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Using tenants of liberatory design, we would like to begin our design thinking process by sharing a few aspects of our process that do not fit within the traditional design thinking model:
Awareness Raising: Before we even began empathizing, it was important for our team to make a conscious effort to recognize our own positioning in the process and be self-aware throughout the process. It was equally as important for us to take the time to understand the context and systems within which we were designing so that we could understand the existing constraints that would allow us to engage in this work.
Mindfulness and Reflection: In the spirit of Nell Noddings and the ethic of care, we also made space for each member of the team to share their concerns of their own workloads and how the design process was affecting us at an individual level, institutional level, as well as within the larger systems we exist within. This was important to each member given that the focus of this work of equity and justice—we cannot create equitable and just spaces unless this means that we are creating equitable and just spaces for all. Taking the time to recognize that we are bringing our whole selves into the design space—including emotional states—allowed us to have the open, caring conversations about how this impacts how we show up for the work as well as how we show up for one another.
Empathizing
Empathizing
Who did you talk to?
We spoke with Innovate Monarch students during scheduled sessions as well as with a gracious Innovate Monarch student who agreed to meet with us to discuss experiential learning.
We also spoke with Lisa Mayes about ongoing experiential learning initiatives the university already has ongoing.
Individually, we also talked with students that we interact with on a daily basis in our jobs to listen to their perspectives.
We also felt that it was important to consider faculty and staff perspectives given that experiential learning, if applied, is dependent upon the faculty integrating it into their coursework.
What other empathy strategies did you employ? It was important for us to find the stories and not only the data. Given the short amount of available time we had for this stage, we also looked to other institutions.
Defining
Defining
As a result of our empathizing process, several recurring themes emerged:
Relationships: To build a good relationship with faculty members and advisors, students should recognize that learning is more important than looking for a better grade. Good faculty-student relationships begin with conversations inside and outside classrooms.
Communication: Students and faculty spent a lot of time with us talking about issues in communication—the lack of communication broadly, the lack of centralized communication, the lack of modern forms of communication...
Spaces of Learning: Spaces of learning are not limited to classrooms and labs. It is important to extend this space to computers and other networked devices as well as the community at large. Learning doesn't only happen inside the building at ODU. Instead, students enter our classrooms with vast experiences and knowledge that is an asset. We need to rethink where learning happens and what knowledge we value.
Barriers & Challenges:
Trying to navigate many commitments and responsibilities while enrolled in coursework. This raises students stress and decreases their self-esteem in their ability to be successful students. Identity threat also comes into play here because students noted they worried that their instructors would view being late or turning in an assignment that wasn't "perfect" would be a reflection of their self worth.
Students view XL differently depending on the type.
An out-of-classroom XL experience may not be viewed as favorably to a parent, working student, student athlete, etc.
On-campus opportunities and opportunities built in to a class were viewed favorably due to time constraints, transportation, and financial constraints.
Financial Barriers: Students today are not "traditional" full-time learners. Instead, students are often working part-time or full-time to support themselves or their families. Many XL opportunities are not considering the cost.
Ideating
Ideating
The team developed the following ideas:
Experiential Learning Certificate for Faculty and Staff: Create a multifaceted faculty learning program(s) that help the redesign courses with experiential learning.
Classroom Integration: The university will work with the departments to identify coursework-based models of experiential learning that have potential to be scaled to serve more students. Faculty provides students with hands-on training and opportunities to practice skills in real-world settings
General Internship Program in ODU: This program will connect different departments with community. Create a website to list all available internships for students in all majors. Help students apply for internships.
Special fund for competitions: e.g., best article/paper, robotics, simulations, art work, cybersecurity
Competitions will encourage students from different majors to work in teams and develop innovate ideas to solve problems.
"Undergraduate Dream Project" Funding: A student or a group of students apply for a fund to start a project, survey, or develop a unique product. Students submit a proposal and a budget. A committee from different departments review the applications and accept/reject it. The accepted project will be supervised by the department(s) and a report must be submitted.
Prior Learning Assessment: Students can receive credit based on their previous experience without having to pay the tuition fees.
Campus Inventory: Inventory the campus (academic and SEES) to highlight experiential learning opportunities that already exist
Study Abroad Funding: Increase funding for study abroad, increase study abroad opportunities
Funding for Student Events Connected to Major: Provide funding and planning support from SEES for individual students to host events / initiatives that correlate with their majors and/or topics that are important to them
How did we prioritize our solution and finalize our idea?
In order to offer diverse experiential learning opportunities to students, we must start with developing the faculty knowledge of experiential learning practices. Therefore, we need to make sure that faculty will be able to redesign their courses to provide relevant experiences throughout the curriculum. We discussed all the ideas and we choose to prioritize the first idea. In our solution, we suggest offering Faculty Expeditions in Experiential Learning.
Prototyping
Prototyping
How did we develop our prototype?
We knew going into the prototyping stage that are few things were important to us when designing faculty learning experiences: (1) listening to faculty needs and experiences about professional learning , (2) bringing faculty of all disciplines and job positions together, and (3) using relevant research on professional learning. It was also important to us that the professional learning experiences were accessible, ongoing, and experiential. In other words, the design and enactment of the professional learning certificate program should utilize and model all of the practices it promotes: accessibility, collaboration, co-creation of learning spaces, active learning, transferability, etc.
In our group, we spoke at length about our own experiences with professional learning, spoke with colleagues, and brainstormed ideal professional learning experiences. We then turned to the research to see what we could learn from others doing the work. One model that stood out to us and informed the bare bones of our prototype is Estepp et al.'s "Experiential Learning Model of Faculty Development," which combines both an experiential learning model and an adult learning model for faculty development. (2012).
We also put together a very rough proposal to help us develop our ideas and think of a possible plan for development. See the plan below.
Did you test it out and how did that affect your design?
Throughout the process we spoke to one another to get feedback on the development Faculty Expeditions in Experiential Learning and spoke with colleagues, but because this is a pretty large undertaking, we were unable to test any specific part of it out. However, other campuses have had successes doing something similar to our project.
What insights did you discover through your iterations?
One thing we quickly realized is that there is a lot of work to do to make this prototype effective. We identified the following steps as those that should be considered when moving forward:
doing additional research on professional learning and implementing experiential learning with equity and access
understand the needs of students and faculty by conducting questionnaires and focus groups to inform workshops and learning experiences
identify any data we have available at the institution on the types of experiential learning experiences that are successful and also identify data needed
References
References
Estepp, C. M., Roberts, T. G., & Carter, H. S. (2012). An experiential learning model of faculty development to improve teaching. NACTA Journal, 56(1), 79–86. http://www.jstor.org/stable/nactajournal.56.1.79
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