Our Issue
A common issue in both our places of work is how we can encourage learners to become more engaged in the online learning environments we design. We were challenged with how to encourage and sustain a community of practice where learners can support each other and share knowledge across their respective fields, thereby providing a heightened level of engagement as well as encouraging intellectual risk-taking amongst the group. In Steve’s situation, the issue is taking the theory portion of a carpentry apprenticeship course online. Andrea’s current issue is training franchisees on a new computer software program that will run their business in an online environment. In both cases, the learners were generally not tech-savvy, were resistant to change, were unwilling to share knowledge to benefit the group, and seemed very reluctant to ask questions for fear of others perceptions of them.
Our Method
As we embarked on our design challenge using the Stanford University Institute of Design’s (2016) design thinking process our area of focus was to create a space in which the learners were engaged in the learning process; where they were comfortable to share knowledge in this online space; where they felt supported by the instructor and other learners; and to develop a real sense of community in the online environment. We looked at the issues through the lens of the learner and dug deep into some of the uncomfortable feelings that arose for the learner in these online settings. Rather than trying to solve the ways in which our courses were designed, we thought more about how we could train differently to encourage participants to be more engaged in the learning. “There is always more than one explanation for a wicked problem, with the appropriateness of the explanation depending greatly on the individual perspective of the designer” (Crichton, S. & Carter, D., 2017, p.25).
Our Solutions
Working in pairs for this design challenge allowed us to look at the issue from two different perspectives. After we reflected on our positions, we compiled our respective resolutions and negotiated to arrive at the following solutions:
- Foster a Community of Practice – Introduce a live synchronized icebreaker session at the outset of the course to make students feel comfortable with each other and with the instructor.
- Utilization of Case Studies – All course materials would be based on a real-life situation; encouraging engagement and sharing of professional knowledge.
- Steve-Online course structured around the building of a new house
- Andrea-Online training structured around the opening of a business
- Incorporate Storytelling – Share awkward situations during every major phase of the case study/course. Instructor shares an embarrassing moment/mistake related to that particular phase of the course. Encourage participants to tell their stories to the group.
- Encourage Collaboration – Have participants work through solutions sharing challenge that mimics a real-life scenario. As a group, try to discuss their shared life experiences while encouraging them to draw on their intellect to contribute to the solution (maybe use Design Thinking process as a way to work through the problem).
Conclusion
Creating a community of practice draws on Garrison and Vaughan’s community of inquiry; creating a solution sharing challenge aligns with problem-based learning; and having participants share their stories based on their experiences in the field takes a constructivist approach to teaching and learning (Thomas, 2010). We also tried to encourage a growth mindset in our learners by having them embrace our solutions sharing challenges, having them take inspiration by others life experiences, and having them recognize that there is a direct correlation between hard work in the online learning environment and success both in school/training and in their workplace (Crichton & Carter, 2017).
References
Crichton, S. & Carter, D. (2017). Taking making into classrooms toolkit. Open School/ITA.
Stanford University Institute of Design. (2016). A virtual crash course in design thinking.
Thomas, P. Y. (2010). Learning and instructional systems design. Towards developing a web-based blended learning environment at the University of Botswana. (Doctoral dissertation).
Hi Andrea & Steve,
Thank you for sharing the portfolio of solutions that you have developed to help engage your learners! It looks like the combination will really help tackle the problems you outlined with respect to your leaners. Completing a synchronous icebreaker first should help those that are less technologically savy join the community. I also love that you are using case studies to encourage engagement and sharing. Crichton and Carter (2016) state that a scenario sets “the scene for a project, introduce(s) learners to a project, and create(s) a common starting point” (p. 23). I wonder though if potentially the storytelling solution (#3) might be used to highlight successes as well as mistakes/embarrassing moments? I would worry that a focus on mistakes (even if they were framed as lessons learned) might cause the instructor to lose some credibility with the students?
One other question that I had was whether the community of practice was intended to continue after the course was complete or if it was only for the course? If it was going to keep on going, would you change your approach at all when you started new course serials and had to mix new students in with the already existing community?
Thank you so much for sharing your ideas and your approach. I really think that using multiple solutions the way you have will allow you to succeed in your goals of engaging these reluctant students!
Lorri
Hi Lorri,
Thanks for your thoughtful comments.
Sharing successes along with the missteps is a great idea, we will incorporate that into our plan. As for the loss of credibility with students that is a fine line to walk…I find that when I share my missteps with my Carpentry class, they love the funny stories and it presents me as a more ‘human’ type of teacher. When they realize that everyone makes mistakes, they seem to relax and are willing to take chances. On the flip side, you have to make sure that you are not giving them the impression that you are incompetent.
