Author: Alison

This course has been a walk down memory lane as I’ve reflected on my past experiences with leadership, change, and project management. Some memories have been insightful, some have been frustrating as I recognize what some of my past leaders, project managers, and change leaders have lacked.

My initial reflection on leadership put honesty at the forefront of a great leader’s attributes. While this hasn’t wavered, I now recognize the importance of other attributes, such as communication, dependability, trust, and empathy. The exercise with my teammates on leadership attributes proved that no one has the exact same consensus on what a great leader should bring. I think its safe to say its easier to agree on what a great leader shouldn’t bring. But whatever the golden list of attributes is, I believe that some people naturally have these attributes; I also believe some people can learn these attributes, but only if they’re willing.

I’ve never been in a formal management or leadership position, and I’m still not sure if I do since it’s such a dauting task and easy to botch. But I would be willing to step out of my comfort zone and to be more involved in change projects for my next employer, particularly if it involves a digital learning environment. Despite Al-Haddad and Kotnour’s (2015) assertion that only 30% of change initiatives succeed, being on the team that lead a successful change would be rewarding.

If I am ever in a formal position where I must lead change, I will strive to remember O’Toole’s (2008) words, “people will only follow leaders who manifest the ability and willingness to take them where they want to go (p. 3).

 

References

Al-Haddad, S., & Kotnour, T. (2015). Integrating the organizational change literature: a model for successful change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 28(2), 234–262. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-11-2013-0215

O’Toole, J. (2008). Notes Toward a Definition of Values-Based Leadership. The Journal of Values-Based Leadership, 1(1), 10. https://scholar.valpo.edu/jvbl/vol1/iss1/10

Background

While I have been involved in many projects throughout my career, I have only been involved in one “formal” project, meaning there was a project manager, project charter, project team, etc. It was several years ago that I took part in a project to standardize departmental documentation for a municipal government. This project resulted from a previous one that focused on standardizing standard operating procedures (SOPs); during the SOP project, it was discovered that the department had many other document types, including business processes, codes of practices, work instructions, etc. The new project had the goal of formalizing a “repeatable process” for each document type. There was over 100 documents and I was the sole technical writer on the project. In addition to technical writing tasks, it was up to me to define the repeatable process.

At the time I was new to both the project management process, as well as the department; I had moved cities to take the job, so I had not involved in the previous SOP project. The project started before I arrived, so there had already been some project meetings and the creation of the project charter. The project team was made up of the project manager, project sponsor, technical writer, and representatives from each team within the department.

Barriers

The main barrier to this project was the project manager who lacked in project management expertise (Watt, 2014). Specifically, the project manager’s lack of leadership loomed over the project as they did not “motivate and inspire individuals to work toward expected results” (p. 21). Over time, this was apparent in the attendance drop-off for project meetings and lack of communication. The project manager had tasked project team members to inform their respective teams of project updates but did not follow up to ensure it was being done. There were a few times when I went to interview subject matter experts and discovered they were unaware of who I was and what I would be doing. This led to some uncomfortable moments as I believe they perceived that I was trying to tell them how to do their job, as opposed to asking questions to do my job. This was likely due to a lack of trust among the project team, me included, with the project manager. As Watt (2014) states, “without a minimum level of trust, communication breaks down…” (p. 123). A couple of times, project team members approached me for clarification on what they should doing, as opposed to going to the project manager.

Another barrier to the project was reliance on the SOP project. The project manager seemed to think that both projects were carbon copies of each other, and the steps taken in the SOP project would easily apply in this project. As stated by Conway et al., (2017), “different kinds of problems require different methods of system analysis’ (p. 14). While there was some overlap as they were both documentation projects, the project manager failed to consider the nuances that came with the different document types and their impact on the department. Had the project manager used systems thinking, the project manager could have understood the type of problem, problem situation, and power dynamics that this new project entailed (Conway et al., 2017).

Future Considerations

For future projects, I would focus on applying strong leadership skills, whether I was the project manager or a project team member. Project issues can usually be traced back to lack of leadership, including breakdown in communication, uncommitted project team members, and role confusion (Watt, 2014). With respect to learning technologies, I would also focus on using one of the University of Calgary’s strategies by facilitating connections and communications with all stakeholders. Specifically, I would strive to provide clear and regular communications to everyone in the organization about any technology changes and their impact (University of Calgary, 2014).

