Module 1 Introduction

Hello and welcome to the first module of Ding’s Learning Design bootcamp, I’m super excited you’re here! Module 1 focuses on empathy, and with good reason: learning design is an act of empathy. It’s impossible to design an effective learning experience without first empathising with the learners you’re designing it for. 
But before we get to your learners, we need to empathise with another important group of people: the people who have taught you. The learning experiences you’ve had will have profoundly influenced your views about what good learning looks and feels like. So in this first module of the Bootcamp, we’re going to be developing your empathy muscle.

Let me introduce you to Phil from Ding, he’s a master learning designer and an expert in using empathy in learning. Phil, why is empathy a muscle?

Phil: Hello Tony, and hello to everyone else. So, what do we mean when we say that empathy is like a muscle? Empathy is one of those soft skills we’re always hearing about. Yes, it’s a good thing, and yes, we need more of it. But I suspect there are some people out there who think of it as being a bit ‘woolly’. I don’t know, a bit soft - like something made of marshmallows. Or it’s a nice to have, but not hugely practical. Like… a kitten. Or it’s like one of those things that’s only cracked out at times of interpersonal emergency, like a fire axe or a life buoy. But empathy is both more ordinary and extraordinary than that. It is an everyday act of imagination, ut also a supremely powerful one. And yes, in this way empathy is like a muscle. Because like a muscle, empathy can drive real movement and real change. 

So hopefully Phil has managed to convince you about why we believe empathy is the ultimate tool in learning design. 

As you work through the modules and activities in our bootcamp, your empathy muscle will get stronger and stronger. By the end of the course, you’ll be able to open doors, flip classrooms and tackle huge learning design tasks with ease!

In a moment, I’m going to ask you to read a bit more about empathy. Then for your first bootcamp exercise, you’re going to complete something called the Alexander Framework. The purpose of this activity is to find out what you think learning is, and how you think learning activities should be designed. This is super important, because becoming conscious of your underlying beliefs about learning enables you to explore different approaches to designing learning. 

Once we’ve uncovered your views about learning, we can then move on to explore who you’re designing learning for. We’ll be using empathy to find out as much as we can about your intended learners so we can adapt our approach to learning design in response. In your next bootcamp exercise, I’m going to ask you to develop some ‘learner personas’. Personas enable us to target and refine our learning designs to meet the needs and expectations of the intended audience for the course or programme we’re developing. Establishing learning personas can help us adapt the content, style, difficulty level and pace of our learning designs to minimise potential barriers to learning.

Then for your Module 1 assessment task, I’ll be asking you to create a video in which you introduce yourself, talk through your Alexander Framework, and explain the personas you’ve created. This task has two aims: firstly, it will enable me and the Ding team to see what you’ve learned so we can provide you with feedback. And secondly, it will show us how you approach creating videos, which is a key skills that every learning designer needs. 

A key aspect of learning design work is producing learning resources, or ‘assets’, such as videos. So In each bootcamp module, we’ll be asking you to record yourself creating a video as a way to put what you’re learning into practice. You may be very comfortable recording yourself, or you may not be - both are absolutely fine. The important thing is that by the end of the bootcamp you feel more confident in developing professional, inclusive learning assets. 

Lastly, we use a tool called Slack to support you on your journey through the bootcamp. If you’ve never used Slack before, don’t worry - we’ll guide you through it. Slack is a tool for sending messages, and you can also upload videos and documents to it. When you sign up for the bootcamp, you’ll receive a few emails from us inviting you to join some ‘channels’ on Slack. A channel is essentially a collection of messages organised around a specific theme, and so we have a Module 1 channel, a Module 2 channel and so on. Everyone who is currently taking that module will be able to see and send messages in the Module channel. While you’re working through a module, please post any questions you have in the channel for the module you’re currently working on, and a member of the Ding team will respond as soon as possible. We’ll also prompt you to upload your module worksheet and any videos you’ve created into the module channel so we can give you feedback. Once you complete a module, we’ll send you an invite to join the channel for the next module.

We’ll also invite you to a ‘hotline’ channel. This is a private channel between you and the Ding team, so if you would prefer to talk with us in private please just post your question in your ‘hotline’ channel and we’ll respond as soon as we can.

Ok I’ve done enough talking, now it’s over to you. Let’s get started on your first Bootcamp activity and start working those learning design muscles!