We had not discussed whether or not the community of practice was to continue after the course/training was completed. In Andrea’s case, I believe that she could continue with her learners to keep the community going (we will discuss this). In my case, it would be a bit harder as once they are out of school they no longer have access to the LMS. I have however had success in encouraging past cohorts into having a Facebook group where they could stay connected after graduation.
Do you have any suggestions on how to motivate learners to keep a community of practice going after the completion of their course/training?
I think this poses some great questions. As Steve mentioned we had not talked about how to keep the community of practice going after the course had ended. I think in my case, we have a wiki page which holds all of the “how-to’s” on the applications of the software system. However, in taking this into account, I think we could open this up to include franchisees and they could almost blog about their issues and other franchisees could share their experience and knowledge using this tool. It would be like an open support page. Really great idea and certainly something that could be done in any of our cases I think.
Hi Steve and Andrea,
It seems like you are coming from such different backgrounds and I really enjoyed seeing how you were able to synthesize your needs and concerns from such differing perspectives.
A few things that came up for me while reading through your prototype activity:
What would the icebreaker be? What would happen if the learners were so new to online learning that they didn’t know how to participate or access the live synchronized session?
With what we know of constructivist theory, I think it makes sense to relate your case studies to the topics relevant to your field to promote engagement and by-in right away. I’m sure it would alleviate the stress of learning a new online system AND a new topic all at once.
In terms of the storytelling piece, how would they do this? Would it be through video, text, recordings etc? Have you considered the timelines for the activity? This is something we missed when building our design and I’m curious to know how other groups consider the time required for the design activity and how that differs based on the needs of the learner as well as the industry itself (corporate, government, education).
I think your group did a great job at tackling two separate learner needs and providing a solution that could be used across different topics. I do however think I would be very intimidated to come up with and share an embarrassing story during my first interaction with new classmates! haha
Great job!
Hello Steve and Andrea,
First off, I want to congratulate you on your blog post and solution. Both are well thought out, easy to read and understand, and thought-provoking!
I really like the way in which you are incorporating real-life scenarios. I believe that this is an area that is often overlooked when faculty/instructors create their curriculum. Making it real will help your learners to visualize how what they are learning can be used in the real world (Pappas, 2013).
My assumption of your learners is that the majority of them are adult learners, from diverse backgrounds, with varying levels of digital literacy. If this is the case, you may have learners who are quite comfortable searching for resources online or uploading assignments, while others may have very little experience with multimedia. What type of support or strategies have you considered to tackle this diversity? Do you have plans to assess your learner’s comfort with the tools/resources you are incorporating into your solution? Finally, as your learners are apprentices and business owners they will be juggling work/life responsibilities. Does your solution provide the flexibility they will require to balance these responsibilities?
As I write this response I am chuckling to myself as I realize these are all items that Lorri and I should have considered for our solution as well! All the more reason to “trust in the process”!
Thanks again for sharing with us!
Sue
Missed the reference again : (
Pappas, C. (2013, May 9). The Adult Learning Theory – Andragogy – of Malcolm Knowles [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://elearningindustry.com/the-adult-learning-theory-andragogy-of-malcolm-knowles
Hi Katie.
Thanks for your questions.
Our icebreaker would be a task that encourages them to navigate their virtual space (maybe a scavenger hunt of the online learning environment with a partner, see who can find the most items). The task would be designed in a way that encourages both partners to interact with each other in order to be successful. We would have to be available for our participants early on to ensure that all issues related to use of the online space are taken care of.
Good question on the storytelling piece? We hadn’t discussed the medium or timelines and will have to go into more detail for the next phase of our plan. As a general rule I don’t like to specify the medium for sharing, I think it is better if you provide the specific expectations and allow them to use their imagination when it comes to the delivery method. I can’t speak for Andrea, but my timelines would be unique to each level of my course and would be spelled out in the course syllabus. What are your thoughts on timelines for this type of activity?
Steve
Hi Steve and Andrea,
Great post! I loved the concept you came up with.
I am not as familiar with communities of practice as I would like to be. How are communities of practice different from other online communities? What made you choose this type of community over others?
The mentality that knowledge is power is difficult to overcome and will take a considerable shift in the organizational culture. Unfortunately, cultural shifts don’t happen overnight. How might the online community help speed up this shift?
A live synchronized session can definitely be a great way to break the ice in some cases. I’m curious whether participation would be mandatory or voluntary. If participation is voluntary, how might you encourage learners to show up for the session?
Fear of judgment and desire to be accepted are common to every human being, but I get the sense these attributes are heightened among your learners. Having instructors demonstrate their own vulnerability through storytelling is a great way to encourage learners to open up. Going back to your point about wicked problems, what other underlying factors might be contributing to learners’ fears (eg. at a team, organization, or cultural level as well as the individual level). How might the online community help address some of these underlying factors?
