adult learning

The Evolving L&D Roles in 2026 Exploring who you might become next — from liftedlnd.substack.com by Lifted L&D

1. The Learning Experience Architect
This is really the evolution of the instructional designer. The difference is that the focus is no longer on building individual courses. Instead, the focus shifts towards designing capability ecosystems.

In modern learning platforms, learning is dynamic and increasingly personalised. AI engines infer skill levels, recommend resources, generate practice scenarios and adapt content based on how people engage. The role of the Learning Experience Architect is to orchestrate that environment so it genuinely supports capability development.
…

Across all of these emerging roles, three themes keep appearing.

The first is data fluency. …
The second is systems thinking. …
The third is human judgement.

Also relevant/see:

Majority of law school faculty self-censor, think legal education headed in wrong direction, new survey finds [Hill]

On 06/10/2026, in adult learning, faculty/staff, higher education, law schools, learning ecosystem, teaching & learning, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Majority of law school faculty self-censor, think legal education headed in wrong direction, new survey finds — from abajournal.com by Julianne Hill

A majority of law school faculty said legal education is headed in the wrong direction and feel unable to freely express their opinions for fear of how students, colleagues or administrators would respond.

That’s according to the finding of a new survey of nearly 2,000 law school faculty at 192 ABA-accredited law schools by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonprofit organization that defends free speech.

Released Tuesday, 57% identified as liberal leaning, 18% identified as conservative leaning, 16% identified as moderate, and 10% identified as something else, according to the survey.

Christian: Could this be a part of our future learning ecosystems?

On 06/09/2026, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, communities of practice, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, informal learning, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, library / librarians, lifelong learning, love of learning, microlearning, more voice more choice more control, online learning, online media, passions, personalized/customized learning, platforms, professional development, skills, social media, streams of content, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, training / L&D, United States, user experience (UX), vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Could this be a part of our future learning ecosystems? Education as a personalized content feed.

Coursera wants users to learn through shorter, faster content — from digitaltrends.com by Moinak Pal
Coursera wants online learning to feel more like TikTok
.

Online learning platform Coursera is taking a page straight out of TikTok’s playbook. The company has launched a new AI-powered feed designed to serve short-form educational content in a scrollable, personalized format, signaling a major shift in how digital learning platforms may try to keep users engaged.

The feature introduces bite-sized video lessons, clips, and explainers curated through artificial intelligence based on a user’s interests, learning habits, career goals, and previous course activity. Instead of committing to hour-long lectures or full certification programs upfront, users can now discover short educational snippets designed to make learning feel more casual, accessible, and addictive.

Users scroll through a feed of short educational videos and AI-curated learning moments covering topics ranging from coding and business to AI, productivity, data science, and personal development.

Connecting the Tangled Systems of Reentry Training and Employment [Arrojas]

On 05/28/2026, in adult learning, career development, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, economics, legislatures / government / legal, participation, skills, society, sociology, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, training / L&D, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Connecting the Tangled Systems of Reentry Training and Employment — from workshift.com by Matthew Arrojas; via Paul Fain

After release, formerly incarcerated people must navigate a maze of government systems, workforce programs, and parole requirements. They are rarely prepared to do this, and as a result, nearly half (45%) report no earnings within the first year of their release, according to research from the Brookings Institution.

The Big Idea: Reducing those barriers has become an increasing focus for a number of philanthropies and colleges. It’s also a growing labor market imperative.

There’s also an incentive for many states to help this population of potential workers land jobs. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, formerly incarcerated individuals who are unable to maintain employment experience a recidivism rate of 52% over three years, while those who are employed for one year post-release experienced a recidivism rate of just 16%.

What is L&D’s role when AI is already part of work, information and capability? [Taylor & Vinauskaite]

On 05/21/2026, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, communities of practice, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, emerging technologies, human-computer interaction (HCI), instructional design, intelligent systems, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, training / L&D, United States, by Daniel Christian

Here is Don Taylor’s posting on LinkedIn.com

Also relevant/see:

Here is Egle Vinauskaite’s posting on LinkedIn.com

“The sad fact is that we don’t teach learners how to be good at learning. Whether K12, higher ed, or organizations, it’s just not there.”

