This video introduces the course planning workshops that I run.
My name is Gerta, I am learning designer, instructional content and multimedia developer and educational consultant based in Dublin, but I work with clients across entire Ireland and Europe.
This particular workshop (or a course planning sprint) that I am introducing here is specifically aimed at the teams developing online courses within higher education institutions, but it can successfully be used in other sectors as well.
The examples of products developed during my sprints include programme modules, micro-credentials, digital badges or MOOCs.
Contents:
4:26 online sprint onboarding overview
It is a learner-centred, collaborative, pedagogy-first approach drawing from several recognised and successful instructional, curriculum planning and product development models.
The workshop is conducted fully online over 2 hours, and I can facilitate the collaborative work of teams between 2-6 people. It is also possible to have bigger groups, but I would then some assistance from the organisers.
This virtual course planning sprint gives the team an opportunity to brainstorm and generate ideas.
I facilitate it, organise all that data, review it, and include my instructional design recommendations so, at the end of that process, you will have a detailed course design plan, which looks like this. You can also get the project development plan that you can customise for your needs, suggested timelines, video storyboards templates and other course production templates and recommendations. And these are just some bonuses. The offering can be, of course, tailored to the specific needs of individual clients.
Traditionally these curriculum planning workshops were a classroom-based, face-to-face, group collaboration, but as of last year I moved everything online and experimented with several different approaches and tools. Based on these experiences and the participants' feedback, I made further changes and improvements.
One of them is a short online onboarding available to participants before the curriculum planning sprint.
I noticed that spending the first 30 minutes of 2-hour long virtual workshop explaining what we would do was not the best use of our time together. So I flipped it and front-loaded some of that orientation, and I packaged it as online onboarding.
I will give you a preview of this online, onboarding in the latter part of this video - check minute 4:26.
So, let's look at what you can expect from this online course planning sprint.
1.
So first of all - participants need to complete 20 minutes long online onboarding. There is approximately 15 minutes worth of videos and one short survey activity at the end of that onboarding that takes 2-5 minutes.
The onboarding explains the methodology, the approach, so participants know what to expect and what is expected from them.
It also equips the team (and me) with some basic info and ideas that we will discuss at the beginning of the online workshop.
2
The workshop starts from
2.1 reviewing and discussing that survey answers.
2.3 We then jump into planning the online course - or more specifically, to storyboarding students learning journey using the six engagement types.
2.4 When we have that mapped, we start planning more detailed activities.
The course planning sprint is very much a starting point - it is about getting everyone on the same page, generating ideas and recording them, and agreeing on the action plan. It also gives the programme or module team really solid foundations for further development.
because...
3.
Following the workshop, the team continues to work and completes the first draft of the course design plan by the agreed deadline. I usually suggest doing it ASAP, giving maximum one week to finish it.
4
When this is done, I tidy that first draft of the course design plan, and I review it.
So at the end of all this process, your team will have
A. Curse roadmap or a storyboard
B. Learning outcomes for each section
C. Detailed course structure with types of activities and instructional review
D. A project plan to work with going forward
If you would like to talk or have questions about my course planning workshops - let me know. I am happy to give you access to the online onboarding so you can check yourself if this is what your organisation or your team needs.
If it is not exactly what have in mind - get in touch too - I can design and facilitate course planning workshops, customised to your specific requirements.
I will be happy to answer any questions about these course planning sprints or my other instructional and learning design services if they are of interest!
My contact details are below this video, so get in touch - I am looking forward to hearing from you!
