LXD Spotlight: Jackielee Derks on Higher Ed Trends Shaping Learning Design

Feb 24, 2026

Jocelyn Wright

by Jocelyn Wright

Director of Community and Market Development

At Six Red Marbles (SRM), we believe in continuous learning. Each member of our Learning Experience Design (LXD) team has selected an area of specialization this year to deepen their expertise and expand the value they bring to our clients. Our LXD Spotlight series highlights what our team is exploring and how those insights translate directly into client impact.

Today, I’m talking to Jackielee Derks, a Senior Learning Experience Designer, about why she’s specializing in monitoring higher education trends—and how she’s translating those insights into LXD recommendations.

What drew you to this area of specialization?

Higher education is in a period of significant transition. Institutions are still recovering from the long-term effects of the pandemic while simultaneously navigating the rapid rise of AI and the looming enrollment cliff. The pace of change is accelerating, and adaptation is no longer optional. For many colleges and universities, survival depends on reimagining how they foster learning and how they attract and retain students. To remain competitive, higher ed institutions have to think strategically about what they can offer students that would be really beneficial.

What are the trends you’re most interested in right now?

AI and new learning paths and approaches to curriculum.

Everyone’s talking about AI—what are you seeing from your work with clients that makes this topic stand out?

Every faculty member I work with is asking about AI. They have questions about how to form policies, how to teach AI, and how to prevent plagiarism and academic dishonesty. Many of the faculty we work with are also expected to use AI in their professional roles as researchers and teachers. Our clients need support in these areas, and we need to know how to offer that to them.

Tell me more about how our clients want to use—or are using—AI tools in their work.

I had an interesting conversation with a faculty member who’s teaching an intro to a professional program course focused on research, writing, and pedagogy. She’d like to talk to grad students about tools they can use for their research, but she’s not sure how to do that in a way that prepares them to be successful across the program. Since the university’s official AI policy leaves much of the decision-making to individual instructors, students might not be able to use those tools in other classes.

Many universities have created this challenging situation for faculty where they’re leaving it up to them to make the rules, but faculty don’t even know how to teach students to use AI responsibly because the rules are so different for every class and instructor. Even universities that have an AI policy are leaving a lot of it up to instructors.

What do you think could help faculty the most with AI?

I recently presented at our webinar AI + Human Insight: Better Learning by Design, and a lot of the comments were from teachers looking for concrete tools they could use—especially if their schools didn’t have an enclosed LLM (large language model). They wanted to know how to ensure AI tools wouldn’t violate FERPA and what tools they could safely integrate into their LMS. There are a lot of AI tools out there, but there’s such a grey area around them because teachers have to worry about so many things.

Because these decisions vary widely by institution and use case, we’re developing a practical framework to help faculty evaluate AI tools based on policy alignment, data privacy considerations, and instructional intent. Faculty are looking for really concrete ideas about the tools available to them and how they can use those tools to enhance student learning.

These are exactly the kinds of questions we help institutions work through—translating broad AI concerns into course-level design decisions that align with policy, pedagogy, and student privacy requirements.

Switching gears from AI—you also mentioned being interested in learning paths and approaches to curriculum. Tell me more about that.

I’m thinking about micro-credentials and other flexible credentialing models. It’s really interesting to me because, as someone who came out of academia, I had to learn how to translate my academic skills for industry and the private sector. Offering things like micro-credentials or majors that are more career-ready can be very beneficial for students as they’re hitting a very competitive job market.

Students need support figuring out how they can take the traditional academic skills they’re taught in the classroom and translate them for future employers. I think sometimes higher education can resist these types of programs because they want to embrace education for the sake of education versus embracing education as a tool for their students’ economic mobility.

How is this interest shaped by the work you do with our clients?

One of our clients who develops graduate programs for teachers mentioned they might want support from SRM in developing some micro-credentialing programs. Being a teaching education program, a lot of their students need to meet continuing education requirements for their states. Micro-credentials are a way for them to offer programming that meets those requirements, but it’s not a mini-certificate—so they’re not committing to something that’s unmanageable. And they get a credential out of it that translates very well to their LinkedIn profile or teaching portfolio.

Plus, it’s a good way for the program to offer something that helps them with revenue. If they can set something up online, it can be very manageable. Micro-credentials can be a good thing for programs looking for ways to increase enrollment by offering more flexible options, especially in the online space.

To wrap up—what’s catching your eye right now? What will you be focusing on most in the coming months?

With the recent release of the latest generation of advanced AI models, AI has made another significant advancement, and I’ve been thinking a lot about how these expanded capabilities will impact our team’s work.

Thank you so much for chatting with me, Jackie.

What This Means for Our Partners

As institutions navigate rapid change—from AI integration to evolving credential models—our designers like Jackie are helping translate emerging trends into thoughtful, practical learning experiences. At SRM, we work alongside faculty and program leaders to develop responsible AI strategies, redesign assessments, and craft workforce-aligned, stackable credentials that meet both learner and institutional goals.

Explore our recent webinar and stay tuned for our upcoming AI evaluation framework for faculty and program leaders.

Watch the Webinar