Learning and development often fits into a larger change management strategy that addresses resistance to change. You may want to explore the PROSCI and ADKAR models to see how they can help support some of the resistance to change and other cultural issues you mentioned.
Cheers,
Amber
Very interesting. You both have learners that work independently by profession – quite possibly in competition with each other – while ultimately reliant on each other at the industrial level.
I share Lorri’s concern that asking reluctant participants to post stories online of mistakes that they have made may not return the results you are hoping for. Having said that, I too employ a self-deprecating strategy with my web development students by sharing stories of misunderstandings and lessons learned, and believe that aspect will provide you with the benefits you have stated in your reply to her.
Perhaps an alternative approach would be to ask them to pair up and present mistakes that others in the industry have made, and post it to a “Mistakes We Won’t Make” board or forum. They could report on an incident and present course material that demonstrates how they will avoid that situation in the future. This might provide the benefits of ‘real world’ examples and case studies, while creating a unifying community of practice that could perpetuate through cohorts if an application that is external to your LMS is used.
Sean, thanks so much for your comments. In terms of the icebreaker activity this would be separate from the storytelling piece. I do not think we ever suggested in our blog post that we would want learners to post mistakes anywhere online. This would be especially hard and awkward and would probably put people on the spot which is not our intention. We were thinking of this activity much more organically. As in the instructor would provide scenarios where he/she made a mistake and how that was handled. Encouraging others to share their experiences (whether mistakes or not) we were thinking that this would encourage a comfort level with the instructor and others who would share their stories once a comfort level of sharing and collaboration was established. We were thinking that to encourage an early start to this we could begin an icebreaker, prior to the icebreaker where participants could email the instructor with some information about themselves, perhaps fears/concerns about the course maybe even anonymously so as to try to support the learners with their concerns and address them head on. The ideal would be to open up communication and encourage collaboration with the other learners.
Thanks so much for your post as it allowed us to see that perhaps we need to be more clear as to how we intended to capture the storytelling piece.
Hello Andrea and Steve,
Even with stating the commonalities of your challenges, it is quite the task to find a common solution amongst two very different groups of learners. Although carpentry requires precision and use of many tools, even some software such as CAD, it is easy to see how there could be some resistance to learning the basics in an online format. As for the franchisees, learning a new system can be stressful. I think you stated your objective well, “encourage and sustain a community of practice”, within each of your working environments.
Of the proposed resolutions listed, the ones that strike me are the utilizing of case studies and storytelling. How would these be conveyed through an online platform? What tactics would be used to encourage and contribute thoughts to the case study, or give effective feedback and participation in the storytelling? Your ideas align with cognitive learning by “making knowledge meaningful and helping learners organize and relate new information to existing knowledge in memory” (Ertmer & Newby, 2013). The case studies could encourage partnerships and finding solutions in teams. Storytelling brings in personal experience, which could encourage bonding for those who share similar past experiences. Both are great places to start!
Hi Steve and Andrea,
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog post as it definitely touches on aspects that Amber and I dealt with in our design process. One of those is the use of real-life situations for the learning forum as our organizations have members who value the use of actual hands-on or directly associated learning. In my experience, engagement tends to be increased when learners are subjected to tangible lessons that relate directly to their roles and your outcomes seem to focus on that aspect well.
One area that has been addressed already by a few of our classmates is that of the live synchronized ice breaker session and what formats were you expecting the learners to use. (Video, Audio, Text). You felt that a learner could choose which format works best for them but what about the pressure of using a live session? How would you address the participants that prefer to not be “put on the spot”? I can visualize some learners needing some time to gather their thoughts (and courage) to make a post and may fall short in this segment if they needed to contribute to a group (that may be new to them) in such a real-time personal way.
Case in point, I can give you a personal example that came directly from this Assignment. Amber and I worked synchronously on the design school phase and at one point were attempting to write the blog post in the same manner….Amber is amazing at putting her thoughts to paper and creating well crafted documents on the fly…..myself, well I get performance anxiety (lol) and needed to hole myself up offline and just focus on the task at hand without worrying about the other person watching what I was doing or typing in real time, even if they are non-judgemental and supportive as Amber was. It was just my personal issues/work flow that required a different environment to feel that I was contributing meaningfully. Hey wait…it seems your Storytelling aspect for awkward situations already worked! 🙂
Have a good one and great job on your post!
Gavin.
Hey Gavin,
Thanks for your response….yes our plan worked to have people subconsciously open up through storytelling lol!
In regards to the pressure that some may feel in taking part in a live session, that is a good observation. Hopefully by creating a safe environment and setting the tone for open dialogue would help remove some apprehension. Perhaps having an “out” for those that are really not comfortable would be a way to deal with this, although I would be hesitant as it may allow individuals to opt out too easily…do you have any suggestions?