 

References

Conway, R., Masters, J., & Thorold, J., (2017). From design thinking to systems change: How to invest in innovation for social impact. Royal Society of Arts, Action and Research Centre. https://www.thersa.org/globalassets/pdfs/reports/rsa_from-design-thinking-to-system-change-report.pdf

University of Calgary, Learning Technologies Task Force. (2014). Strategic framework for Learning Technologies. https://www.ucalgary.ca/provost/sites/default/files/teams/1/ final_lttf_report_gfc_june_2014.pdf

Watt, A. (2014). Project Management. Victoria, BC: BCcampus.

I initially struggled with this blog post as I felt I did not have enough experience with change management. I only became familiar with the term seven years ago when a project manager I worked with indicated that she would handle the change management piece of our project. Change management was never mentioned again leading me to believe it was never addressed. However, upon further reflection though, I recognize I have been part of many changes, whether through writing a new policy or procedure or introducing a new software tool.

Change management is an arduous undertaking given that success rates are less than 30 percent (Al-Haddad & Kotnour, 2015). While the early years of change management piggybacked off other disciplines, including psychology and sociology, it evolved in the 1990s with the emergence of several change management methods, including John Kotter’s Leading Change method, which helped pave the way for change management to become its own discipline (Levine, 2016).

With the onset of COVID-19 in the past year, change has become commonplace within learning environments. As stated by Harris and Jones (2020), learning has been redefined “as a remote, screen-based activity limiting most learners to on-line teacher support” (p.243). Unfortunately, the pandemic caused me to lose my last job, so I have not directly witnessed the change the organization has undergone. However, through conversations with former coworkers, there has been a lot. Specifically, in the training department, classroom training is now being run virtually through Microsoft Teams, and they have adopted some creative solutions including recording short videos of demonstrations to enhance instruction.

When it comes to leading change in a digital learning environment, Kotter’s Leading Change method would be useful as it is made up of eight steps that can be iteratively modified. Recently Weiss and Li’s (2020) study described how this method was used to address trainee’s well-being in healthcare, and it found that it allowed program leaders to reflect upon their training programs and take the opportunity to improve them” (p.735).

Weiss and Li (2020) also stated that modifying education to effectively respond to learners requires leadership. Leadership is paramount during times of change. Al-Haddad and Kotnour (2015) state that “acts of leadership enable the organization to respond to the changing environment by creating a vision and making prompt decisions in terms of resources and technologies (p.240). By having leadership involved in the change, leaders can promote confidence in those experiencing the change while providing clarity and cultivating a sense of community (Merrell, 2012).

Harris and Jones (2020) suggest there is evidence supporting the importance of using context responsive leadership within education because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is also suggested that it is imperative for leaders to put their own health and wellbeing first to better manage the emotional responses of others while leading the changes imposed by COVID-19 now and in the future. The impact of the pandemic has caused change management to become an essential skill of school leaders where they “will need to be engaged in constant crisis and change management which will require support and collaboration from all staff” (p.246).

 

References

Al-Haddad, S., & Kotnour, T. (2015). Integrating the organizational change literature: a model for successful change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 28(2), 234–262. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-11-2013-0215

Harris, A., & Jones, M. (2020). Covid 19 – school leadership in disruptive times. School Leadership & Management, 40(4). https://doi-org.ezproxy.royalroads.ca/10.1080/13632434.2020.1811479

Levine, S. R. (2016, April 18). What can we learn from the history of change management? Retrieved from https://www.cuinsight.com/can-learn-history-change-management.html

Merrell, P. (2012). Effective change management: The simple truth. Management Services, 56(2), 20-23. https://ezproxy.royalroads.ca/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.royalroads.ca/trade-journals/effective-change-management-simple-truth/docview/1027234230/se-2?accountid=8056

Weiss, P. G., & Li, S.-T. T. (2020). Leading change to address the needs and well-being of trainees during the covid-19 pandemic. Academic Pediatrics, 20(6), 735–741. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2020.06.001

Leadership Attributes

Like most, my earliest experience with leadership came from interactions with my teachers in primary/secondary school who practiced a transactional leadership style as it is most widely used in education settings (Khan et al., 2017), but it has been through my work history that has given me the most experience. It is these past working relationships that served as my basis to initially rank the attributes of leadership. Rightly or wrongly, as there is a tendency of the human brain is to focus on the negative, I found myself zeroing in on my previous managers weaknesses, and thus my top rankings reflected some of the attributes these managers lacked. I initially ranked “honest” as number one as I consider it a cornerstone for most other attributes – if a leader can’t be honest, whether it be about good or bad circumstances, how can they be expected to be dependable, straightforward, etc.

