Designing Experiences for Learning
Carnegie Mellon University
Spring 2020
Stacie Rohrbach
Week 1
Class Introduction | 01.14.20
What excites you about diving into designing experiences for learning and why?
This class excites me for a number of different reasons! First and foremost I have spent the majority of my design career working for schools. 🏫🍎 Through this work, I have come to appreciate the importance of working for an institution or an organization that values education and learning. With this foundational interest in education, my other interests and excitements lie in the following 3 areas.
- Traditional learning environments have always been challenging for me as a student. I would like to gain a better understanding of the different design strategies and approaches to learning that can help others understand concepts and ideas outside a traditional framework.
- I think educating and communicating ideas through dynamic and meaningful solutions is a really powerful tool and I want to sharpen this skill set.
- I believe knowledge is power! Being able to design and redesign experiences centered around learning can uncover a lot of new opportunities for growth and development on a number of different societal levels.
01.16.20
In class today we started class with the 8 Learning considerations discussed in “The Third Teacher” reading as well as discussing passages of the reading that stood out to us.
I personally really enjoyed this reading as it set the context of education and learning in ways I hadn’t considered before.
Some of my favorite quotes in addition to the 8 Learning Considerations we discussed.
8 Learning Considerations
- Needs
- Minds @ Work (Creativity)
- Bodies in Motion (Active Learning)
- Community Connections (Relationships/Core)
- Sustainability
- Access
- Senses
- Rewiring Learning — how do we use current technology and think
After discussing the readings we split into our project topic areas for discussion in small groups around the areas that interest us.
I had the opportunity to have discussions about Sustainability, Interacting W/Others and Lifelong Learning. Each group I had the opportunity to talk with had rich and interesting discussions, however, the two topics I left class feeling the most excited about were.
Interacting W/Others and Lifelong Learning
I look forward to investigating these topics further over the long weekend.
Week 2
01.21.20
After class Thrursday we were encouraged to explore the different topics of interest that we were drawn to during our in-class group discussion. I decided to dig a little deeper into understanding the landscape of Interactive Learning and Lifelong Learning today. I personally find both of these topics very relevant in today’s world.
Interactive Learning
- We are constantly having our attention pulled to our digital devices and screens as opposed to the people around us. How do we pull our attention back to interacting with people 1:1 and having real-time conversations?
- How do interact with people digitally for good becoming “digital citizens” and understanding the impact of our digital decisions 💚 & 🔴.
- Are there opportunities to develop better tools for parents to help their children navigate using technology?
- Accessibility — I have recently found myself drawn to the evolution and power of symbol-based communication and its ability to make communication and education more accessible to people with disabilities or people coming from different cultural backgrounds.
I think improving the standards and understanding of symbol-based communication through emojis or emoticons could have the aid in.
➡️ Learning how to read
➡️ Communicating with individuals that have verbal and motor disabilities ➡️ Interacting with coworkers or group members
➡️ Interacting with people that are different from you > cultural, gender, age.
- I also have an interest in exploring how outdoor education and facilitation can help strengthen urban communities.
Research Links
Lifelong Learning.
My interactive learning research was a little less exhaustive. But found some interesting opportunities in regards to streamlining online learning platforms to provide adults access to information online and achieving short term goals that lead to long term success.
I wonder if there are opportunities to make YouTube more accessible to skills learning, making it more easy to navigate like LinkedIn Learning?
I am also interested in opportunities were adult learners can meet short term goals and work towards a goal and manage their time every day. I think Duolingo does a really good job of creating this kind of engagement and incentive.
In my research, I was specifically struck by The Learning Network platform through the NYT. This lifelong learning platform provides readers and subscribers access to resources and relevant topics for all ages.
In Class
In class today we worked on synthesizing both our questions and hypotheses around our topic of interest. Before class, we had been tasked with writing down 10 questions and 10 hypotheses that we had related to the who/what/when/where/why/how surrounding the topic we were drawn to.
*Unfortunately I found out in class that I had interpreted hypothesis as a conclusion and was left contributing more questions to the exercise.
After placing our post-it notes under their selected categories we were encouraged to select a group to work within to affinity map the questions and hypotheses that were given and uncover themes.
I chose to work within Lifelong Learning as my interests still lie between both areas, Lifelong Learning and Interacting with others but I see some overlap between the two.
Our group had one of the more popular topic areas so there were a lot of post-it notes to sift through. After we affinity mapped as a group we were left with the following categories surrounding both questions and hypotheses around these questions.
