Andrea Robin — Learning Design Specialist
I design equitable, evidence-based learning for health, higher education, research, and public-sector organizations — and the systems that sustain it.
I came to learning design through visual arts and neurobiology, and more than a decade of applied work across higher education, research, and the public sector. These paths converged on a single principle that anchors my practice: learning and wellbeing are not separate systems. The conditions that make learning stick — relevance, agency, belonging, social scaffolding, and reflection — are the same conditions that support cognitive health. I design for both, in environments built to include rather than exclude.
I work at the level of organizational systems — drawing on adult learning theory, the science of learning, and Universal Design for Learning to diagnose what isn’t working, build the conditions for change, and design for sustainability from the outset. My work spans higher education, research institutions, and the public sector, with a current focus on health systems and care-based organizations.
What I Do
Learning Experience Design
Learning grounded in the evidence of how understanding actually forms. I work through a structured five-phase rhythm — Why, See, Try, Share, Reflect — that moves learners from relevance and prior knowledge through active experience, social consolidation, and reflective transfer.
Learning Systems Design
When learning outcomes fall short of what an organization intends, the cause is often structural. I design the underlying architecture — through needs analysis, logic modelling, and evaluation frameworks — so that learning becomes more coherent, more equitable, and more measurably effective.
Inclusive and Equitable Design
I treat accessibility and equity as design decisions, not compliance steps added at the end. Working with subject-matter experts and learners themselves, I address barriers at the point of design — in how goals are set, how participation is structured, and how outcomes are assessed — producing learning that is more accessible, more rigorous, and more effective for a broader range of people.
Curriculum and Program Development
Course and program design that develops genuine capability rather than delivers content, and remains effective long after a project ends. This spans learning outcomes, assessment design, and facilitated co-design with subject-matter experts and learners.
Facilitation and Capacity Building
I design and lead workshops, stakeholder engagement, and coaching grounded in the conditions that make learning possible: psychological safety, belonging, and trust. This includes supporting organizations to recognize the relationship between well-being and learning capacity, and to build cultures where both are taken seriously.
Image Description: A grid of eight organization logos on a white background, representing former workplaces. Top row, left to right: TRIUMF (cyan text with a pinwheel icon), UBC — University of British Columbia (navy shield crest), ICBC (cyan speech-bubble style icon with white lettering), and Emily Carr University of Art and Design (a multicoloured arc in pink, green and teal alongside black text). Bottom row, left to right: Nova Scotia (circular logo with a blue and yellow shield featuring a golden lion), Science World (bold black text with a geodesic sphere icon), ArtStarts (grey and red lowercase text with a speech bubble dot), and Lighthouse Labs (dark text with a lighthouse icon and a small arrow).
Work
Selected projects from higher education, research, and the public sector. All projects are anonymized in accordance with confidentiality obligations.
Resources
These frameworks and working tools reflect the methodology behind this work — developed through collaboration with teams and organizations, and offered as a structured starting point for practitioners working through similar challenges.
Living and working on the traditional, ancestral, unceded, and occupied territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples.