A modern, uncluttered workspace featuring an open laptop displaying a colorful learning dashboard with modules, timelines, and progress indicators, all rendered as abstract shapes and icons rather than readable text. The laptop sits on a light oak desk with a soft fabric notebook, pens, and a small globe emphasizing global education. Behind it, a large wall map with subtle pins and lines suggests refugee learning pathways without depicting hardship. Soft morning daylight streams through an unseen window, casting gentle, directional shadows and a calm, professional glow. Photographic realism, shot at eye level with a slight three-quarter angle, using shallow depth of field so the background map is softly blurred. The mood is focused, optimistic, and solutions-oriented, suited to an instructional design portfolio homepage.

Dan Leitch — Instructional Design

Instructional design for displaced and refugee learners

Field-tested learning for displaced communities

About Dan

My work grows from years teaching alongside displaced and refugee learners, listening first, then designing structures that make learning possible.

I specialize in courses that remain coherent amid disruption, low bandwidth, and migration, so learners continue progressing wherever they resettle.

A series of printed instructional design storyboards laid out across a large table, each page showing neatly sketched user flows, wireframes of learning modules, and icon-based representations of learners in different regions, with no human faces. A folded map of Eastern Europe and Central Asia lies partially under the pages, hinting at displaced and refugee learning contexts through highlighted corridors and safe-route markings. Overhead, diffused studio lighting creates even, shadow-free illumination, emphasizing detail and clarity. Photographic realism with a top-down, bird’s eye composition, sharp focus throughout to showcase every sticky note and annotation. The atmosphere is analytical yet hopeful, conveying rigorous research and careful planning for complex educational environments.
A clean, glass-topped conference table holding a printed curriculum blueprint for a refugee education program, with modules labeled by abstract icons, color-coded pathways, and competency maps rather than legible text. Beside it, a slim tablet shows a multilingual interface mockup, and a discreet UN-style blue folder and OSCE-branded notebook (logos replaced with simple geometric symbols) subtly reference international collaboration. Through floor-to-ceiling windows, a city skyline with distant mountains hints at Central Asian contexts. Late-afternoon natural light floods the room, producing soft reflections on the glass and polished metal chair frames. Photographic realism, shot from a slightly elevated angle using the rule of thirds, creating a professional, globally engaged atmosphere that feels optimistic and forward-looking.

Services

I partner with universities, NGOs, and international agencies to design curricula, facilitate instructor training, and build course prototypes tailored to displaced and refugee learners’ realities, from unstable access and trauma to complex legal and linguistic environments.

View work

Testimonials

Hope D.

Dan designed trauma-aware courses that respected learners’ histories while building concrete skills our team could implement immediately in camp classrooms.

Hope D.

His graduate course on trafficking and migration helped our cohort connect policy frameworks to the lived experiences of displaced and refugee communities.

Hope D.

Dan’s field research informed practical tools we now use to adapt curricula quickly when learners move, lose connectivity, or face renewed displacement.

Hope D.

Working with Chernobyl-displaced learners, he balanced academic rigor with flexibility, resulting in higher completion rates and stronger learner confidence.

Updates

Get in Touch

Reach me through any of the channels below.

Telegram QR code for @DANIEL_DONAVITCH
Telegram — @DANIEL_DONAVITCH