In retrospect, I now recognize that had I ranked the attributes according to a specific leadership style, my rankings would have been quite different, such as ranking “forward thinking” as number one for an adaptive leadership style. Overall, I enjoyed the exercise, although I felt that 20 attributes were almost too many to rank – after the first ten, the exercise became more of a guessing game.

Personal Leadership Perspective

Through the readings for Unit 1, I was introduced to various leadership styles, including values-based leadership which seems like the ideal leadership style. According to O’Toole (2008), values-based leaders do not focus on their personal needs, rather they act on behalf of others to help them achieve their needs. However, with the likes of Moses, George Washington, and Winston Churchill considered to be value-based leaders, values-based leadership seems almost impossible to emulate.

While I have never held an official leadership position, I admire leaders who use a mix of both adaptive leadership and reflective leadership. I like that the adaptive leader prepares for change as much as possible while the reflective leader focuses on “behaviours, situations and consequences with the goal of improving organizational performance” (Castelli, 2016, p.217). The combination of these two styles allows for leaders to focus on the current situation, while assessing any potential changes and the risks involved.

Digital Learning Environments

Within digital learning environments, technology both supports traditional teaching and gives students more influence over their learning experience (McLeod, 2015). Likewise, the workforce is now a combination of generations with the arrival of millennials and iGens who are more tech-savvy and prefer to communicate through digital media (Petrucci & Rivera, 2018). As digital devices and online environments can be both transformative and disruptive in any environment, challenges will occur, therefore it is important for digital leaders to be proactive. (McLeod, 2015)

According to McLeod (2015), digital leadership is not just about technology and “whether formal or informal, the focus of technology-related professional learning should be on student learning, not on the tools or devices” (para.22). Digital leaders must recognize the potential for resistance towards technology (Sheninger, 2019). Therefore, adaptive leadership, with its focus on “leading with a plan for dealing with change” (Khan, 2017, p.179) would be an ideal leadership style for digital learning environments.

 

References

Castelli, P. A. (2016). Reflective leadership review: A framework for improving organisational performance. The Journal of Management Development, 35(2), 217-236. http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.royalroads.ca/10.1108/JMD-08-2015-0112

Khan, N. (2017). Adaptive or transactional leadership in current higher education: a brief comparison. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(3), 178-183. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v18i3.3294

McLeod, S. (2015). The Challenges of Digital Leadership. Independent School, 74(2). https://www.nais.org/magazine/independent-school/winter-2015/the-challenges-of-digital-leadership/

O’Toole, J. (2008). Notes Toward a Definition of Values-Based Leadership. The Journal of Values-Based Leadership, 1(1), 10. https://scholar.valpo.edu/jvbl/vol1/iss1/10

Petrucci, T., & Rivera, M. (2018). Leading growth through the digital leader. Journal of Leadership Studies, 12(3), 53–53. https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.21595

Sheninger, E. (2019). Pillars of Digital Leadership. International Center for Leadership in Education. https://leadered.com/pillars-of-digital-leadership/

My partner, Eric Yu, and I have designed the following solution to promote critical thinking among Chinese students in their English-language writing.

Background

Showcasing critical thinking in English-language writing assignments is a key problem for Chinese students. While teachers have made various attempts to promote critical thinking in new and innovative ways, to date little has changed. This has led to many students being unable to achieve band 7 or higher on their International English Language Testing System (IELTS) test, leaving them unable to attend more prestigious universities.

