Disruption and design

Cooper (1999) suggests personas are most effective in informing learning design if they ‘become a real person’. They should:

• Be specific: ‘The more specific we make our personas, the more effective they are as design tools’.
• Give the persona a name, ‘as without one they will never be a concrete individual in anyone’s mind’.
• Put faces to the names, to give each persona an image. 
• Be precise rather than accurate.

When designing a learning activity it’s important to create several different personas to represent typical learners in your setting.

The above video takes you through the creation of a persona – Miray – devised to inform the design of a Masters-level MOOC on modern art. As you watch, consider:

• How might aspects of Miray’s persona influence the MOOC’s design?
• Might any of Miray’s characteristics be difficult to accommodate, or conflict with the needs of other learners?
• What do you think is the value of creating a persona, over just trying to design learning activities featuring a range of teaching methods and resources?

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