{"id":200,"date":"2026-11-12T09:47:27","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T15:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru311\/?p=200"},"modified":"2026-11-12T19:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T01:19:07","slug":"designing-for-quality-participation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru311\/designing-for-quality-participation\/","title":{"rendered":"Designing for Quality Participation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As I think about design identity, the concept that I keep coming back to is quality participation. Through my work in inclusive sport contexts, I have become familiar with the Canadian Disability Participation Project<\/a>, which is a collaborative research partnership bringing together academics, organizations, and people with lived experience of disability to improve the quality of participation and outcomes in sport, exercise, and active play for people with disabilities. For improving quality participation, they have a framework that identifies six building blocks: autonomy, belonging, challenge, engagement, mastery, and meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although I became familiar with this framework through my professional work, many of these building blocks have influenced how I approach coaching and creating experiences for others since I first began coaching. I did not necessarily have the language to describe these ideas at the time, but they have consistently shaped what I value when creating opportunities for people to learn, develop, and participate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I see autonomy as creating opportunities for learners to have choice and control over their experiences, recognizing that people have different interests, preferences, and ways of engaging. Engagement means creating experiences that capture and maintain interest, encouraging people to actively participate rather than simply receive information. Belonging involves creating environments where people feel welcomed, accepted, respected, and connected to others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mastery is about providing opportunities to develop skills, build confidence, and recognize personal growth. Challenge means encouraging people to stretch themselves and work through difficulties while recognizing that individuals have different starting points and support needs. Finally, meaning involves creating experiences that feel relevant and purposeful by connecting learning to people’s interests, experiences, and goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I consider these six building blocks together, I realize that they reflect something important about how I think about designing experiences: simply providing someone with an opportunity to participate does not necessarily mean they are having a positive or meaningful experience. The same can be said about learning. Providing access to a workshop does not automatically mean someone feels included or engaged, just as delivering information does not necessarily mean someone has learned something meaningful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My experiences in coaching, adapted physical activity, and para sport development have reinforced the importance of looking beyond simply providing opportunities or achieving predetermined outcomes. I think it is equally important to consider how people experience those opportunities, whether they feel connected to others, have opportunities to make decisions, and find value in participating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I begin to explore instructional design more intentionally, I recognize that I am still developing my understanding of the different models, theories, and approaches that inform this field. However, I also recognize that I am not starting from scratch. My experiences have already shaped the values and principles that influence how I approach creating experiences for others. Ultimately, I want to design learning experiences where people feel a sense of ownership, connection, growth, and meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI Transparency Statement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ChatGPT was used to refine the language in the final draft of this reflection. All ideas are authentically mine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I think about design identity, the concept that I keep coming back to is quality participation. Through my work in inclusive sport contexts, I have become familiar with the Canadian Disability Participation Project, which is a collaborative research partnership bringing together academics, organizations, and people with lived experience of disability to improve the quality […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":327,"featured_media":201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lrnt524","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru311\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru311\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru311\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru311\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/327"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru311\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru311\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru311\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions\/202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru311\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru311\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru311\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru311\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}