Problem Statement

The Chinese education system does not encourage students to challenge authority, and as such, Chinese students are reluctant to question existing or generally accepted rules. This can occur within all facets, including families, schools or workplaces – when faced with their parents, teachers or bosses, students will not challenge their ideas or ask questions. This problem can also manifest within students’ academic writing as they often lack critical thinking in written assignments. For example, if you ask Chinese students to give their opinion on the topic “With online learning on the rise, can classroom-based instruction still continue?”, they will focus on comparing the pros and cons of each model; few will provide arguments on the future of classroom-based instruction.

Additionally, Chinese students are taught English-language skills through traditional classroom methods with the use of textbooks to teach theoretical knowledge. This is becoming ineffective as students are often not motivated due to the boring content and a lack of connection to their own context.

As such, our problem statement is that Chinese students need innovative learning content that promotes critical thinking so students can achieve IELTS test scores of band 7 or higher in their English-language writing skills.

The Solution: Digital Storytelling

Our solution proposes to introduce digital storytelling to promote critical thinking within English-language writing assignments of Chinese students. According to Davidhizar and Lonser (2003), using analogies to tell stories about daily life or work is an effective way to capture the interests of students by focusing on life experience and bringing theories to life by putting them in personal scenarios.

Digital storytelling combines traditional ways of telling a story with digital multimedia, including images, audio, and video (Ahmed and Abdel-Hack 2014). As suggested by Yang and Wu (2012), digital storytelling “is becoming a promising transformative technology-supported approach for enhancing learning, including critical thinking skills”.

With inspiration from Ahmed and Abdel-Hack (2014) and Yang and Wu (2012), the following describes the three parts of a typical English-language class for Chinese students that incorporates digital storytelling.

Part 1: Digital Storytelling Video

Students will watch a short (no more than 5 minutes) video showing a familiar scenario in which students will be assessed through in-class exercises and an at-home written assignment.

Table 1 provides a sample storyboard of a couple going shopping and discussing a potential frivolous purchase with the husband delivering three different arguments against the purchase. Fallacies are also depicted throughout the video, such as the bandwagon fallacy.

Depending on the school’s resources, the video is proposed to be created through a common multimedia format (e.g., PowerPoint, Corel Video Studio) or through a digital storytelling platform (e.g., Smilebox). A transcript of the characters’ dialogue will also be provided.

Dialogue

Image

Wife:  Look at this digital camera with many fantastic functions – nowadays a lot of people use digital cameras, so we shouldn’t have to keep using our old mechanical one. Husband: Answer 1:  We don’t need to have a digital camera just because everyone else has one, so we don’t need to buy it. Answer 2:  Yes, it’s a good camera, but we cannot afford it, so we will keep using the one we have. Answer 3: We may have an old camera, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. This is something we want, not something we need.

Table 1: Storyboard sample

 

Part 2: In-class exercise (individual and group)

At the conclusion of the video, students will be asked to complete a timed in-class exercise where they will provide written answers to a series of questions. The questions are intended to assess whether students’ have achieved the three phases of critical thinking. As suggested by Ahmed and Abdel-Hack (2014), the three phases of critical thinking are: (1) understanding, (2) evaluating, and (3) establishing a position.

Table 2 provides a sample of questions and the phase of critical thinking it addresses.

Question	Time to Complete	Critical Thinking Phase
Provide a summary of the story depicted in the video	5 mins	Understanding
Do you agree with the wife or the husband and why?	10 mins	Evaluating
Write a new argument that the wife could use to convince her husband to buy the digital camera	10 mins	Establishing a position

Table 2: Sample questions for in-class exercise

 

At the end of the timed writing exercise, students’ will get into groups to peer review their answers. As found in Yang and Wu’s (2012) study, including a peer review can help students’ performance by providing interaction among students, leading to improvement in their argument skills.

Before the end of class, the teacher will review the fallacies found in the video as they will feature in the at-home assignment that the teacher will assign.

Part 3: At-home assignment

Students will complete an at-home written assignment requiring them to create their own story. As suggested by Ahmed and Abdel-Hack (2012), when students create their own stories, they can create a plot and characters that emulate their own life, which can help students “to reflect on life and find deep connections with subject-matter”.

The following are two sample topics that students can use for their at-home assignment.

In 250 words, write a story that depicts at least 2 characters, with one agreeing and the other disagreeing with the following statements.

Option 1: As new technology continues to be used in education, some people believe that there is no justification for lectures.

