Facilitating the Understand Step - Lessons Learned

Briefly describe/review how you decided to apply and use the Understand step in the project you selected. Include how you used diagnostic model and what challenges you experienced.

I completed the Understand guide based on the content in the eLearning Facilitation Certification Workshop. I also created the diagnostic model based on this content. I did not experience any challenges in this process.

Next, explain the "lessons learned" you have gained from conducting the Understanding step. This might include insights about your project or the facilitation process of working with others. Be sure to describe the role you played as the architect and facilitator during the Understand step.

I learned that the Understand guide is very helpful when conducting interviews with others. The questions are very directed and it really lends itself well to the creation of the diagnostic model. When I conducted my interview, I noticed that my "client" would go into further detail about what they viewed on the model. This led me to realize that the modules needed a checklist to further explain what the learners are required to do.

Creating Diagnostic Models with the Understand Guide

For this assignment, I shared my guide and diagnostic model with a former student of the workshop. They agreed that this guide and model represents the learning environment well.

Design Pattern Swap

I designed patterns from a Presentation Techniques course that I am currently assisting with. The instructor is designing the course to focus on writing, speaking, and delivery skills for a variety of situations. For the online portion, the instructor wants the students to primarily focus on written assignments with some online presentations while the face to face course will focus on live presentations, critique, and group work.

The instructor uses the same layout for each module and class meetings. Each module contains the sub-modules Lesson and Assignments. The live course focuses on presentation skills and feedback. Each pattern is below:

Lesson Sub-Module:

Assignments Sub-Module:

Face to Face Meeting:

Interviewing for Understanding

I met up with a former colleague over lunch and I interviewed her about a memorable learning experience she had. We discussed her experience in a Quality Matters training session. During our interview I filled out the Understand Guide and created a diagnostic model which she confirmed matched her experience.

Creating Diagnostic Models

I completed the Understand Guide and created a diagnostic model of the eLearning Facilitation Certification Workshop. My model covers entirety of the course excluding the Orientation module. Looking at the course from this perspective, I see improvement that can be made but I think we did a good job of incorporating theory and hands on application.

Understand Interview Reflections

I observed an online learning environment in edx titled "Healthy Ageing in 6 Steps: Let your environment do the work".

The course is centered around empowering the learners to consistently make healthier decisions in their daily lives. The content covers a wide range of health topics from environmental influences to ageing in the past.

I shared my story with a colleague. I basically described the course and my experience so far. There is one aspect of the course that I really enjoy in particular. The video lectures were created in a sort of documentary style/60 Minutes segment. To me, this is much more engaging than standard recorded lectures.

There is little to no instructor presence in the course. However, the content delivery is engaging so I really didn't notice the lack of a facilitator. Also, the quizzes are auto graded and built into the lecture.

Discover Datasheet Results Report

My project is the redesign of the elearning facilitation workshop. The plan is to set new objectives for the course and revamp the content to meet those objectives.

Using the Discover Datasheet and conducting the empathy research led me to discover a possible reason behind one of the major issues in the course - the lack of interaction between learners.

Below is my original datasheet and the report that was given to my client.

Facilitating the Discover Step - Lessons Learned

I applied the Discover step to the current elearning facilitaton workshop in order to collect data over the content alignment, the goals of the course, and the learner experience. There are revisions being made currently so the datasheets were incredibly useful to look at everything in a different manner and really pinpoint where changes need to occur.

I have the added benefit of seeing feedback from my learners in this environment. I looked at their comments and was able to use the datasheet and apply it from the student view. There are many things that can be enhanced in the course from both the design side and the facilitation side.

I really like the datasheet as it gives me a guiding lens to look at the course. It reminds me of the "brain dump" I use daily in that I'm able to write down everything I see but it has the added benefit of categorizing those items at the same time.

Lessons Learned - feedback is invaluable. Without my learner feedback, it may have been more difficult to really gain that student perspective. I have facilitated the course for several months and I feel at times that I'm too close to the content to look objectively at it.

Preliminary Empathy Research

I was able to fill out several discover datasheets while observing the elearning facilitation workshop. There were two in particular that I included at the bottom. 

What did you learn from completing the Discover Datasheet?

• I've received feedback from learners over some items in the course, so I was aware of those. However, I was able to take a more critical look at the content and environment in general when using the datasheet as a lens. I asked myself if there were any problems, needs, or goals in each module.

What surprised you?

• I'm very familiar with the course so I wasn't too surprised with any of my findings except the technology requirements need.

What surprised your client?

• My client wasn't really surprised with any of the findings since they participated as a student.

Identifying a Learning Environment to Apply LEDx

The project I've chosen is the redesign of the elearning facilitation workshop.

I've selected this project because the facilitation workshop is the first experience of elearning that most instructors have. This is an important foundation in teaching online as well as designing online courses.

