When we created the Learning Manager Series at Empath, the goal was simple: give Learning Managers the core ideas they need to build effective learning experiences on the platform.
But if you’re the kind of person who likes to understand the why behind good learning design, you’re not alone.
Some Learning Managers finish a course and move on. Others start asking questions like:
If that sounds like you, this reading list is for you.
The articles and books below expand on some of the concepts introduced in the Learning Manager Series. Things like adult learning theory, designing for real-world application, and creating learning that leads to behavior change.
None of these are required to read. Think of them more like a short reading list for the curious. We know that the Empathians are full of “front row students”.
Before working in learning design, I was a classroom teacher.
During my time in the classroom, I became deeply interested in assessment. How do we know whether students are actually learning something meaningful? I served on the district assessment writing team, and a big part of my work focused on creating, evaluating, and reflecting on assessments.
What I learned pretty quickly was this:
The way you assess learning reveals what you actually value.
If your questions only test recall, students memorize.
If your assessments require thinking and application, students learn differently.
I spent a lot of time analyzing questions, rewriting them, and asking:
That experience shaped how I think about learning today. Whether you’re designing a classroom test or a professional learning course, the same principles apply:
Good learning design isn’t about delivering information. It’s about creating experiences that change how people think and act.
The resources below explore those ideas in more depth.
These articles introduce some foundational ideas about how adults learn and what makes learning effective.
One of the most powerful ideas in adult learning is that adults bring experience with them.
Adults’ accumulated experience is a rich resource for learning. Good instruction builds on what learners already know rather than ignoring it.
This article explores how educators and learning designers can intentionally connect new ideas to prior knowledge. This is one of the fastest ways to make learning stick.
Adults learn differently from children, not because they need more information, but because they bring context, agency, and goals to the learning process.
A key idea from andragogy is this: Start with the problem and purpose, not the content.
When learners understand why something matters and how it applies to real situations, engagement and retention both improve.
Another key principle of adult learning is relevance.
Adults tend to engage most deeply with learning that:
This article explores how learning experiences can be structured so that learners actively apply ideas rather than simply consume information.
If the articles spark your interest, these books take the ideas further and provide practical ways to apply them when designing learning.
This is one of the most approachable and practical books on learning design.
Instead of focusing on content delivery, the book encourages designers to focus on behavior change. It helps you answer the question, “What do learners should actually be able to do after the learning experience?”
A few reasons we like this book:
It’s a great entry point for people who want to think more intentionally about how learning works.
This book takes a broader view of learning design. Rather than starting with a course, it encourages designers to start with the real problem learners need to solve.
The book introduces a design-thinking process that helps you:
Some of the methods go beyond what we typically implement directly on the Empath platform, but it’s an excellent stretch read for Learning Managers who want to think about learning more holistically.
This resource focuses on a surprisingly tricky skill: writing good assessment questions. Many multiple-choice questions unintentionally measure recognition or memorization, rather than understanding.
This guide shows how to write questions that actually assess learning by focusing on:
For Learning Managers who create quizzes or knowledge checks, a few simple techniques can dramatically improve the quality of assessments and make them a more reliable signal of what learners actually understand.
This book is a great fit for many Learning Managers because it meets you where you are.
If you work in learning long enough, you start to notice something:
Good learning experiences rarely happen by accident.
They come from people who are curious about how learning works and who are willing to refine their approach over time. The Learning Manager Series gives you the tools to get started. But if you enjoy digging a little deeper into the ideas behind effective learning, the resources above are a great place to continue exploring. Remember, you are PERFECT for this role. We can’t wait to se what you create!