Month: December 2017

Alfonso MacGregor & Fiona Prince

For this LRNT524 assignment, we used design thinking to develop a prototype of an elearning course that will help students begin to create a sense of inclusion in their new online learning community, encourage students to engage in intellectual risk taking and become actively engaged in their online learning.

Context

Since we (Alfonso and Fiona) do not work for organizations, we created the fictitious Tremendous Travel Agency for this assignment.

Using the d.school design thinking template (Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, 2013), we interviewed each other concerning our own challenges with booking flights, cars, hotels, tours, and so on. We shared ideas about types of travellers who might need and want our services and our course.

Using Keller’s four stage ARCS model (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction) we structured a 4-6 week course to include the following stages:

1. Interactive online learning tutorial:

   Video demos with transcripts and self-test quizzes on how to navigate the online learning platform and use the course applications/tools. This stage captures the learner’s attention, generates curiosity, heightens perceptions and encourages inquiry (Thomas, 2010).

2. Share Your Ideal Travel Experience

   Learners build digital scrapbooks of their ideal travel experience. This activity ensures the content is relevant to the learner (Thomas, 2010). It aligns with empathic design which “focuses on everyday life experiences, and on individual desires, moods, and emotions in human activities, turning such experiences and emotions into inspiration,” (Mattlemaki, Vaajakallio, & Koskinen, 2014, p. 67).

3. Engage with Community

   Learners comment on each other’s scrapbooks, ask questions, and update their scrapbooks based on feedback. This intellectual risk taking through feedback prepares learners for the next step and instills confidence in the learning process.

4. Challenges and Obstacles

   Learners create scrapbook pages with the challenges that prevent them from achieving their ideal travel experience. This activity keeps the learning relevant and reinforces what it is the learner is trying to accomplish. “Adults desire to be competent in matters that are valuable to them and necessary for their personal or professional growth and development,” (Thomas, 2010, p. 211).

5. Peer Coaching

   Learners review their peers’ scrapbooks, then suggest options to each other for facing challenges and overcoming obstacles. This peer coaching keeps the learners’ attention and boosts their confidence as they discover relevant solutions to their travel fears.

6. Planning to Travel

   With guidance from the instructors, learners plan their ideal travel, including how they will book their travel and accommodations, what they will pack, who will look after their home while they are gone, and other travel essentials. This final activity “provides meaningful opportunities for learners to use their newly acquired knowledge/skill,” (Thomas, 2010, p. 213) which leads to satisfaction.

By the end of the course, each learner will have developed a scrapbook of their ideal travel, the challenges they face, and solutions to those challenges.

We (Alfonso and Fiona) will reveal pages of our own scrapbooks throughout the course to create connections with the learners and demonstrate empathy (Mattlemaki, Vaajakallio, & Koskinen, 2014)  for the process they will go through to become confident travellers.

We would love to read your comments, questions and suggestions! Travel with us and be our critical friends.  🙂

References:

Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. (2013). An introduction to Design Thinking. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4302-6182-7_1

Mattelmaki, T., Vaajakallio, K., & Koskinen, I. (2014). What Happened to Empathic Design? DesignIssues, 30(1), 67–77. https://doi.org/10.1162/DESI

Thomas, P. Y. (2010). Learning and instructional systems design. In Towards developing a web-based blended learning environment at the University of Botswana. (Doctoral dissertation).

Travel Agency image attribution: Source:  https://blog.itravelsoftware.com/2012/10/travel-agency-system-5-things-it-must-have/

Scrapbook image attribution:   https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7e/66/20/7e6620b70509f667f3c3ae09e7454cd8.jpg