“Dirty Lights…” by evil angela is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Creating a digital learning resource was a humbling experience. Although I have a solid understanding of the elements and processes of designing and developing digital learning resources, the experience I encountered in LRNT 527 underscored the importance of human-centred design. Working in a fast-paced environment with a tight budget and timelines and trying to engage learners and other stakeholders in creating any learning resources can sometimes feel like a hindrance to getting the work done on time and budget. As a manager of an education department supporting approximately 12,000 employees, I often struggle with an internal conflict of doing the right thing- which is congruent with my values of transparency and learner engagement and what is required from the organization’s standpoint of getting it done within a tight timeline.

My experience of going through the process of identifying a problem of practice (PoP) at work and recommending a solution anchored in an empathic design thinking framework was a shift in mindset. Rather than thinking of it as an impossible task to engage other educators to collaborate on the PoP because of tight timelines, I regarded it as a learning journey of discoveries. Our working group of educators and non-educators that I consulted with on my PoP organically formed a community of practice using MS Teams, the focus of my PoP. It was fascinating that my initial thoughts of “I am not going to get any response from colleagues” turned into a group of educators that are highly engaged in the process of finding solutions to our shared goal of “How might we enhance our skills in using MS Teams to facilitate virtual teaching and learning.”  I intend to use MS Teams to host the digital learning resources and utilize this digital tool as a platform for our online community of practice. The project is getting traction, and it seems that it has two speeds- other educators are quick in sharing tips and curated training materials in our Digital Education hub. At the same time, the technical team is a bit slow in responding to our enhancement request. This speed is not unusual; hence, I have built an interim solution to use our SharePoint site to host our training materials as we work through the enhancement phase.

Working through my PoP inspired me. I developed new relationships amongst colleagues that I usually do not interact, but because of this project, I was able to. I am encouraged that the design thinking process and the IDEO design kit can be applied in my own context. I also appreciated that the IDEO design kit has templates that are easy to follow. As I progress in my learning journey of designing and developing this digital learning resources for educators, I kept reminding myself of the design in practice concept of avoiding a singular design mindset but rather an iterative approach to the design. The digital learning resources for MS Teams and the online community of practice are shaped by the community and the users that utilize them. They will continuously evolve as new ideas and approaches are formed and designed. I am excited to see how these resources will evolve and refine to meet the users’ needs.