Lifelong Learning
- Career Development
- Groups — Community Groups and Demographics
- Types of Learners — Age
- Learning Content
- Learning Resources
- Forms of Learning
- How people learn
- Solutions
- Motivations for life long learning
After class, Stacie asked us to reflect on the following.
Expand on the questions/hypotheses raised in class — who, what, where, when why how? — as it relates to your topic(s) of interest.
Through this exercise, these were my main takeaways.
- Who — There were themes around collaborative learning v.s. individual learning as well as perceptions of how we learn at different stages in our life.
- What — Lifelong learning can take a number of different forms, and questions around what skills are important to learn in adulthood or outside of the traditional classroom stood out.
- Where — In the classroom, online, at work or through life experiences. Tensions between online learning and hands-on instruction also serviced. Are there opportunities to bridge both? Why are do some people prefer one over the other.
- When — It seems like there is an opportunity to address lifelong learning earlier in life whether it be in high school or college. Students and children should be experiencing supplemental learning experiences outside that classroom earlier so it’s easier to engage.
- Why — Approaching lifelong learning makes life more enjoyable. Also, through lifelong learning people are able to contribute more to there own personal development as well as the development of a larger community.
- How — I think there are opportunities for individuals to engage with lifelong learning earlier in life through online certifications and classroom activities or mentorships outside the classroom. Developing a symbiotic relationship between what is required and what is possible for each individual could be an interesting concept to explore.
01.23.20
On Thursday I had the opportunity to present my decoded experience to the class. I learned a lot from the exercise and also learned a lot from listening to some of the other presentations as well.
My decoded experience was “The Learning Network” in association with the New York Times.
I found this learner experience interesting because of how it specifically caters to its users and the content that they teach.
Middle and high school teachers and students (teenager 13 & up).
Teaching Content
- Connect to global topics
- Give students a voice and strengthen their literacy skills
- Critical thinking and creative thinking through muti media.
I believe these topics super relevant and important today as young people continue to be faced with engaging with the news on their mobile devices and the internet. How young adults learn to interact and interpret the news at an early age is important. Developing these skills while your young leads to engaging and discussing with content and being well informed. I believe that children that have interacted with this platform in their youth have a higher chance of being involved and well informed with these topics throughout their and into adulthood.
Some of the highlight presentations that I also enjoyed from Thursday included the following.
The “This much or that much?” exhibit example sparked a lot of interest for me as I hadn’t thought of the power of museum experience and how something as trivial as how we measure things could be so interesting, engaging and informative all at the same time.
Week 3
01.27.20
Over last weekend Stacie asked that we refine our ideas around the learners/ instructors and stakeholders surrounding the topic we are interested in and what their fears, hopes, aspirations, and needs would be.
Thinking about this a bit more over the weekend I am still somewhat undecided on my learners. With the concept of lifelong learning, I think there are many opportunities for both children and adults but knowing which one to move forward with is a little more challenging for me to decide.
At the end of the week, I was introduced to a life long learning initiative for adults that are over 60+ called OATS the Older Adults Technology Service that inspired me to think outside the box and consider the different opportunities that lie with older demographics as well. This may be an idea I explore later in the week.
For now, this is the direction I am most excited about.
Option 1
Learners- Middle School and High School Students
- Fears — They aren’t learning everything they need to learn in high school in order to attend their college of interest or engage in a trade of interest
- Hopes — To have a college degree or direction towards a job or trade field after they graduate high school
- Aspirations — Working towards short term and long-term goals in order to stay focused and successful while in high school, making friends, becoming a part of a community, staying active
- Needs — Graduate high school, attend college, secure a job after graduation
Instruction- Hands-On & Virtual
- Fears — providing appropriate guidance, not meeting student or parent expectations
- Hopes — to excite and engage students on a variety of platforms online and in the classroom and community
- Aspirations — meet school and parent expectations of student performance and direction
- Needs — needs support from the school system, educators, and the community
Stakeholders-
Direct — Online learning platforms (partnerships), students, parents, families, high schools, middle schools
Indirect — Private schools, colleges, trade schools, school extracurricular activities, community economic growth
01.28.20
In class today we finished up the rest of the decoding experiences and learned about Bernice McCarthy and the 4Mat systems method in took individual quizzes to identify where we landed on her 4MAT Learning systems matrix.
A couple of takeaways from the rest of the presentations I really enjoyed the presentation on the “Junk PlayGround” concept, the Edible School Yard Project and Hello Little Printer. All really unique and alternative ways to think about learning and experimenting with concepts and ideas around “learning” in a different way.