Option 2: Some people say advertising is negative and should be banned.

Evaluation of digital storytelling

The success or failure of introducing digital storytelling would be based on future IELTS test scores. For example, currently in a class of 6 students using the traditional lecture method, usually only 1 out of 6 students use critical thinking in their writing and obtain a score of band 7 or higher.

For the purposes of our solution, adopting a digital storytelling method would be considered a success if at least 4 out of 6 students use critical thinking in their writing and obtain a score of band 7 or higher.

Since digital storytelling has already proven to be successful in other studies (e.g., Yang and Wu’s 2012 study), we are confident that digital storytelling will provide an innovative solution that can be adopted by other English-language teachers and for online courses.

References

Ahmed Helwa, Dr.Hasnaa & Abdel-Hack, Dreman. (2014). Using Digital Storytelling and Weblogs Instruction to enhance EFL Narrative Writing and Critical Thinking Skills among EFL Majors at Faculty of Education. Educational Research.

Davidhizar, R., & Lonser, G. (2003). Storytelling as a teaching technique. Nurse Educator, 28(5), 217–21.

Pappas, C. (2013, February 28). 18 Free Digital Storytelling Tools For Teachers And Students. Retrieved from https://elearningindustry.com/18-free-digital-storytelling-tools-for-teachers-and-students

Yang, Y.-T. C., & Wu, W.-C. I. (2012). Digital storytelling for enhancing student academic achievement, critical thinking.; learning motivation: a year-long experimental study. Computers and Education, 59(2), 339–352. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.12.012

 

My role for the past ten years has been as a technical writer; however, I am looking to transition to an instructional designer or similar-type role. I have some experience as I previously worked in a learning and development environment for almost two years. I primarily created training materials, although I was given the opportunity to create a training plan and deliver classroom and one-on-one training.

The instructional design tools in my design toolkit are based on the categories proposed by Lachheb and Boiling (2018): computer based, methodological/theoretical, and analog.

Computer based

I’ve primarily used Microsoft Word and Adobe FrameMaker to create documentation. When I was in school for technical writing, I remember my teacher saying if you have a 2-page letter to write, use Word, anything else, use FrameMaker. The downside with FrameMaker is that it has a steep learning curve. I use SnagIt for screenshots and have dabbled in Visme for infographics, although I wish I were better with graphic software. I’ve also used PowToon and Adobe Captivate to create videos for school assignments, although since I’m typically chasing a due date when I use them, I’ve never learned more than the basics, so this is another area I hope to improve on since I’m interested in designing e-Learning.

Methodological

The learning and development team I worked on used a model called the 6Ds: The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning. I was told this model was selected over ADDIE because it included documenting the results which the team found helpful. I researched the model when I worked there, but never had the opportunity to apply it. I’ve also researched micro-tutoring and flipped learning for school assignments, two areas that I see growing in response to COVID-19.

Analog

I’m a bit old school and still like to take notes in meetings with a pen and paper. I also like to use post-it notes to jot down random things I need to review or to make to-do lists.

Superpowers

Writing is one my superpowers – I like to joke that I write better than I talk. I’m also skilled at editing. I have great listening and interview skills – in my work, I deal with subject matter experts on a regular basis, so I have to make sure I maintain a strong rapport with them. I try to stay as organized as I can. I’ve also included being an introvert because I think being one allows me to be more thorough and analytical which comes in handy with making decisions because I can focus on the bigger picture.

Instructional design has come a long way since its days of creating training programs during World War II (Dousay, 2017). Today, with the onset of COVID-19, instructional design continues to evolve and expand as education changes to suit new learning models (Alati, 2020). According to Thomas (2010), “an instructional design (ID) model provides procedural framework for the systematic production of instruction. It incorporates basic elements of the instructional design process, including analysis of the intended audience and determination of goals and objectives, and may be used in different contexts” (p.187).

My experience with instructional design has mostly been academic as I previously completed several instructional design courses through Mount Royal University, and most recently, I finished the Graduate Certificate in Instructional Design program here at Royal Roads. In my professional experience, I once had the opportunity to develop a course training plan and deliver classroom training when the regular designer/instructor was unavailable.