The workshop covers communication practices, managing content, feedback & assessments, engagement, and practical applications.

The LEDx framework will be very useful in aligning the  content and helping us define our goal for facilitation. Also, the empathy research will be instrumental in helping us look at the course from the learners' perspective.

Client Empathy Discover Datasheet

For this assignment, I observed my colleague, Brett. His office is right next to mine so I talk with him daily. Though I typically see his office everyday, it was interesting to view it from a different perspective. His office is always clean and tidy. What I like about the office is that it's professional yet comfortable. There is art decorating the walls as well as family photos. He is a huge Dr. Who fan and there are a few Dr. Who items in his office that I've never noticed before until now.

Brett has created a space that is his own and shows off his personality but remains very professional.

Empathy Research with Discover Datasheets

For this assignment, I did my empathy research over the elearning facilitation workshop for faculty. I observed the most recently taught course. There were multiple instances of learner feedback and I was able to observe and document a problem in the learning environment. My Discover Datasheet is below.

I was actually surprised that this discussion policy would be an issue with the learners as most instructors I work with have this same policy in their courses. I understand the reasoning behind this policy from the faculty side but it was interesting to see their perspectives as students and how the two differ. It would be interesting to see if these instructors implement this requirement in their courses and what the outcome would be.

Client Discovery Focus Board

The focus board I created was for an instructor I am currently working with. We just finished his ADA checklist for his course, and he wanted to know how to take a proactive approach for creating an ADA compliant online learning environment in the future.

The instructor, Steph Rogers - CeCE's ADA specialist, and I met via a conference call.

The conference call was held in my office.

Getting Focused - First Focus Board

For my focus board, I chose a project I am currently working on - redesigning the eLearning Facilitation Certification Workshop.  This assignment really helped me with reevaluating the course goal. Once that is established, the next step is to determine if the content/assignments are right for that desired outcome.

Discover Interview Reflections

In my position, I don't have many opportunities to see the end product of courses. I work with instructors to design online courses so any opportunity to gain student feedback is limited. However, I recently had the opportunity to observe an online course that is currently being taught. I was quickly able to gain empathy with the learners by a number of ways.


Always the Student

When I first accessed the course, I went through the assignments and content as I would if I were a student. I gained first hand knowledge of the learning environment this way. I made a list of any confusing elements I saw so that I could reference those if brought up by any student.

Fly on the Wall

I observed the interactions between the students and the instructor.

Feedback

I saw that many students had left feedback in the course Q&A. I asked questions regarding whether those concerns had been addressed.

This was a unique experience for me. Though the experience of the learner is always in the back of my mind, I typically work with instructors and they are the ones who I first gain empathy with. It's a juggling act at times; you want to please your client, however, the learner experience is ultimately the goal in this process. Being able to see student feedback in this live course really reminded me of this.

Facilitating Design Experiences

I held a LEM design meeting in my office with Brandon Burr and Brett King. The meeting went really well. Brandon was familiar with LEM before the meeting so there was no need to explain the process. We jumped right into mapping out the course.

Brandon has been tasked with redesigning a hybrid FMCD 5373 course. The current course that is being taught has a really good structure that is consistent and easy to navigate so we decided to keep that. His main goals are to update the assignments and add more practice and dialogue. Once we started talking about the actual assignments themselves, he saw a need to make them more relevant to the student.

I did not map out the current course beforehand because I do not want my instructors to rely on someone else's design. I want to hear how they want the course to be. However, in this case it would have been good in order to see the differences between his plan and the current course and since we decided to keep the same structure, it may have cut down on the time spent mapping everything out.

Using LEDx as a framework, I would add in placeholders in D2L for those elements that we discussed for Brandon's course.

Planning a Learning Environment Design Experience

Below, I am applying the LEDx framework to the Facilitation workshop.

I would first start out the class by getting to know not only my instructors but discovering what they know about facilitating an online learning environment. Right now, my instructors delve right into the content and I do not have a clear understanding of where they are coming from.

This goes along with the discover phase for me, but I would also like to know what they believe makes a good facilitator in general and how that applies to online learning or if they think there's no connection. I need to know what they believe they will get out of this course and how they plan to achieve those objectives.

UCO has a solid Facilitation workshop as it is now, however, I would definitely add more examples for the instructors such as video tutorials, podcasts, images, etc. My instructors learn a great deal from each other so it would be a great idea to include examples from current online facilitators so they can see what their peers are doing in their courses.

The final project is the hands-on portion of the workshop where the instructors build out items in D2L. I would like to build upon this and have them create a "How to Teach This Course" guide as well that incorporates all of the best practices they've learned in the course.

Designing the Design Space

I chose my design space for its functionality. The space includes several whiteboards and has room for several more if needed. The table in the middle also has a whiteboard top. The space is low-key and located right outside the offices of the instructional design team so there is always the opportunity to find other opinions if need be.

