In answer to the design challenge: ‘How might we encourage remote and rural located mentors to develop a relationship with their student, a partnership with the instructor and develop an attitude of empathy, patience and support?’, a design plan has been formulated.
Description:
The proposed digital learning resource is meant to increase student/mentor/instructor connection and collaboration to facilitate relationship building that will result in the development of empathy, patience and support. The tool will be accessible to rural and remote mentors and facilitate a community of practice that is mentee driven. The community of practice (COP) will be supported by mentors and the instructor, permitting the development of a partnership between the two parties.
Learning Goals:
The digital learning resource will:
-
- Create an environment that fosters a relationship between mentor and student
- Produce the opportunity for a partnership between mentor and instructor
- Revise the existing one-time training into an ongoing opportunity for mentors to feel connected
- Demonstrate how empathy, patience and support are created through relationship
Intended Audience:
The intended audience for this tool will be practicum mentors working as early childhood educators in the rural remote regions of the West Kootenay.
Rationale:
During the empathy phase of this design challenge mentors clearly identified ‘relationship’ as the main component for mentorship and student success. It was also expressed that mentors are seeking a partnership with the instructor. To provide the opportunity for connecting, I have decided to create an online environment that will allow for conversations and discussions to take place and facilitate the creation of a COP for students, mentors and the instructor. A COP is a group of people with a common focus or goal (Wenger-Trayner, 2015). “Members of a community of practice are practitioners. They develop a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems—in short a shared practice. “ (Wenger-Trayner, 2015, p. 2). The community of practice will be driven by the students as part of their practicum requirements and will be supported by mentors and instructors. In partnership with the instructor, mentors will have the opportunity to share their expertise with bi-weekly presentations that will contribute to the discussions within the community of practice. Participation in the community of practice will result in documented training hours mentors can use for recertification, which is mandatory for this field.
Tools:
The digital resource will be a MOODLE page housed on the ILearn MOODLE site at Selkirk College (SC). SC is using this Learning Management System (LMS) for all its online courses. MOODLE is easily accessible, free and secure, adhering and fulfilling college privacy policies. ILearn is part of this LMS but is more easily accessed because users will not need to have a Selkirk College identity or account. The ILearn MOODLE site will have a new module every three weeks, each module will have the capacity to house online discussions, videos, resources and ZOOM for online meetings. All tools used within this MOODLE site will contribute to relationship building through the formation of a COP.
Assessment/Evaluation Plan:
Communities of practice develop over time and their impact may be difficult to measure. As a main component of the digital learning resource, the impact of the COP will be measured “using quantitative and qualitative data to measure different types of value created by the community and trace how members are changing their practice and improving performance as a result” (Wenger-Trayner, 2015, p. 6). To measure and evalute (IDEO, 2015) the success or impact of the digital learning resource I will use group interviews as well as focus groups to collect feedback and stories from the field for qualitative data. The number of people participating will contribute to the quantitative data.
Learning Theories & Instructional Design Principles Used:
I will use Connectivism as my guiding learning theory for this digital learning resource. Connectivism is identified by Anderson (2016) as “the learning theory for the digital era” (p. 43). The theory has been criticized for “the lack of a substantive role for the instructor and the extensive requirements placed on the learner who would need to be capable of and motivated sufficiently to engage in self-directed learning” (Anderson, 2016, p. 44). It is these qualities of connectivism that align with my digital learning resource. Students will drive the COP, which will require independent and reflective learning. The learning process of reflection will also be utilized by the participating mentors and the instructor, resulting in new perspectives and possible new practices in the field (Wenger-Trayner, 2015). Furthermore, the partnership between mentors and the instructor will locate the instructor in a reduced power position, allowing for a new and more relaxed relationship.
The instruction design principles used to guide the creation of this digital learning resource will be the SECTIONS model by Bates (2015). SECTIONS stands for: Students, Ease of use, Costs, Teaching functions, Interaction, Organisational issues, Networking, Security and privacy. This framework specifically addresses using technology in higher education and assists in decision making about choosing the right media for the purpose of teaching and learning. Because the digital learning resource created for this design challenge will be part of a higher education program, the SECTIONS model will address all important elements to consider within the context of post-secondary education.
Instructions for Use:
The ILearn MOODLE site will be accessible to all participants following the creation of an ILearn account, which will require an email and private password creation. The first module will contain a video of instruction on how to use the learning site, a discussion forum to serve as the place for conversation for the COP, a resource folder containing practicum related resources and information, a Q&A discussion forum, and a ZOOM link to the first online gathering. The first ZOOM gathering will be facilitated by the instructor with a presentation on the ‘Image of the child’ to inspire the start-up of the COP. Students will begin and lead the discussion on the COP forum and mentors will be encouraged to weigh in. For the second module, three weeks later, mentors will be encouraged to step forward to facilitate the second ZOOM gathering. In partnership with the instructor, mentors will be able to share their expertise and select a topic to present on.
Plan for Use:
Before the first ZOOM gathering at the beginning of the first practicum, students and mentors will be given a direct link to the ILearn module with instructions on how to access the site. Once everyone is signed in as a participant the interactions with the site will be up to the participants themselves. Students will need to access the site and participate in the COP as part of their practicum requirements. Mentors will be invited to participate in the discussions as part of their documented training hours which will be awarded after practicum is completed. These hours can be used as professional development (PD) for recertification purposes. Practicing early childhood educators need to proof 40 hrs of PD when recertifying every 5 years. The ILearn site is publicly accessible once an account is created; because it is still part of the college LMS it also fulfills all privacy policies currently in place at the college.
