Posts made by Asif Devji

Hi All -- in response to my proposed LS activity, my consultants highlighted my confusion as to: What is an 'invitation' in LS terms?

Is it a marketing blurb? Is it a learning outcome? Is it a question prompt? What exactly is it?

Wondering what others think and if there were questions around this for any of you as you put together your LS activity.

Thanks.

Hello Rey and Doug -- I really appreciate you taking the time to look through my ideas and providing your feedback.

You've both noted a disconnect between my invitation and the LS activities themselves -- accurately highlighting my own uncertainty about what an 'invitation' is and what it is meant to do.

After reading your responses I took some time to look through the invitations proposed in other triads -- my reading of those is that the invitation is akin to the 'learning outcome' in a traditional activity -- it prepares the participant for the experience by identifying the purpose/expected result of what they are about to do.

I think that part of my confusion derives from the fact that I have proposed a course rather than a single LS activity -- which I guess means that I should really have at least three invitations: one for each LS activity in the course.

I also took a look at the blurb at the top of this (Design with Liberating Structures) microcourse -- and my reading of this is that it serves as an 'invitation' at the course level. Using that as a model, below is a 'tightened up' version of my (course-level) invitation:

You're familiar with Liberating Structures as activities that can help unlock participant engagement, focus and creativity in your group facilitation. But you're unsure how Liberating Structures can work in online environments. Come explore and experiment in this online course where you can work through some of the challenges of and strategies for facilitating LS activities online.

As an added note -- a bit of personal learning that I take away from your feedback is a deeper look at my tendency to get excited about developing (learning) activities without devoting enough thought to the best way of engaging participants in those -- which in a way runs counter to the philosophy of LS (as I read it). I wonder if there's an LS activity or two that could help me strengthen that weakness.

Thanks again for your views -- I found both of your responses very helpful.

Scenario: Cohort of online facilitators seeking to integrate Liberating Structures activities into their learning delivery with the goal of better meeting learner needs and increasing learner engagement.

Purpose:

  • Introduce approaches to online facilitation of LS activities via an online experiential course
  • Acknowledge and address participant concerns about applying an LS approach in their online facilitation
  • Have participants prepare for possible consequences emerging from their online facilitation of LS activities

Liberating Structures:

Activities:

  • Drawing Together
  1. Using Padlet -- in groups of 3 -- participants draw their individual response to the question: What is your biggest fear about facilitating an LS activity online?
  2. Using a Troika approach -- participants group into successive 2s and consult to interpret the drawing of the 1 -- consultations take the form of comments under each drawing in the Padlet
  3. Each triad reports back to whole group in the course LMS -- acting out the fears interpreted in the form of an improv discussion forum thread
  • Critical Uncertainties
  1. Using the text tool in red font on a whiteboard in a Collaborate web conference  -- participants make a list of uncertainties in response to the question: What factors are impossible to predict or control their direction as you facilitate LS activities online?
  2. Using the text tool to change to blue font some list items -- participants prioritize the most critical factors in response to the question: Which factors threaten your ability to facilitate successfully? 
  3. By circling two blue items -- participants select the two most critical and most uncertain items 
  4. Facilitator takes a screenshot of the whiteboard to save as an artifact and then opens a clean whiteboard -- facilitator draws grid on whiteboard with more of/less of X and Y axes -- one with the most critical item and the other with the most uncertain item 
  5. Participants divide into 4 small groups -- each group takes one quadrant of the grid -- groups are sent into 4 breakout rooms
  6. In the breakout rooms -- each group writes a thumbnail scenario for their quadrant and brainstorms 3 strategies that would help the group operate in that scenario
  7. Facilitator takes screenshot of each group's whiteboard to save as artifacts
  8. All groups meet back in the main room -- report on their scenarios and strategies to the whole group  
  9. Whole group sifts results to identify robust/hedging strategies
  10. Facilitator uploads all artifacts to LMS
  • Min Specs
  1. Using a Wiki in an LMS -- participants make a list of all the do’s and don’ts to pay attention to in order to successfully facilitate an LS activity online
  2. While screen-sharing the Wiki page In a Collaborate web conference -- participants sift through the list one item at a time and strike-through every rule that gets a positive answer to the question: If we broke or ignored this rule, could we still successfully facilitate an online LS Activity?
  3. Participants reduce list to the absolute minimum needed to successfully facilitate an LS activity online

Notes: the activities above:

  • would constitute part of a course on facilitating LS activities online
  • would take three separate sessions to complete
  •  are conceived of as building on each other sequentially -- i.e. the thinking and outputs generated in Activity 1 would constitute the inputs to Activity 2, etc.
Invitation: How can Liberating Structures activities be facilitated in online environments?