— from Clark Quinn’s posting entitled, Thoughts on meta-coaching!

From DSC:
I agree. We could do a much better job at this.

Three items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 05/16/2026, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, career development, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, faculty/staff, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, liberal arts, library / librarians, organizational change, pace of change, skills, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

LinkedIn Grad’s Guide 2026: Starting your career in the AI era — from linkedin.com by Gianna Prudente
To help you head off in the right direction, we’ve identified where those starting their careers are finding opportunity, based on data from millions of LinkedIn member profiles.

While all of this is happening, colleges are still catching up. Many students are graduating without having spent much time learning how AI actually fits into day-to-day work — even as employers seek out those exact skills.

“Colleges are moving into an era of, we’ll let the faculty decide, which leads to a very uneven experience for students because some faculty are really into AI and other faculty are not,” says Jeff Selingo, a higher education strategist. “Employers are the same; they don’t really know how to act around early careers.”

Taken together, new grads are entering a uniquely challenging environment: fewer traditional entry points, slower turnover and a workplace that’s evolving faster than the systems preparing people for it.

.

I knew my writing students were using AI. Their confessions led to a powerful teaching moment — from theguardian.com by Micah Nathan
The problem wasn’t just the perfectly polished, yet mediocre prose. It’s what’s lost when we surrender the struggle to translate thought into words

For a few moments, all was quiet except the classroom’s ticking radiators. Then, a teary-eyed confession: one of the ostensible authors said she only used AI because she was scared of looking stupid, of being criticized for bad writing. She said she loved writing stories and hated having used AI. But she couldn’t stop herself, recounting a sequence similar to an addict’s descent: at first she fed her story into AI for a grammar check, it suggested line edits and she accepted, then it asked if she wanted structural edits, then it offered to rewrite the entire piece.

The other would-be author admitted he had never written a short story before and he had an idea but didn’t know where to start. I asked him why he didn’t reach out to me for help. He shrugged.

One of the other students raised her hand, saying she didn’t understand why it was bad for AI to write stories as long as the stories are based on their ideas. More students spoke: one wanted to know how using AI was any different from using a human editor. Another wanted me to answer why, at a university that launched one of the world’s first AI research programs in 1959, were we even having this debate? Isn’t AI meant to make everyone’s life easier? Less stressful? Isn’t the point of AI to free humans from the tedium of rote tasks?

The conversation that followed their confessions was one of the most productive teaching moments of my eight years at MIT. Writing, I told them, isn’t supposed to be easy, and of course it can be tedious but that doesn’t make it rote. Writing isn’t just the production of sentences – it’s the training of endurance by way of sustained attention. It’s a way of learning what one thinks by attempting to say it.

This $10K AI School Promises to Future-Proof Your Career — from builtin.com by Matthew Urwin
Khan Academy, TED and ETS are starting a new program to equip students and professionals with the skills to thrive in an increasingly AI-driven economy. Here’s what you need to know.

Summary: The Khan TED Institute is a higher-education program that will teach students and workers how to use AI through interactive learning. The program’s AI-centric curriculum is an unproven approach, though, casting doubt on whether it will actually improve learning outcomes and career prospects.

The TalentLMS 2026 Annual L&D Benchmark Report — from talentlms.com
From year-over-year training benchmarks to learner–leader gaps, see the data that defines the new era of learning. To turn insight into action, the report lays out 10 evidence-backed interventions to hardwire development. Plus, lift the lid on Learning Debt: What it is and how to spot it.

Executive summary
The skills economy is being rewritten in real time. AI is reshaping what people need to know, do, and deliver, faster than organizational structures can adapt. The result is a workplace caught between acceleration and inertia. Companies are racing to reskill for an AI-driven future while relying on structures built for yesterday’s world.

This TalentLMS 2026 L&D Benchmark Report captures that inflection point. Based on data collected through 2025, and compared with earlier findings from 2022 to 2024, it explores how learning is evolving and what’s holding it back.

