Kaya in Higher Education
Abstract:
Kaya, a learning design professional in South Africa, works as an instructional design intern at the University of Johannesburg. Formerly a secondary school teacher of life orientation and English, she transitioned to learning design after pursuing a bachelor’s and master’s degree in ICT in education at the same university. Kaya’s passion for computer-based learning drove her career shift.
I decided to do a short course because I realized I need practical experience with regard to instructional design. I needed to have hands-on experience. I registered with the University of Pretoria, because it seemed to be the only university that offered a short course on international design, based on my research. It is further away from where I stay. I would have to drive for an hour to get there, but it was an online course. Fortunately, for me, I would go to work and then after hours I would engage with everything that my classmates were posting online and engage with the activities. I felt it was empowering for me, because it actually exposed me to other tools that I never thought I could use as a teacher. Also, as someone who wants to design learning material for online learning I really enjoyed the course. It was an 8 week course. After completing this course, I decided that I should just resign from my workplace and fully focus on looking for instructional design opportunities.I was looking for an instructional design internship opportunity. I got called to work as an instructional design intern at University of Johannesburg. I actually told them [hiring managers] that I did this course at University of Pretoria, and they liked that. I think it put me at an advantage! That’s how I got the position that I’m in now.
Key takeaways from this interview highlight essential competencies for South African higher education learning designers, including online solution development, collaboration with lecturers and team members, and creativity to adapt content for diverse audiences. Kaya emphasizes translating K-12 teaching experience into learning design practice and notes the importance of proficiency in African languages to engage effectively with course materials in multilingual contexts.
But now, I have to be able to convince people on what works or what cannot work. At the same time, I have to be creative to say, if we can’t do it like this way, we [can] do it in this other way. So, I believe now I have to be more creative. Because I want to present ideas and suggestions that are going to be interesting to people, that are going to wow them. At the same time, I do not want to forget that this is a professional course that I am working on. I am supposed to be professional, I can’t suggest options or develop content in a way that will suit younger children or that will suit secondary students when that is not my audience. As learning designers, you have to ask yourself: What is it that I need to do? The work should be professional, because at the same time, it will represent you as an individual and it will also be representing the institution.
Romero-Hall, E. (2025). Learning Designers in Context: Examining Practices Across the Global South. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003270591
Photo Credit: The Happy Challenge – Nelson Mandela Square, Gauteng
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