Communicating

As a Learning Designer, I spend the vast majority of my time communicating, collaborating with others - or facilitating them.

In the before times, the long long ago - I used to speak to people in 3D, where we'd share each other's air. How weird does that sound now? It was pretty good. People used to bring in biscuits, and campus was spread out enough you could stretch your legs properly going from meeting to meeting. Now we're 99% remote.

One of the ways I sometimes describe my role is 'facilitating people through a design process'. In practice, this takes the form of facilitating workshops, organising, structuring and facilitating discussions, and being the grease in the design machine between some of the disparate components.

Shortly after I started as Learning Designer, I was fortunate enough to get some great facilitation training from ICA UK, focusing on group consensus facilitation, and structured conversations.

From there I started running Learning Design workshops with the module teams I was working with - modular design 'kick-off' sessions that looked to bring the key authoring and production players together, debate and form consensus - and generally bring everyone in to alignment on how to progress the design of the module. When COVID-19 happened and we were all kicked in to our living rooms, I was able to pivot my practice to remote work pretty much straight away.

I use a range of methods to prod folk along the design journey - be it synchronous meetings, asynchronous presentations and screencasts, 1 on 1 collaboration, good old emails, MS Teams...you name - I'm bothering people via it. This isn't just with colleagues in faculty, but also folk in our hands-on production teams (in particular the Editors) and the fabulous bods in our Learning Systems team - who make all the cool tech tools and toys.

I go in to a specific example of where I've done remote facilitation, collaboration and co-creation in the evidence section below, within 'Learning Designer's induction - collaboration and mapping'.

Dissemination

I do quite a bit of internal dissemination work (for some fun examples, see the 'Introduction to my in-practice video and animation work' part of the Evidence section below), but I think some of the most broadly impactful dissemination work I do is via my little podcast.

I've used it both as a space to learn what good practice looks like, through the lens of applied pedagogy (normally applied in a silly way, for fun), and to draw in experts from across the edu-sphere (in the UK, Canada, and Japan!) to discuss their pet pedagogies, and share thier tips for how to apply them in education practice. It's a long running collaboration between myself, and the fab Dr Mark Childs - and has now progressed to Mark, Professor Rebecca Fergson, Liz Ellis and more writing a book. It's also led directly to me co-authoring a couple of conference pieces and journal papers, linked in the Evidence section below. There's additional evidence on the impact it's had more broadly in my specialist section.

I've been putting some of the technical and speaking skills I've developed through it to use in my role over the last couple of years (often a mile or so outside of my remit, carefully dancing between the toes of others). I've done a bit of voiceover work to accompany the videos and animations I've put together, and have been asked to help share a bit of my podcasting experience through hosting discussions, and helping other teams get started with their own podcasting projects. Externally, Mark and I have together (and independently) run some external seminars, talks and workshops to discuss the benefits of running a podcast (or any kind of collaborative creative endeavour) as part of ones own professional development.

This is a reflection on two parts - firstly around my facilitative work, and then my broader dissemination work.

Facilitation

Here's the runup delivering a typical Learning Design Workshop from my perspective:

• Initial cool enthusiasm - 'Cool team, ace, looking forward to it'

• Realising it's going to involve facilitating a large group of people - 'Ohgodohgodohgod'

• Planning the agenda - 'oh lordy every bit of this needs to be engaging and rock solid'

• The run-up - 'I'd best rehearse the whole thing in my head for 48 hours before, to the point where I can't focus on anything else'

• The panic - 'what about X tiny detail?! Must overprepare to compensate!'

• The delivery - 'Hi everyone! Here's a strange anecdote about a biscuit...'

• (it goes well, performance / facilitation mode engages)

• Afterwards - 'Oh god X didn't go right, Y didn't seem interested'

• After the afterwards - 'Ooh i've just had some lovely feedback from the module team chair'

• After that - 'I'm so knackered I need to sleep for a week'

Basically, it's always a bit of event, and while they objectively go well - I find them very, very draining to plan and facilitate.

Left to my own devices, I'm quite happy in my own company. I'm a little shy, and would rather sit down with a good book or quietly tinker with something than go out to and have a rave. I do however seem to have  landed myself in a profession where working, communicating, facilitating and collaborating closely with others is the very core of the role. And there's podcasting, not the ideal passion for an aspiring hermit.

Feedback from the sessions I've run has generally been really positive, which has helped allay that feeling to a degree - but it is still something I have to psych myself up for every time. Over the last year I've found that making a conscious effort to prepare a little less has really helped - as have the phrases 'freedom within and framework' and 'liberating structures'. Sometimes being a bit looser and more organic works better for everyone.

The lesson to learn here of course, is that I don't need to worry as much as I do, that I've got the experience to back it up, I've got a performance mode that can engage when needed, things go well when I don't overprepare and relax, and I've had the feedback to prove it. Will the lizard part of my brain learn that lesson though? Nope. 

Dissemination (and collaboration)

The dissemination side of my practice is probably my favourite aspect of the role. There's a big energetic community of practice for education folk out there, and they're a great bunch to draw on, and in turn share things with. It's fizzy, creative, and helps me connect with the love of the discipline. 

I'm also citable which is kind of neat. I never expected to be citable.

It's also the bit I struggle to prioritise in my day-to-day, as the demands of my ever growing and diversifying workload fight with the work that feels more 'self indulgent'. Subsequently, most of it ends up happening in my own time, which isn't really ideal (but as I understand it, isn't uncommon).

Just about all of the dissemination work I show in the evidence section below comes from collaborations - and they're inevitably the ones that help me develop most professionally - and help build the relationships I've come to rely on in rounding out and sense checking my practice. The lesson to learn here of course, is that as this work directly improves my ability to engage in my role, and adds value to my OU work - I should be a whole lot tougher in fighting for a corner of my time to work on things like this - and in cutting the workload cloth I'll accept accordingly.

It's tough though, and something I suspect I'll always struggle with. As you might guess from reading through this portfolio, I have a tendency to get stuck in to a few too many things. Saying that, as I'm now line managing again I'd like to set an example and expectation to my new team, so now is very much the time to get it right. I can tolerate my own personal time being invaded, but I hate the idea of it happening to those I have a duty of care for.