D297: Designing E-Learning Experiences for Adults

Designing E-Learning Experiences for Adults opens the Adult Learning Designer pathway — collaborative, experiential, transformative design approaches grounded in real adult-learning theory.

What D297 covers

The course is the first of two courses in the adult learning designer pathway. It teaches best practices for supporting adult learners as they acquire knowledge and learn new skills and dispositions, and explains effective approaches to designing learning experiences for adult learners that are collaborative, experiential, and transformative in nature.

The course explores problem-based and competency-based approaches to designing learning experiences for adults, each evidence-based approach defined and supported by theory and research, with best practices and real examples for each approach.

The D297 performance assessment

Expect a performance assessment requiring you to design an adult learning experience using a problem-based or competency-based approach, grounded in adult-learning theory.

Key topics in D297

• Adult learning theory
• Collaborative and experiential design approaches
• Problem-based and competency-based design

Writing tips for D297

Follow the task instructions and rubric line by line

WGU performance assessments for D297 are graded against a fixed rubric — every rubric line has to be visibly addressed, usually with a labeled heading that mirrors the rubric language. Skipping a rubric point because it seems minor is the single most common reason a competent submission comes back "Not Yet Competent" for revision.

Ground design decisions in a specific learner population and instructional problem

Learning Experience Design courses like D297 typically ask you to apply Design Thinking or instructional design models to a specific learner population and problem, not design in the abstract. Evaluators are checking whether your reasoning fits that concrete audience and problem, not a generic e-learning module.

Because WGU is self-paced, don't let "no deadline pressure" become no submission

There's no weekly due date forcing progress, which means procrastination costs more at WGU than at a traditional term-based school — a stalled task can quietly eat weeks of a term. Treat your own target date for each D297 assessment as a real deadline.

Why students seek help with D297

Candidates sometimes design content using K-12-style pedagogy without applying the adult-learning-specific principles (self-direction, experience-based learning) the course specifically covers — the rubric typically wants genuine adult-learning theory applied.

How GradeEssays helps with D297

Share your adult learner scenario and rubric, and your writer will build a design genuinely grounded in adult-learning theory, not K-12 pedagogy adapted for adults.

Prerequisites and program context

D297 requires Learning Technology (D294) as a prerequisite and opens the Adult Learning Designer pathway.

• Master of Education, Education Technology and Instructional Design

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