Core Report - Purpose and Process

Promo Video for the 'Living & Learning by Design' Course Landing Page

Process:

The design approach I used for the pilot course was inspired by the Successive Approximation Model (SAM), an iterative approach to learning/instructional design . The process looked like this:

1) Survey the field/system and engage in early-stage conversations to get a good sense of what challenges potential stakeholders currently have.

I became active in several social media groups (Facebook, Reddit and LinkedIn), asking questions to self-directed learners about their biggest challenges. I also checked out some of the other work that was happening in the space of creating online courses, including attending webinars, going through their funnels, and deconstructing their processes.

2) Create a Lean Canvas rapid business plan and test by conducting business model interviews.

I created a canvas for the course idea (see Supporting Evidence) and conducted 5 interviews with friends and colleagues to generate early feedback on the idea.

3) Facilitate a free webinar through the Gaia U platform (Gaia Radio) to practice presenting some of the key concepts from the planned course, engage participants in some activities and generate live feedback.

4) Design, create and publish a free 50-page interactive guide (interactive PDF using InDesign) that presents 7 Principles of my approach to transformative learning experience design. The guide includes text boxes and writing activities that can be saved and shared.

5) Offer free coaching sessions to those that complete the interactive guide and send it back to me. This creates an opportunity for me to get more detailed feedback from potential clients, hear their individual stories, and learn from them more in-depth.  

6) Design a basic outline for the pilot course based on feedback and learnings from previous experiments and build a sales page on website.

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7) Design and conduct regular free webinars to sell spots in the pilot course.

8) Promote the free webinars and free guide, and use both to build email list. Work email list to promote pilot course.

9) Design, develop and launch pilot course. In Lean terms the pilot functions like an MVP (minimum viable product), which is a stripped-down version of what I am imagining for the full-featured course.

10) Incorporate feedback from the pilot to make any necessary changes or, if its not connecting, look to pivot.

The fundamental aim of this design approach is to generate feedback from potential stakeholders early and often, testing my assumptions along the way so that I can make continuous adjustments and improvements. In this way I am able to minimize wasted time/energy/resources as the project continuously evolves into something that connects with stakeholder needs.

Process:

I was supported in this project by Adolfo Dunayevich, who was working at the time as Gaia U’s IT person and who helped me with some of the more technical tasks of setting up the new server and making sure everything was installed correctly (as well as some troubleshooting here and there).

I was also supported by Gaia U Co-President Liora Adler and Core Team member Ava Klinger, who both gave me continuous feedback and suggestions throughout the process of designing and development. Liora, Ava and I had regular Skype meetings to discuss progress and set goals. We also used Slack for day-to-day communication — specifically, in the #website channel on the Gaia U Slack team. Here we were able to share meeting notes, design documents and screenshots that facilitated a very iterative process.

Trello was used to manage tasks as a team, implementing a Kan-ban approach to project management. Here  different people were assigned to different tasks and given due dates or checklists when appropriate. We used the ‘comment’ feature as a primary means of communication and feedback. When feedback was desired, the task card with a link to the website page would be moved to a column on the Trello board labeled ‘Awaiting Feedback,’ where it would then be reviewed by Ava and Liora and they would leave comments on the card. When the task was completed, I would then move the card to the ‘Done’ column. This was very effective process for us.    

Installing the LMS LearnDash and migrating our course from the GEL site was a second phase of the project that came several months after the initial development phase. Here I shifted from a lead role into a support role, as we brought in an experienced tech person (Victor) to help us with the heavy load. Here Gaia U Co-President and lead content developer Andrew Langford also became highly involved in the process.

Making the transition from lead to support was a good experience as it gave me a nice feel for the dynamic flexibility and fluidity of the system. At that time it was refreshing taking a step down from doing the majority of the work, which was very all-consuming, to playing a support role. It was also appropriate, as Victor stepped up and with a lot more experience in this area than I and was able to move through this phase of the project much quicker than I would have been able to.

This has also given me an opportunity to learn many things about setting up the LMS on Wordpress from Victor, which has carried over to the Wired Roots site where I have set up a similar platform.

Finally, this project was supported by the remaining members of the Gaia U Core Team: Liam McDermott, Jennifer English Morgan, and Kirsten Liegmann, who all provided useful feedback and testing during the process.

Process:

The Successive Approximation Model (SAM) was also the primary inspiration for the iterative design approach we took for this project. The turnaround time was very quick, so it was good practice working on a tight deadline in a small team, passing back and forth rapid prototypes and incorporating feedback.

During our first development meeting we discussed our target audience, their needs/wants, and the overall structure of the course (designing from patterns to details) and agreed upon a basic outline.

We used a combination of Slack and Google Docs to work out the content for the course. Most of it was pulled from various places located on our old website, written by Andrew. Liam and I sifted through this content and each posted pieces of content in a Google Doc attached to the #a1-dev Slack channel (on the Gaia U Core Team) we liked under the lesson heading where we thought it might fit best. I also created some rapid prototype activities (1 for each section).

We all three then used both the ‘suggestion’ and ‘comments’ features in Google Docs to collaboratively work the content, making edits, suggesting what might stay in or be cut, identifying where we might have gaps and suggesting what we might look to add.

We decided that we would experiment with creating a longer final activity as a downloadable interactive PDF, and I was nominated to work up a prototype design (using Adobe InDesign). This activity is designed to lead into a free coaching session.

In our next meeting, we focused mainly on working up the activities and talking through my design. I gathered feedback from Liam and Andrew, worked out some technical troubleshooting with viewing interactive PDFs and worked up another design iteration.

We continued to collaborate in the Google Doc, fine-tuning the content. In our last meeting we put the finishing touches on for our ‘version 1.1’ of the course.

I took the lead creating a new course on the learning management system on our new website (LearnDash), uploading the content, and creating a automated registration process. I also modified our homepage to feature the course as a free intro.

Process:

I used the more linear/waterfall GoSADIMET design framework for this project. An iterative approach is not as necessary as this is not a marketable product and I was confident I could arrive at a quality outcome without continuous feedback.
The process looked like this:

Goals: (described above)

Survey: Research on best practices for creating portfolios (especially in instructional design), look at examples of professional portfolios

Analysis/Assessment: Identify needs/wants/dislikes, compile notes from research and observations and pull out practices/techniques/examples that will influence design

Design: Create a few quick mock-ups of the portfolio design on paper. Compare designs and choose the one I like best.

Implement: Build the design out on Wordpress and upload portfolio artifacts

Maintain/Evaluate/Tweak: Continuously upload new artifacts, switch out for old ones when necessary, and keep trying to improve my work and my portfolio. Seek out feedback from allies and mentors on how to improve.