timelines and raise risks, delays, or blockers early and clearly.

Desirable knowledge and experience

• Experience in teaching, training, or facilitation.
• Familiarity with instructional design and learning science principles.
• Experience in reviewing, developing, or quality assuring learning content.
• Familiarity with occupational qualifications, outcomes-based assessment, or curriculum documentation.

Key attributes

• Reliable and professional in managing commitments.
• Proactive communicator who raises questions, risks, or delays early.
• Detail-oriented and quality-conscious.
• Comfortable working independently within a structured process.
• Organised, responsive, and able to follow agreed ways of working.

What success looks like

• The SME can quickly understand the qualification structure and review the schema and Learning Design Plan from an occupational lens.
• The SME can spot when content is wrong, incomplete, misleading, or too weak to support learner readiness for external assessment.
• The SME improves content in ways that add clear value, rather than simply rereading or lightly editing what has been developed.
• The SME works reliably to deadline, communicates clearly, and flags risks early.
• The SME can work confidently within the agreed digital workflow and adapt to the tools used in the content development process.
• The SME ensures that content is not only accurate but also well-structured and visually clear, with high-quality multimedia that meaningfully enhances understanding and supports an engaging online learning experience.