Our research integrates two vantage points: HR leaders overseeing learning initiatives and employees receiving formal training. Together, they offer a dual perspective on how learning is managed and how it’s experienced.

The analysis also draws on insights from external research and leading L&D practitioners, anchoring the report in both evidence and practice.

Combined, the findings point to a structural fault line: Learning is expanding in scope but contracting in space. Organizations are multiplying programs, tools, and ambitions, yet the conditions for learning — time, focus, and cognitive bandwidth — keep shrinking.

The data from this report underscores this critical conflict: According to half of the surveyed employees and learning leaders, high workloads leave little room for training, even when it’s needed.

Employees work inside a permanent sprint, where attention is fragmented and reflection is sidelined. The space for learning is collapsing under the weight of doing. Sixty-five percent of employees say performance expectations have risen this year, yet lack of time remains the biggest barrier to learning.

The numbers confirm what employees and learning leaders both feel: Technology can advance overnight. But people and cultures can’t.

The Course Is Dying as the Unit of Learning. Here’s why, and what’s replacing It [Hardman]

On 04/07/2026, in adult learning, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, emerging technologies, ideas, instructional design, intelligent systems, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, productivity / tips and tricks, training / L&D, UK, workplace, by Daniel Christian

The Course Is Dying as the Unit of Learning — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr Philippa Hardman
Here’s why, and what’s replacing It

What the Bleeding Edge Looks like in Practice
So what does “the new stack” actually look like when organisations lean into this? Here are four real patterns already in play.

Engineering: from engine courses to in-workflow AI coaching.
Product development: from courses to craft-specific agents.
Compliance: from annual course to nudge systems.|
Enablement systems, not catalogues.

…

Is the eLearning authoring tool dead? [Milloway & Slade]

On 03/24/2026, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, communities of practice, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, Learning Experience Design, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, programming, tools, trends, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Is the eLearning authoring tool dead? — from linkedin.com by Melissa Milloway & Tim Slade

…which links to the video below:

Check out some of the features an AI-powered LMS provides you with!

On 03/23/2026, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, business, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, languages and translation, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, platforms, skills, training / L&D, United States, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Here is Pradnya’s posting out on LinkedIn.com:

From DSC…note these excerpts from Pradnya’s posting:

I’m not manually assigning 400 people anymore ? They’re actually taking relevant courses now
Shows me the data ? Suggests courses to fix it ? I look like a strategic genius
Completion rates up 34% ? Nobody’s “stuck” anymore

Pradnya links to a page out at ParadisoSolutions.com. Check out some of the functionality this AI-powered system provides:

Also from Pradnya, see this posting:

“Teach Smarter with AI” [Caplan & Eaton] + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 03/08/2026, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty/staff, Google, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, K-12 related, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, liberal arts, platforms, skills, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, training / L&D, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Teach Smarter with AI — from wondertools.substack.com by Jeremy Caplan and Lance Eaton
10 tested strategies from two educators who actually use them

I recently talked with Lance Eaton, Senior Associate Director of AI and Teaching & Learning at Northeastern University and writer of AI + Education = Simplified. We traded ideas about what’s actually working. We came up with 10 specific, practical ways anyone who teaches, coaches, or leads can put AI to work.

Watch the full conversation above, or read highlights below.

Beyond Audio Summaries: How to Use NotebookLM to *Actually* Design Better Learning — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
Five methods to maximise the value of NotebookLM’s features

In practice, what makes NotebookLM different for learning designers is four things:

Answers grounded in your sources (with citations):
Source toggling:
Multi-format studio & multi-source summaries:
Persistent workspace:

…
5 Evidence-Based Methods NotebookLM Operationalises…

Shadow AI Isn’t a Threat: It’s a Signal — from campustechnology.com by Damien Eversmann
Unofficial AI use on campus reveals more about institutional gaps than misbehavior.