In retrospect, my approach to developing the training could have been approved by applying an instructional design model. I can’t plead ignorance as my team generally used a model called  The 6Ds: The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning. According to Samir (2016), “the 6Ds extend and complement traditional instructional design models like ADDIE” and was “specifically developed for corporate training [as] they place much greater emphasis on clarifying the business (not just the learning) objectives at the outset and measuring the business (not just the learning) outcomes at the end”.

While I likely didn’t use an instructional model due to a tight deadline at the time, I won’t discount that it could have been due to Thomas’ (2010) proposal that “instructional designers are faced with the challenge of facing learning situations to fit an instructional design/development model rather than selecting an appropriate model to fit the needs of varying learning situations” (p.184). With this in mind, as I prepare to enter a career in instructional design, I will need to learn how to develop a course based on the chosen model, while keeping in mind Thomas’ (2010) other suggestion that “the effectiveness of a model is heavily dependent on the context in which it is applied; instructional design methods are situational and not universal” (p.187).

When selecting future models, I will have to consider the factors proposed by Dousay (2017), including the delivery format and whether the training is synchronous online or face-to-face, asynchronous online, or a combination of both. Looking back, the training I previously developed was classroom based, and based on Dousay’s (2017) suggestions, could have benefited from one of these models: Gerlach and Ely, ASSURE, PIE, UbD, 4C/ID, or 3PD.

 

References

Alati, D. (2020, October 2). How Higher Learning Spaces Are Changing in the COVID-19 Era. Retrieved November 22, 2020, from https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/how-higher-learning-spaces-are-changing-in-the-covid-19-era

Dousay. T. A. (2017). Chapter 22. Instructional Design Models. In R. West (Ed.), Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology (1st ed.). EdTech Books. https://edtechbooks.org/lidtfoundations.

Samir, R. (2016, February 2). The 6Ds® model. Retrieved November 22, 2020 from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/6ds-model-ramy-samir

Thomas, P. Y. (‎2010). Learning and instructional systems design. Towards developing a web-based blended learning environment at the University of Botswana. University of South Africa, Pretoria. http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/4245/04Chap%203_Learning%20and%20instructional%20systems%20design.pdf?sequence=5

The year is 2030. United States President Kim Kardashian has mandated students of all ages to stay at home and take online classes because classrooms have horrible lighting for taking selfies. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Bieber thought her idea was hella cool and followed suit. In fact, all over the world, celebrities turned heads of state have ordered students to stay at home and learn online. Catherine, an army brat, is living in Berlin, Germany where her father is currently stationed. She is also a first-year student with the University of Victoria, with dreams of becoming a biomedical engineer. While she is a seasoned online learner, having first experienced it during the COVID-19 pandemic ten years earlier, she is struggling in her first-year calculus class. On the eve of her first exam, worth 30% of her final grade, Catherine is desperately trying to understand l’Hopital’s rule. She has ruled out sending an email to her professor – the 9-hour time difference would mean a response would arrive as she slept. Rather than worry herself, Catherine logs on to her Studypool account and searches l’Hopital’s rule. She is quickly connected with a tutor, who within 20 minutes, has explained the concept to her and answered her questions. Catherine is now able to sleep soundly and is confident she is prepared to take the test.

While some of this scenario may seem farfetched, it holds a grain of truth on what the future may bring. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic changed education forever when it forced over 1.2 billion children in 186 countries out of the classroom, leading to many institutions to adopt online learning (Li and Lalani, 2020). In Canada alone, 75% of post-secondary students had all their courses moved online (Infographic: Covid-19 and Canada’s Post-Secondary Students, 2020). While online learning had already been on the rise, and the online education market projected to reach $350 billion by 2025, the pandemic has caused an “unplanned and rapid move to online learning, with no training, insufficient bandwidth, and little preparation” leading to potential poor user experiences and halting the growth of online education (Li and Lalani, 2020). The next ten years will seek to improve this, and efforts will be made to “haul education into the digital twenty-first century” and  “create an opportunity for students from elementary-age to graduate school to benefit from crowdsourcing” (Ludvik, n.d.). Specifically, crowdsourced tutoring, also referred to as microtutoring, will come to prominence by 2030.

