As LRNT 527 continues to move forward, we are now finishing up Activities 2 and 3, which focus on Empathy and methods on which we can gain it for our end users. This empathy will ultimately be used in creating my digital resource.
While reading Matthews, Williams, Yanchar and McDonald’s (2017) article on empathy in Distance Learning, I found myself agreeing to many of the statements they were making specifically the key tensions. One of the biggest challenges when considering gaining empathy for my end uses, is the variety seen within the end users themselves as well as different stakeholders. Matthews et al. (2017) discuss how “learners as well as other stakeholders can lead designers to contradictory or conflicting design requirements” (p. 490). Due to the variety of my learners age (16 – 45+), life experiences, educational experiences, and home lives, their needs and wants of vary so significantly, that attempting to empathize with them all would be conflicting.
For my design challenge, I am wanting to create a resource that will allow my learners to become more engaged with the content. I am also interested in giving them more choice, and giving the learner more power in how their learning will take place.
As well as the variety of end user, I am also facing the challenge of
- Time- this course is only 9 weeks and activities need to be completed quickly
- Date- we are at the end of the traditional school year, there are less staff around and less students work
- Workload balance- any additional work added needs to be able to be managed with my current workload.
- As well as other external pressures and practical barriers expected in public school.
To further gain empathy for my user, I am choosing to participate in Stanford University Institute of Design’s Bootcamp Bootleg’s Journey Map (2016). One of the reasons I choose to use the Journey map to gain Empathy, was the research ethics guidelines that stated I could not contact someone was under 18, part of a vulnerable population, or I had a position of power over. I could have contact past students who are older than 18, but due to the limit of 3 participants, and time, the experiences shared would not represent my whole student population.
By using the Journey Map, I plan on going through the start my course as if I was a student, and making notes on areas where I feel disengaged, bored, confused, or where there are options to add other material. I plan on only completing the first 2 – 3 lessons, which would only be about 2-3 days of class for the students. It has been a few years where I have intentionally gone through the course now with the eyes of a student and hopefully I will be able to learn more about the challenges they are facing within it.
I would love to hear if you have any ideas for me while I am creating my Journey Map. I will update my blog when it is done.
Amanda
References
Image “Empathy” (CC BY 2.0) by sinclair.sharon28
Matthews, M., Williams, G., Yanchar, S., & McDonald, J. (2017). Empathy in distance learning design practice. Tech Trends, 61(5), 486-493.
Stanford University Institute of Design. (2016). Bootcamp Bootleg. Retrieved from http://dschool-old.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/METHODCARDS-v3-slim.pdf