Hi Doug -- please see below my thoughts on Rey's case -- let me know what you think.

CASE:

  • Desired outcome: test learner knowledge but also to hone their skills in critical/analytical thinking, presentation, and effective communication
  • Identified issue: prevent plagiarism
  • Proposed  intervention: department/faculty meeting to brainstorm ideas and strategies how to prevent plagiarism, thereby emphasizing academic integrity
    • 1-2-4-All
      • What strategies can you recommend to prevent plagiarism? 
FEEDBACK:

  • The LS structure selected seems appropriate to solicit feedback from the group around the table (department/faculty)
    • I wonder if there is a way to include the learners themselves in a discussion around preventing plagiarism

      • Are there LS activities that could be used in-class at the beginning of the year to have learners think through the pros/cons of using plagiarism vis-a-vis the desired outcome: hone their skills in critical/analytical thinking, presentation, and effective communication

      • Are there LS activities that could be used to solicit feedback from learners as to why a resort to plagiarism might be a rational choice for them? (Note: this would definitely require creating a safe space for learners to speak freely about this taboo subject)

      • Are there LS activities that could be used with students to develop their own code of conduct with regards to plagiarism?

  • If work with the learners is sequenced first (in order to gather data re: learner perspectives), other LS activities might be useful to feed that data into a next step of negotiating strategies with department/faculty to address the identified issue of plagiarism

Hi Rey -- I've had a chance to read through Doug's case and proposed activities above -- please see my feedback below and let me know what you think.

CASE:

  • Desired outcome: By the end of the 12 weeks, we expect students to be able to introduce themselves in English when visiting projects overseas based on the sample dialogues they have learned.

  • Learning activities: asynchronous quizzes and forum tasks to prepare for a live one on one session with the instructor at the end of the week

  • Identified issue: Students appear to be enjoying the quizzes but are not participating in the Forum tasks before the lessons

  • Proposed intervention: group meeting with the students, instructors, designers and staff in Japanese to assess the course so far with the students.
  • Question: what types of questions would we need to follow up with other than why or is this all we need
FEEDBACK:

  • The two LS activities selected seem appropriate to address the issue -- from my reading:
    • W3 -- would allow participants to reflect on the group's process/progress through the learning activities
    •  9 Whys -- would allow participants to reflect on the purpose and effectiveness of the learning activities vis-a-vis the desired outcome
    • It's unclear how Doug envisions sequencing these two activities --  but it might be something to think about as the thinking/feedback generated during the first activity would prime the learners/be fed into the second activity

  • In general, the proposed LS activities could: 
    • Offer the learners some instructor transparency as they think through the 'whys' of the learning activities and explore the rationale behind the them
    • Reveal for the instructor the learners' assessment of the effectiveness of the learning activities in preparing them for the desired outcome
    • Open up an opportunity for negotiation between learners/instructors/designers/staff regarding (i) the learning activities themselves and (ii) learner participation in the activities -- as well as decisions on next steps (i.e. during the 'Now What?' phase of the W3 LS) based on the results of the negotiations

  • Some additional questions that could be asked during the LS activities:
    • What do you envision will be your biggest challenge when introducing yourself in English while visiting projects overseas? (Note: as a future step, the Critical Uncertainties LS might be useful to address concerns raised here)
    • What is working/not working for you in the course to get you to your desired outcome? (And why?)
    • What learning activity is the most challenging for you? (And why?)
    • Why do you think these learning activities have been proposed/sequenced in this way?
    • What might be a better learning activity/sequence of learning activities to get you to your desired outcome? (And why?)