According to Crowd Sourcing Week (n.d.), crowdsourcing is “the practice of engaging a ‘crowd’ or group for a common goal – often innovation, problem solving, or efficiency”. Crowdsourcing often uses new technologies, social media, and web 2.0 to connect individuals and contribute to a project or cause (Crowd Sourcing Week, n.d.).

Crowdsourcing can be applied in multiple industries, including education. Specifically, Wengroff (2019) defines crowdsourced learning as “learning content requested, developed, and delivered by a group of individuals not normally tasked with creating learning content”. This means that crowdsourced learning content is not limited to being created by those in the education industry; rather, content can be created by those with an understanding of the subject.

In his article Why Crowdsourcing is Critical to the Future of Education, Hoen (2017) suggests that as online education becomes increasingly popular, crowdsourcing is critical to its success since it can address both the problems of delivering large scale virtual education and the challenges of receiving an online education. Hoen (2017) also contends that crowdsourcing is critical to the future of education since it can help integrate “the educational institution with the community in which it exists” as it draws “on the knowledge of [the] students, staff, and community…”.

In their article, The Future of Adaptive Learning: Does the Crowd Hold the Key? Heffernan and Ostrow and Kelly et al. (2016) suggest the promise of crowdsourcing lies specifically within adaptive education. Heffernan and Ostrow and Kelly et al. (2016) proposed there is “hope that adaptive learning technologies like intelligent tutoring systems will expand support for best practices in K-12 learning…”(p.1). The concept of tutoring is not new; as Dickson (2017) says “almost as old as the classroom itself is the practice of getting help from private tutors and classmates to fill in the gaps and complement what is taught in the class itself”. By 2030, tutoring will not go the way of the dodo, rather it will continue to be used under the umbrella of crowdsourced learning. Crowdsourced learning uses “the diversity of the Internet to help student with specific questions. Used correctly, this on-demand type of tutoring called “microtutoring” or “community-based education” could help solve problems” (Chan, 2017).

Microtutoring (or crowdsourced tutoring) consists of on-demand tutoring sessions where “students can get access to the explanations to the topics they are confused about using real-time technologies” (Patel, 2019). Ideally, students would be able to get help only when they needed it (Howes, 2020); microtutoring can connect students to tutors on their own time through popular platforms such as Studypool. Since 2014, Studypool has emerged as an online education platform with microtutoring as one its most popular services (Taylor, 2020). Studypool is cost effective to students since they can set their own price point “rather than forcing students to shell out the full fee for full hour tutoring session when they only need a concept or two explained” (Rashid, 2017).

Studypool helps make microtutoring promising to the future of educational technology. As “CEO Richard Werbe explains, …microtutoring breaks down conventional tutoring into smaller, more digestible pieces of learning. By eliminating the barrier of set-time tutoring sessions, students can master subjects more efficiently on a time interval tailored to their needs” (Martin, 2017). Furthermore, Studypool is “attempting to bridge the gap by creating equal-access opportunities across multiples developing countries [and] hiring thousands of independent contractors across the globe” (Winning 2018).

By 2030, microtutoring will become an important and necessary tool for all students, whether in the classroom or online. By using this crowdsourced approach, students will not only have their questions answered by qualified tutors, but they will also have access to multiple perspectives, leading to a richer learning experience. The future of education is promising with microtutoring – even President Kardashian would agree.

 

References

Chan, S. (2017, September 05). The new school year brings biggest trends in EdTech. Retrieved from https://newsroom.cisco.com/feature-content?type=webcontent

Dickson, B. (2017, March 14). How Artificial Intelligence enhances education. Retrieved from https://thenextweb.com/artificial-intelligence/2017/03/13/how-artificial-intelligence-enhances-education/

Heffernan, N.T., Ostrow, K.S., Kelly, K. et al. The Future of Adaptive Learning: Does the Crowd Hold the Key?. Int J Artif Intell Educ 26, 615–644 (2016). Retrieved from https://doi-org.ezproxy.royalroads.ca/10.1007/s40593-016-0094-z

Hoen, R. (2016, May 16). Why Crowdsourcing is Critical to the Future of Education. Retrieved from https://innovationmanagement.se/2016/05/16/crowdsourcing-future-education/

Howes, L. (2020, June 8). Introducing: Micro-tutoring: Superprof [Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://www.superprof.co.uk/blog/introducing-micro-tutoring/

