Knowing, doing and showing: a framework for evidencing education and learning designers’ practice in higher education

Much has been written about the diverse roles, responsibilities, and competencies of third space professionals working in education and learning design. While these debates are important, this paper begins with the premise that, regardless of title or exact role description, all designers are competent; they bring professional expertise to learning design which contributes to quality teaching and learning in their institutions.  With that premise in mind, the purpose of this paper is to outline a possible Framework for designers to measure and evidence their competence and contributions either to use for future engagements and collaborations, to show impact of their practice on quality learning and teaching, to intentionally plan for design engagements, and/or to support applications for promotion or career progression. This paper is a response to what Williams et al. (2011) suggest is a need to know more about the challenges facing education and learning designers so that relevant scholarship can be produced, and to provide a vehicle for designers to clarify their professional identity and promote the importance of their position in the higher education ecosystem. While the authors work in the Australian context, we believe this response has global relevance.