I would use this space for a larger group. I typically work one on one with an instructor. If there are more than three people in my office, the space becomes cramped.

Modeling Agenda Design

This modeling agenda was used for my LEM design meeting with Brandon Burr for his redesign of FMCD 5373. I asked Brett King to join us and offer any suggestions he had with the design. 

Applying the LEDx to BIG Design Challenges

For my design challenge, I chose to apply the LEDx framework to “Your Ideal Introductory Video for a Course.”

Part of my job as an ID is to manage the faculty facilitation course for UCO. In this course we share best practices and one of the content topics is to create the ideal welcome message. I am going to be basing the following framework off of interactions I've had with my faculty.

Discover: Empathy Research

I would like to start off my conversations with finding out what the instructor's purpose is in creating this message. In Facilitation, I get a variety of videos. Some want to instantly build a connection and use the video for this purpose. Others are quick and to the point in conveying pertinent information.

Understand: Diagnostic Model

It's always useful to see the message or video the instructor is now using. It gives me a baseline to start from.

Envision: Design Model

In this particular topic, instructors must share their videos with the class so they have ample opportunity to see what their colleagues are doing. If they are just working one-on-one with me, I will have plenty of examples to show them to find out what kind of format they like.

Build: Develop Environment

Instructors can use any type of video recording they like. Once the instructor creates a video, I will give feedback.

Innovate

Once the instructor has an opportunity to use the video in class, I will recommend that they revamp it every semester. They should always keep in mind what worked and what didn't work.

Different or Similar?

Credit: https://hortmonvera.wordpress.com/2015/03/06/addie-instructional-model/

In the past, my basic method was to use the ADDIE model when designing courses. This worked relatively well, however, I was constantly having to adjust the method to fit my instructor's preferences. This led to my processes being constantly in flux.

LEDx is similar in the fact that it is easy to understand but for me, the difference lies in its fluidity and ease of use. Though my processes are still evolving, they are much more consistent when working with instructors.

Curating BIG Learning Environment Design Challenges

The challenges I face are varied. I am an instructional designer so I come across several challenges when working with professors to design their courses. A few of my biggest challenges are below:

1. Too much information - many times my instructors think more is better in terms of content. However, most of the time this content is not aligned with their objectives. It's a challenge explaining this without stepping on toes.

2. Alignment - This goes along with #1 above but before LEM it was a challenge mapping out the course in a way that made it very clear that the course wasn't aligned. Now, it's incredibly fast and easy to see what's missing from the content and what should be taken out.

3. Instructor frustration - it's difficult at times to convince an instructor that though it makes sense to them, their students may find something confusing. They are the content expert, however, I am here to help them design their course in a way that's fluid and comprehensible for the student.

4. The "I have no clue what I am going to do" phase - Unless the instructor has never taught this subject before, most of the time they do have some sort of idea how they want their course to be set up. The challenge comes with the brainstorming sessions and articulating their wants.

Modeling Learning Environment Layers

For this assignment I chose the model "A Run with Friends"

Outcome Layer
I believe the outcome of this model in particular is the time spent with friends while exercising.

Strategy Layer
The strategy for accomplishing this is by running.

Systems Layer
The system used can be found in the interaction between the participants prior to the actual run and in the feedback gathered afterwards.

Experience

The experience of this can be gathered from the entire process of the actual run itself.

Exploring Design Layers in Learning Environments

This course was designed as an online Dance Appreciation course.

Outcome
The outcome of this course is for the students to meet the objectives set forth by the instructor.

Strategy
The instructor uses a variety of deliverables in her course and really focuses on making the content meaningful to her students.

System
The modules were designed to flow seamlessly together. Also, the design of each module is consistent so the student knows what to expect each week.

Experience
The instructor encourages interaction based on critiques of dance performances. She has a strict netiquette rule she enforces which allows for a safe environment for expression and opinions.

My Learning Environment Design Pattern

Here is my adapted design pattern. I found the original from Tracey Romano. Seeing her process of buying a car was incredibly helpful. I tweaked a few things to better match my processes.

LEM - Design Patterns Notebook

Below are a few of the design patterns I have created thus far:

In Class Orientation


Typical Online Orientation


An Online Law Course Orientation Model


An Online Dance Course



A Model for Planning a Vacation
This model was created during an information session for LEM. It was fun and interesting to see how easily LEM can work in your personal life as well.

Design Patterns

For this assignment, I am focusing on the introductory period of a class setting. Below are a couple of examples of an orientation - from a live classroom setting to an online environment. The last image represents a more ideal model pattern for the orientation in an online environment.

Live Class



Online Class



Online Ideal

My Re-designed LEM

My original model:




For my redesigned model, I would definitely add a syllabus quiz to the Orientation module as well as videos demonstrating different types of dance technique in each of the modules.