Putting content into an LMS is not the same as designing online learning. That sentence is the whole reason this blog exists.
I’m an educator and instructional designer with more than twenty years across K–12, adult, and inclusive education in several countries and every kind of classroom. I hold an M.Ed from the University of Toronto and Canadian and UK teaching certifications. I’ve spent recent years designing and teaching for an Indigenous-led online high school serving remote First Nation communities in northern Ontario, and working with adult learners on prior-learning assessment and portfolio building. I write about learning, design, and the stubborn human parts of both.
I write and build under two names. The Good Learner Project is the learner’s chair — how to learn well in the age of AI — and it’s home to my first book, The Good Learner: Thinking, Questioning, and Growing in the Age of AI. Good Learning by Design — this blog — is the other chair, the one held by whoever is responsible for someone else’s learning, and it’s home to my second book, Good Learning by Design: Why Learning Design Matters More in the Age of AI. Same worldview, two chairs. Everything here comes from inside the work: real courses, real learners, real constraints, not a podium or a vendor deck.
What you’ll find here
Plain-language posts on online and LMS-based course design, assessment and feedback, adult education, equity and access, and AI — with attention to Indigenous, First Nations, Métis, Inuit, northern, and remote learning contexts. No hacks, no hype. Just the craft of designing learning people can actually use.
Adults start from different trailheads. The designer’s job is to mark the way.
A note of thanks
This work owes its first debt to the learners and northern communities I designed for and taught in, who showed me that a course is a promise you make to someone whose evening you will never see — and to the fellow designers, mentors, and readers who kept the trail open while I built it. There’s a fuller note of thanks here. If a post or the book has been useful to you, the kindest thing you can do is share it — or, if you’d like, buy me a coffee.
Elsewhere
For instructional design and eLearning services, project samples, and credentials, visit my portfolio at tikathapa.com. For the learner’s-chair companion — the series, the free guides, and The Good Learner — visit The Good Learner Project. You can also find me on LinkedIn or write to hello@goodlearningbydesign.com.