References:
Anderson, T. (2016). Theories for learning with emerging technologies. In G. Veletsianos (Ed.), Emergence and innovation in digital learning: Foundations and applications(pp. 35 – 50). Edmonton, AB: AU Press. Retrieved from http://aupress.ca/books/120258/ebook/03_Veletsianos_2016-Emergence_and_Innovation_in_Digital_Learning.pdf
Bates, A. W. (2015). Chapters 6-8. In Teaching in a digital age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning. Vancouver BC: Tony Bates Associates Ltd. Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/part/9-pedagogical-differences-between-media/
IDEO (2015). Design Kit – Methods. Retrieved from http://www.designkit.org/methods
Rawpixel (2018, March 1). Hand-Business Plan-Business-Designer-Design [Digital Image].
Wenger-Trayner, B. & Wenger-Trayner, E. (2015). Introduction to communities of practice: A brief overview of the concept of its uses. Retrieved from https://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/
Hi Anita –
I am really enjoying following your progress for this DLR! What I like is that you’re creating a COP which is inclusive of all perspectives (students, mentors & instructors), and that it is driven by the students. I wish to know more about the discussion forum and your thoughts on how to ensure active participation. I am wondering who would take on the responsibility to ensure its sustainability, and if it would be a shared responsibility between the students, mentors and instructor? I am particularly curious about this feature as I am part of a COP through a non-profit organization and we’ve had mixed results with our discussion forum. What I have found is that when somebody posts a question and there is very little response, members can begin to feel disengaged. What if students were paired or grouped up and responsible for developing questions to post in the forum for a specific module or ZOOM session. To ensure there is some response to these questions, wondering if mentors who are assigned to facilitate ZOOM sessions would then be responsible for contributing some answers in the discussion forum? Other participants are still invited to post questions and start discussion threads, I am just wondering if by assigning some roles for the discussion forum this might ensure some active participation? I am really looking forward to following along when you implement (either during this course) or in the future and learning about your findings!
Hi Mel, thank you for your insights. You brought up an interesting question about engagement in the COP and your comment has inspired me to tweak my design to incorporate some of your thoughts. I appreciate the feedback drawn from your own experience as a participant in a COP as it helps me to make a better prototype. Now back to the drawing board.
Hi Anita – happy to share. You are inspiring me, and bringing me hope that in my COP we can breathe new life into it by learning from what you create! It’s exciting to see yours’ and everyone’s DLRs come together. Look forward to seeing your prototype.
Hi Anita,
To mirror what Mel said, it is nice to see your progression. You have come up with a great sounding prototype. I like how by creating a Community of Practice (COP), you are allowing your instructors to lead by example in demonstrating how crucial empathy, patience, and support or to the relationships that are forming. I also like how you have integrated this to being part of the accreditation hours for your mentors.
I wish I knew more about your context. You may have said this in the past blog post, but what is the ratio to students, instructors, and mentors? What percent of your mentors you are expecting to have participated? How many hours will they get towards their 40 needed?
Lastly, I was wondering if you students were on practicum when this was happening? If so, what is you have your mentors and mentees who are currently working together, present a topic together?
I look forward to seeing your prototype in a few weeks,
Amanda
Hi Amanda, thank you for your great questions to create clarification. Your perspective helps me to be more concise and create more clarity. Taking your feedback into consideration helps me to focus in on certain details I had still neglected or not thought of. Both you and Mel have brought up the idea to have student and mentor, or student and student work together, I like that idea as it helps to foster connections. Students will be in practicum the whole duration of the COP, so it will be easy to assign certain responsibilities to the students and make it part of their practicum requirements. Both practicums are about 20 weeks combined, maybe 10 hrs would be an acceptable amount toward recertification? Anita
Hi Anita,
I like the well-articulated layout of your design plan and the inclusivity for instructors, mentors, and students. Having been part of COP, I can envision your prototype and its potential impacts for the intended users. Though COP is very vital, the aspects of fostering active participation, I am wondering if instructors or mentors would be provided with strategies of how to maintain and sustain such an environment. Have instructors/mentors have prior involvement in COPs? I ask these questions as facilitating in online environments can be challenging if the right approaches are not used to facilitate active participation amongst users.
Hello Anita,
I like how you are advocating, fostering and supporting the space for mentors, students and instructor to come together as an inclusive community of practice. Coming across a recent survey published by McLean & Co. it suggested in a cluttered learning space, the ability to leverage various formal and informal opportunities of social connectivity is of high usage and suggested MENTORING was one of those highly effective methods at 49% in learner development.
I wish to learn more about how a someone identified, nominated or self-selected as a mentor really understands their roles and responsibilities as a mentor. What are those expectations and accountabilities set out for the mentor for overall success in the COP? How do you ensure they have a clear baseline of what successful mentoring looks like? Would you suggest there may be something formal around this piece like a ‘mentoring program’ or do you just see it naturally taking shape however it may through trial and error?
Dorothy
Hi Dorothy, I just saw this, my apologies for a late reply. Your question around how does someone decide to be a mentor and do they have an idea what that role entails is very valid. Currently, we have a 2-hour mentorship training session during which we explore the qualities of a mentor and the values that come along with it. The DLR is to extend support to mentors throughout the practicum duration and create more touchpoints throughout. It is my hope that a COP would facilitate reflective practise amongst its members and we would hopefully see a shift in current practices to align with what is taught in the classroom.