Donna DesBiens

Hi Sylvia, 

On reflection, I still really like the idea of adding humour and imagination to learning about online course organization.  

However, as participants are new to designing online courses, I wonder if they might need a few 'baffle course' examples to get started.  These could be constructed examples vs actual courses to avoid shaming anyone and maybe could be just pieces of courses to make it doable - e.g. course outlines / assignments / schedules with missing chunks; a content dump of ppts, pdfs etc., and/or wild navigation.   Of course, if they have ever facilitated a problematic online course or taken one as a student, they can bring in examples from those.

I think Terri's idea of using wikis/forums for the 1, 2, 4, aspect of TRIZ could work. It might also be fun to bring people together in a short Collaborate session to share their 'disaster' ideas.  That's one of the parts of TRIZ that I get a kick out of in f2f - the laughter is catchy and kind of bonding.  

I also like the idea of stringing the 15% solution LS to this activity to invite and share ideas for manageable improvements. Again, if participants are novices they may need some good design examples. 

Warm regards, Donna

Hi Sylvia and Terri,

It's now 9:15 pm and I just got a dinner call from my husband who has prepared a Mexican feast so will return with thoughtful feedback on Terri's activity first thing in the morning. Thank heavens for flex days!

Till then I'll just say what a great idea it is to use TRIZ for helping instructors new to online learning.  This LS is so much fun. I think it would help people relax into the spirit of learning a new delivery modality  - instead of getting anxious about memorizing a zillion 'to do' things. 

Cheerio, Donna

Hi Terri,

Agree that this is an ambitious plan and yet doable with some tweaks. 

First, I'd like to say I love the congruence between Leading in Times of Change and a Critical Uncertainties activity.  Also, really like the language used in the intro - sparky questions and very simple, clear vocab.   Ditto for the clear vocab in the instructions. 

Tweak thoughts: 

Agree the timeline is long - 80 odd minutes all told is a long time in Collaborate Ultra, especially if students are coming in from different time zones. Hard on instructors too.

I like your suggestion to use a wiki for small group pre-work and sharing between groups before getting into a synchronous session.  Beth's suggestion of a Google doc would work too; yet, using the Moodle wiki would keep the work inside the course site. At my end, I wondered if Padlet would work. It's both very easy to use and multimedia friendly.  Whichever format is chosen, like both you & Beth, I think a graphic example of what's expected and a pre-set grid would clarify the activity and save time for all.  When I worked through the activity wearing my 'student hat' something like this is what I envisioned would be an expected product: 

 [If collaborative media tools are used, the class could take a quick peek at what others are doing in the wiki, G-doc, or Padlet - at any time that is convenient for them] 

Also, of the groups of 4 did this work before the synchronous session, there's already about a half-hour of time-saving.  

About the activity steps, I too wondered if the small groups might need a bit more guidance on the number of contributions per person in the list of 'impossible to predict/control factors' in Step 1. Maybe the top 2 or 3 to open the door for shared factors, but not go crazy?   Steps 2 & 3 (prioritize critical factors & brainstorm 3 strategies) could be done w/in small groups too using one of the asynchronous share tools.   Saves another batch of time! 

Thinking about this again, I wonder if the example graphic should specify 'thumbnail scenario' and give a brief instruction and example of what 'thumbnail' looks like, e.g. Start with an action word (for congruence with action plan) and have sentence/word count guidelines? 

If these suggestions make sense to Sylvia, then the synchronous Collaborate Ultra session could focus on the final steps of sifting through the results, debriefing, and making first-step decisions on the Now What.  Previous time-budget for this was 30 minutes, but now could be extended to 45-60 min to allow that extra time always needed for online tech glitches etc. 

This is such a deep activity that one question bubbling up for me is whether/how students will be able to apply their learning from this in one of their assignments. 

Sylvia, I'm very much looking forward to working with you at RRU! Donna

Hi Terri, 

No worries.  I had zero time to log into this course today and there's still lots of time to review this evening.    

By the way, I would love to learn more about the Culture, Communication & Global Citizenship course you created with Margaret Hearnden. I was unable to attend the 2018 BCcampus Festival of Learning but I saved the abstract from the conf site in my intercultural treasures folder.   I'm very curious about the activities to foster emotional safety/wellbeing among students and the challenges in supporting students to embrace  'unsettling' but not 'unsafe' critical dialogue about different ways of being.  These outcomes address important intercultural learning challenges we're seeing emerging at RRU as well.   

Warm regards, Donna

Hi Sylvia and Terri, 

Draft of a possible experiential learning activity for Week 2 of a facilitated 4-week online faculty dev course focused on intercultural teaching and learning competencies. 

Group Learning Scenario: RRU faculty - who may know each other well, have slight acquaintance, or be brand new associate faculty from various locations in Canada (and occasionally the US). 

Preamble: In Week 1, participants are invited to engage in a scaffolded set of intro activities focused on developing awareness of one's own cultural and disciplinary identities, as they affect positionality in the classroom. Trust and relationship building activities include sharing culturally responsive intros, memorable intercultural experiences, and pedagogical values, as well as familiarizing with foundational intercultural research. In Week 2, the focus shifts to modelling and encouraging non-judgemental attitudes/openness towards 'other' values, perspectives, and positions in classroom dialogues and teamwork.  Again, participants are offered curated resources on the why, what, how, and when of various intercultural teaching and learning competencies... before being invited to engage in this activity.  

Heard, Seen, Respected (HSR) - Why and What? 

Issue: Instructor Preparation to Negotiate Common Intercultural Teaching Challenges:

• Domestic students often resist teamwork with ESL international students
• Dominant culture emotional reactivity to Indigenization/reconciliation topics & activities

Confusion

Proposing HSR activity as a bridge to guiding critical conversations and intercultural teamwork in classrooms and as a possible model for a student classroom learning activity. 

Draft Invitation: The learning aim of this activity is to develop empathy about 'walking in the shoes of other,' by connecting with both your own and your colleagues' intercultural learning challenges before you have to 'go live' with your students. 

Steps: 

1. View the video Why Does Privilege Make People So Angry? (4:10). Listen to some thoughts on how misunderstanding and emotional reactions arise, and how to transcend that. Then post a short story about a time you felt you were not heard, seen, or respected that you feel AT EASE about sharing in this learning context. You can choose to share your story in video (up to 3 min) or written text (up to 250 words). You can also add lyrics, music, art, or other graphic elements to your story if you like 

2. Next, briefly respond in the same way to at least one other persons's story - preferably one that does not yet have another response. To practice listening online, without trying to fix anything or make any judgements, please only comment on what it felt like to listen to another person's story and any pattern connections you notice revealed in other stories. Tip: When you are 'listening,' notice when you form a right/wrong judgement, and let it go! 

3. At the end of the week, we plan to harvest all feedback and suggestions to improve future iterations of this activity.  

Looking forward to feedback on what we might stop, start, and/or continue in this activity to make it both effective and supportive. 

Warm regards, Donna