Ideate

Brainstorming solutions is a key part of the ideate stage, As the course instructor and designer, I experimented with a wide variety of learner interactions, assessment strategies and tool to facilitate participation and engagement.

Designing a flexible learning environment for the 21st century student, means using practices that encourage the development of self-directed, collaborative and critical thinking skills (Benade, 2017). Practices include taking advantage of assessment strategies “that are project and workplace-based” (Anderson, 2008b, p. 50) and by adopting a less dominant role to facilitate “greater learner commitment and participation” (p. 59).

Student-Teacher Interaction: Introductory Activity

Design thinking, especially in the empathy phase involves letting go of assumptions, biases and personal beliefs to understand an user’s unique needs (Stanford University, 2018). In UX design, asking How Might We (HMW) questions encourages designers to adopt an open, beginner’s mindset. HMW involves a design challenge (i.e. the problem) and a point-of-view statement (from a sample user) to generate a series of questions that may lead to solutions in later phases.

While typically done face-to-face, HMW was adapted as an online introductory activity using the discussion forums, to be an “icebreaker” to design thinking. Although running as an asynchronous course, students starting orientation will likely be new and not know each other’s communication styles. I chose to rely on a student-teacher interaction to reduce discomfort and initially lead the discussion. My intent would be that students start to become more comfortable with reflective, design thinking and communicating with each other from this introductory activity.

Student-Student Interaction: Biweekly Check-ins

Design critiques are a core part of UX design; they foster trust, cooperation and collaboration among team members and keep stakeholders up-to-date on progress (Gibbons, 2016). The biweekly check-ins scheduled throughout the course, provide opportunities for students to engage with each other, provide and receive critical feedback and develop interpersonal skills that are valuable in the workplace.

Student-Content Interaction: Non-linear Narratives and Digital Stories

Digital stories have been shown to “enhance current lessons within a larger unit, as a way to facilitate discussion about the topics presented” (Robin, 2006). Within digital stories, there are a number of interactive narratives for the learner to choose from. In a linear narrative, the learner’s progress is straightforward, whereas in a non-linear narrative, the learner can make multiple decisions that affect the progress through the story (Tawfik, Schmidt & Msilu, 2018). Non-linear narratives also support problem-solving by allowing learners to interpret situation(s), and use reasoning and decision-making skills based on the information presented (2018, p. 25).

The module that I was building focused on personas, a user experience (UX) deliverable, that helps designers identify with the user, and recognize that different people have different needs and expectations. Inclusive personas, in particular ensure that users with unmet needs or those who do not meet the standard norm are not excluded from this process. I thought the non-linear narrative would best demonstrate the exploratory, open nature of personas and its use as a UX problem-solving tool. I followed the choose your own adventure genre, a common non-linear narrative found in story games. I experimented with Twine, a free, open-source software that lets people create interactive, non-linear stories as published HTML-based web pages.

Assessments: Project-and Workplace-Based

• Formative: Throughout the course, students are formatively assessed, producing tangible deliverables associated with stages of the UX design process. Deliverables such as empathy maps, personas and wireframes are all common client deliverables that an UX designer produces (Komninos, 2020). Using Padlet, an online collaborative whiteboard, students have the opportunity to participate in a group brainstorming discussion. While not graded, the student participation will be assessed by level of engagement and diversity of ideas generated.
• Summative: The final assignment was designed to be a summative assessment; students produce a draft plan for testing the usability of their deliverables that were created throughout the course. From the beginning, students have had opportunities to gain transferable skills such as presenting information, organizing content and writing a clear rationale. These skills will be assessed when reviewing the plan’s presentation and quality of work. The goal is that students will leave the course with learning outcomes (i.e. communication and interpersonal skills, idea generation) that they can transfer to other contexts.

Safe Spaces: Orientation

Anderson (2008a) describes the need to develop a “develop a sense of trust and safety within the electronic community” (p. 350), as a critical first step when facilitating discourse. The course makes use of online discussion forums so it was important to create a safe space early on.

Borrowing from game-based learning principles that have proved successful, I recreated the course syllabus as an orientation module in Canvas. In video games, “fish tanks” are scaled-down versions of the game, often playable as tutorials at the beginning (Gee, 2005). When adapted for learning, they allow players to master a few key elements and encourage a positive start to the full system (p. 8). The orientation is designed to be light-hearted, with titles referencing travel (i.e. “Pack your bags” instead of course materials or “Itinerary” for course schedule) and require minimal effort to complete. While the syllabus is available as an electronic PDF file, orientation allows students to have a sense of accomplishment and gain confidence before even starting the course modules.