Key Takeaways

Shadow AI is widespread in higher education: Faculty, researchers, students, and staff are using AI tools outside official IT channels, including consumer platforms and public cloud services that may involve sensitive data.
Unauthorized AI use creates data, compliance, and cost risks: Consumer AI tools may store or reuse user data, while uncoordinated adoption drives redundant licenses, unpredictable cloud costs, and weaker security oversight.
Institutions are shifting from restriction to enablement: Some campuses are making approved paths easier by offering ready-to-use research environments, campus-managed AI tools, clear guidance on data and vendors, and streamlined approval processes.

How L&D Can Lead in the Age of AI Even If Your Company’s Not Ready — from learningguild.com

How to lead even when your company doesn’t allow AI
Even if your corporation isn’t ready for AI, you can still research tools personally to stay ahead of the curve, so when organizational restrictions lift, you are ready to use AI for learning right away. Here are some tools you can test at home if they’re restricted in your workplace:

Content generation – Start testing text-based tools to get a taste of how AI can accelerate content creation. Then take it to the next level by exploring tools that generate voices, music, and sound effects.
AI coaching tools – Have AI pose as a customer co-worker or customer to get a taste of what it’s like to use it as a conversation coach. Next, use the voice and video capabilities in an app like ChatGPT to explore how AI can coach someone through tasks.
In-the-flow learning assistants – Test turning documents into a conversational avatar and interacting with it to see how it feels. Then think about how the technology could potentially transform static content into dynamic learning experiences for employees.
Vibe-coded simulations – Experiment with this technology by creating a simple, fun game. Afterwards, brainstorm some ideas on how it could quickly create simulations for your learners in the future.

The Higher Ed Playbook for AI Affordability — from campustechnology.com by Jason Dunn-Potter

Key Takeaways

Affordable AI adoption focuses on evolving existing systems: Universities are embedding AI into current devices, workflows, and legacy systems rather than rebuilding infrastructure or investing in new data centers.
Edge AI reduces costs and improves access: Running AI models on local devices or networks lowers cloud processing costs, enhances security, and supports learning use cases such as tutoring, translation, transcription, and adaptive learning.
Enterprise integration and governance drive impact: Institutions are applying AI across admissions, advising, facilities, and research workflows, supported by shared resource hubs, data governance, AI literacy, and outcome-driven implementation.

L&D Global Sentiment Survey 2026 [Taylor]

On 02/25/2026, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Africa, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, Augmented Reality (AR), Australia, bots, business, Canada, career development, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, communities of practice, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, emerging technologies, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, human-computer interaction (HCI), India, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, learner profiles, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, lifelong learning, microlearning, personalized/customized learning, skills, social learning / networks, strategy, tools, training / L&D, trends, UK, United States, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, workplace, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

L&D Global Sentiment Survey 2026 — from linkedin.com by Donald H. Taylor

Amid AI and Labor Market Changes, Companies Look to Grow Their Own Skilled Workers [Connolly]

On 02/05/2026, in adult learning, business, career development, change, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, training / L&D, trends, United States, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Amid AI and Labor Market Changes, Companies Look to Grow Their Own Skilled Workers — from workshift.org by Colleen Connolly

The explosion of artificial intelligence, combined with slowing growth in the labor force, has many companies reconsidering how they hire and develop workers. Where they once relied on colleges and universities for training, a growing number of companies are now looking in-house.

Investment in developing employees and would-be hires is becoming a key differentiator for companies, according to a new report from the Learning Society, a collaborative effort led out of the Stanford Center on Longevity. And that’s true even as AI adoption grows.

The Big Idea: The report authors interviewed 15 human resources executives from major firms, which ranged in size from Hubbell, an electric and utility product manufacturer with about 17K employees, to Walmart with more than 2M employees. The authors asked about four topics: the impact of AI and technology on work, skill building and talent development, supporting workers over longer working lives, and new partnerships between businesses and higher education.

Learning Ecosystems

Majority of law school faculty self-censor, think legal education headed in wrong direction, new survey finds [Hill]

The Course Is Dying as the Unit of Learning. Here’s why, and what’s replacing It [Hardman]

Amid AI and Labor Market Changes, Companies Look to Grow Their Own Skilled Workers [Connolly]

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