Afterward, we were introduced to the 4MAT Systems Matrix. During this exercise Stacie had us place ourselves where we thought we landed on the matrix and then she had us take the 4MAT Learning Style Assessment to see where we actually fell.
Originally I had placed myself in the “Why” quadrant. But I was surprised to find that I fell more into the “What” quadrant but further down the Y-axis into the abstract. I have always considered myself more of a concrete thinker that thinks deep and reflects…but I didn’t consider myself an abstract thinker.
However, after Stacie mentioned that “What” quadrant individuals think can often have trouble moving to form, I was able to really resonate with why I was placed in that “What”. In the past, I have had trouble moving forward with designing “the thing” because “what” it is “why” it’s being made is something I challenge in my thinking.
In the reading form “ Design for How People Learn” by Julia Dirksen, I really identified with extrinsic motivation and being a mix of the “Just tell me what I need to know”, “ I need to solve a problem” and “I fear change” learner.
This is something I have identified about myself but also recognize the extensive power intrinsic learning can have both on myself as well as “learners” in general. I think this intersection of bringing extrinsic learners into > intrinsic learning is at the heart of lifelong learning. I am interested in incorporating Dirksen’s concepts that identify how to engage learners from beginners to experienced and in between.
01.30.20- 02.03.20
This week Stacie posed the question:
What have you discovered about your learners/stakeholders? What have you gained from the class activities and exercises from this week?
On Thursday last week 01.30.20, we did a group exercise where we worked within our topic area groups to identify a problem space, identify key stakeholders around the specif topic area and then identify hopes, aspirations, and fears surrounding these stakeholders.
Our team decided to take on the problem question of —
Preparing college students for self-directed learning after graduation.
We then identified three stakeholders.
- Students
- Instructors
- Online Learning Platforms
Through this exercise, we were then asked to identify common connections and conflicts between each of the stakeholders.
Identifying conflicts posed to be more challenging. However, we were able to identify conflicts between the following areas.
- Handholding v.s. Freedom
- Not having enough time v.s. having an interest in learning
- Keeping up with changing tech and the changing market v.s. having a better career
- Instructors' fears of becoming obsolete v.s. online learning platforms competing for student engagement and attention.
After this work session, Stacie encouraged us to reach out to some of our stakeholder groups over the weekend to test some of our assumptions.
After consulting Stacie a small group of us (Gautam, Carol and I) decided to conduct some informal interviews with Seniors and Freshman in the School of Design. The questions we developed included.
- What do you plan to do after you get your dream job?
- a. What academic subject do you find the most difficult?
b. Scenario: If a client were to give you an assignment on this subject and you had no previous knowledge or instruction how would you do it? - Do you use online learning platforms? If so which ones?
Gautam and I ended up conducting interviews with 3 Freshman students. Some key takeaways from these interviews were.
- Most students were interested in learning and were pushing themselves further after achieving the goal of landing their dream job.
- Most students were not familiar with online learning platforms, however, when we posed that YouTube could be considered as an online learning platform all students agreed that this is where they sought to learn most skills online.
Although we were only able to talk with a small sample size of students I found this exercise insightful and am looking forward to exploring these questions with more students and comparing our answers with Carol who conducted interviews with Seniors.
Next steps for learning more about our learners and stakeholders include.
- Talking to more students
- Setting up formal interviews with professors
Week 4
02.04.20
After class today Stacie asked that we answer the following questions.
Referencing your learning gaps diagram, what are the challenges you plan to tackle? What types of challenges are they? What ideas do you have for approaching them?
In class Tuesday we discussed the second Dirksen reading and worked towards developing our learning gaps diagram maps based on the stakeholder map we designed last week.
Looking at our different stakeholders we outlined current states and preferred states for each and then identified the different gap types that were being addressed in each state. Gap types include:
- Skill Gap
- Motivation Gap
- Knowledge Gap
- Communication Gap
- Environmental Gap
I am currently interested in the “Effective Blended Learning” space. Specifically, I am interested in exploring ways to bridge communication, motivations, and skills between students and professors.
Some current ideas I have been focused on are around YouTube literacy and understanding this tool from both a student and a teacher perspective?
Are there opportunities for YouTube to been seen as a life long learning tool?
I also have thoughts around bridging partnerships between schools and having collaborative or shared curriculum experiences. i.e. Could students from Carnegie Mellon be working on a virtual online class project with students with MIT? Would building connections and virtual social networks earlier in a student's college experience help them acclimate to the working world sooner? Would this aid in planting seeds for lifelong learners to work and adapt to unique learning environments.