Infographic: Covid-19 and Canada’s Post-Secondary Students [Digital image]. (2020, June 9). Retrieved from https://ceric.ca/2020/06/infographic-covid-19-and-canadas-post-secondary-students/

Li, C., & Lalani, F. (2020, April 29). The COVID-19 pandemic has changed education forever. This is how. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-education-global-covid19-online-digital-learning/

Ludvik, E. (n.d.). Reimagining learning. Retrieved from https://www.maize.io/en/content/crowdsourcing-education-reskilling

Martin, E. (2017, January 13). 4 Startups Revolutionizing the EdTech World. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/283320

Patel, A. (2019, June 14). How Ed-Tech Will Transform The Education Industry [Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://www.xongolab.com/blog/how-ed-tech-will-transform-the-education-industry/

Rashid, B. (2017, March 24). Studypool’s Microtutoring Is Flipping Education Upside Down: Here’s How The Young Visionaries Did It. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianrashid/2017/03/24/studypools-microtutoring-is-flipping-education-upside-down-heres-how-the-young-visionaries-did-it/?sh=159697d223eb

Taylor, B. (2020, April 16). Microtutoring with Studypool: Earn by Sharing your Knowledge. Retrieved from https://www.homeworkingclub.com/microtutoring-studypool/

Wengroff, J. (2019, July 22). What Is Crowdsourced Learning? [Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://getsynapse.com/blog/what-is-crowdsourced-learning/

What is Crowdsourcing? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://crowdsourcingweek.com/what-is-crowdsourcing/

Winning, L. (2018, March 14). It’s Time To Prioritize Diversity Across Tech. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisawinning/2018/03/13/its-time-to-prioritize-diversity-across-tech/

 

The articles written by Sava Saheli Singh and Tim Maughan and Neil Selwyn each offer an intriguing glimpse into the future of educational technology. Singh and Maughan (2014) describes cutting-edge technologies whose accessibility is limited due to issues of inequality. Selwyn (2020) describes technologies with creative ambitions, albeit somewhat unrealistic. Despite the prospect of education in these future worlds, both Maughan and Selwyn refer to a familiar concept: tutors.

As suggested by Dickson (2017), “almost as old as the classroom itself is the practice of getting help from private tutors and classmates to fill in the gaps and complement what is taught in the class itself”. By 2030, tutoring will not go the way of the dodo, rather it will continue to be used under the umbrella of crowdsourced learning. Crowdsourced learning uses “the diversity of the Internet to help students with specific questions. Used correctly, this on-demand type of tutoring called “microtutoring” or “community-based education” could help solve problems” (Chan, 2017).

Richard Werbe, CEO of StudyPool, a microtutoring platform, explains that “microtutoring breaks down conventional tutoring into smaller, more digestible pieces of learning. By eliminating the barrier of set-time tutoring sessions, students can master subjects more efficiently on a time interval tailored to their needs” (Martin, 2017). Furthermore, microtutoring is promising for the future of educational technology as it has the potential to “bridge the gap by creating equal-access opportunities across multiples developing countries…” (Winning 2018).

 

References

Chan, S. (2017, September 05). The new school year brings biggest trends in EdTech. Retrieved from https://newsroom.cisco.com/feature-content?type=webcontent

Dickson, B. (2017, March 14). How Artificial Intelligence enhances education. Retrieved from https://thenextweb.com/artificial-intelligence/2017/03/13/how-artificial-intelligence-enhances-education/

Martin, E. (2017, January 13). 4 Startups Revolutionizing the EdTech World. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/283320

Selwyn, N., Pangrazio, L., Nemorin, S., & Perrotta, C. (2020). What might the school of 2030 be like? An exercise in social science fiction . Learning, Media and Technology, 45(1), 90-106.

Singh, S. S., & Maughan, T. (2014, June 22). The future of ed tech is here, it’s just not evenly distributed. Retrieved from https://medium.com/futures-exchange/the-future-of-ed-tech-is-here-its-just-not-evenly-distributed-210778a423d7

Winning, L. (2018, March 14). It’s Time To Prioritize Diversity Across Tech. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisawinning/2018/03/13/its-time-to-prioritize-diversity-across-tech/