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Tom Cheng

Senior Learning Experience Designer · Michigan State University

tom@chenglish.hk LinkedIn ↗ Resume →

I grew up in Hong Kong and spent four years teaching English and Computer Science in secondary schools there. The experience that shaped me most was the pandemic. When schools went online, an enormous amount of money suddenly flowed into educational technology: devices, platforms, subscriptions, all driven by the assumption that putting digital tools in students' hands would naturally lead to better learning. But sitting with my students day after day, I wasn't so sure. I watched schools purchase tools without a clear sense of what those tools could actually do, and without rethinking the curriculum to make good use of them. The technology was there. The learning design wasn't.

That gap is what sent me to Stanford. I went specifically to study the effectiveness of educational technology — not as a given, but as a question. Stanford's Learning Design & Technology program pushed me to think rigorously about what it means to design for learning, not just for engagement or novelty. My capstone was Impromptu, an AI-powered speaking coach I designed and prototyped from scratch for secondary-school English learners, with 400+ survey responses, 50+ prototype testers, and a lot of late nights in the d.school.

Since early 2024 I've been the instructional designer at Michigan State University's Center for Teaching and Learning Innovation. My biggest project so far: designing all 22 courses for the Apple Manufacturing Academy as the sole ID on the project. I've also co-launched a monthly faculty development workshop series (SLXD) and, more recently, a biweekly podcast about AI and education with my colleague MJ Jackson.

My approach to instructional design is pretty simple: start with the learner, not the content. Most learning fails not because the subject matter is hard but because the design ignores how people actually make sense of new ideas. I care a lot about structure, scaffolding, and the difference between covering material and building understanding.

Outside of work, I still maintain chenglish.hk, the teaching site I built for my Hong Kong students years ago. It's old and a bit dated, but a few hundred students still use it every year, which I find quietly satisfying.

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