Giving Foundations of IDS the Canvas Module Treatment
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- Module: Designing for Education
Often, the process of design begins with a research phase resulting in a “design brief” — a guiding document that outlines essential needs, audience and stakeholders, and challenges and opportunities facing the design team. In the spirit of critical instructional design (which we believe can’t be defined by a strict set of rules, checklists, or expectations), we are resisting giving you a “template” to guide your planning. Moreover, we believe the purpose of Design Forward is not to just “design courses” but to help you develop into a confident, agile, and creative educator, capable of tackling many kinds of teaching and learning challenges.
To that end, we provide the following to guide your thinking about the question “What am I designing?” You may answer below in any context that makes sense: a single assignment, a course, a program, etc. You should return to this exercise whenever you feel your thinking shift, whenever you are tackling a new challenge, whenever you feel inspired.
Feel free to add, delete/erase, annotate, change, evolve whatever you do below.
What are you designing? Tell us in a word and a few sentences. How do you feel about the thing?
This fall, I am teaching the Foundations of IDS class. Every semester, we have students who need a more self-paced option (they are close to graduation, they are virtual, they have jobs, etc.). We also run into the issue HAVING to run the Foundations class at 8 AM to avoid scheduling conflicts. However, community building in an 8 AM is next to impossible… energy is low. Absences are high. As a result, I want to create two different pathways for students in this class:
- (Preferred) Community Pathway: synchronous, utilizes class time to connect students to their IDS community and scaffold the process of creating their majors, class meeting times are required
- Self-Paced Pathway: asynchronous, utilizes Canvas module sequencing to walk students through the process of creating their majors, class meeting times are optional but always available to get extra help (note: at least two days of class are required because they are essential to the major creation process)
I am concerned that everyone will want to do the Self-Paced Pathway to avoid attending class, so I am thinking about requiring that students submit a “request” for this pathway with a rationale at the beginning of the semester. Students choosing this pathway will also have to indicate they understand they are responsible for their own executive functioning/ on time work/ advocating for help.
Who will be impacted by what you design? How do you feel about them?
New IDS students will be impacted by my design and I think those students are pretty neat myself. I know that we have a STRONG opportunity to harness the creativity and passion of our IDS students to cultivate a stronger sense of community. I think we run into issues with the Foundations class being at 8 AM. I’m hopeful that students will feel more lively during other parts of the day.
How are you related to the thing you are designing and the people impacted? How do you feel about this relationship?
I am an IDS advisor/ instructor. I am currently Director of IDS while my colleague is on sabbatical. I am teaching this class; I often teach this class. When I’m not teaching this course, I am often supporting Foundations students while they make their majors. As I said before, IDS students are a joy to work with because they are often such creative and passionate humans. At the same time, sometimes I feel drained by the sheer amount of labor required to support these students. I’ve noticed (anecdotally) that our IDS forms confuse students more and more every year. I’ve noticed (anecdotally) that our student workers struggle with our IDS forms more and more every year. The principles of UDL tell me to consider the barriers in the learning environment; we have been teaching the Foundations class the same for four years. That seems blink-of-an-eye fast. But I’m an instructional designer. I have 1,000 ideas of how this course could work differently. So, let’s try one of them!
Why is this thing important? What work does it do in the world?
I’m telling ya. One of these Plymouth IDS majors is going to end up president or something.
Draw a Picture of the Thing You are Designing
This my be literal, abstract, or both.
Draw a Picture of the Thing You are Designing, Dissected
Show us all its parts. Label them. Draw arrows or connections to parts that are related,
What is a useful simile for the thing you are designing? A few suggestions:
- How is the thing like/not like a boat?
- An apple tree?
When I think about this design project, I imagine looking up into the night sky on a moonless night where stars like infinite possibilities twinkle in the sky. I am overwhelmed by all the possible options and realities, but I am comforted that there’s so much uncertainty that I can’t be held singularly responsible for any outcome. Apparently it’s an existential kind of day!
Who is made most vulnerable by this thing? How can you care for them with your design?
I imagine a particular student at this moment. One of my favorite students because they were warm, sociable, and insightful. They also just happened to have motivation struggles when they were away from the learning environment of the class. This meant that, when they were in class, they were confident and optimistic that work was doable for them. When they went back to their dorm, the executive functioning difficulties kicked in and confidence diminished. Rinse and repeat. Their shame and anxiety mounted, and they didn’t reach out for help. Until it was too late!
I imagine this student being faced with a Self-Directed Pathway at the beginning of the semester when confidence and energy is high. They aren’t being disingenuous if they select this pathway; it takes a handful of developmental years that most college students haven’t experienced yet to learn those lessons about themselves. I want to care for this student in my design by considering good information to collect/ convey in the student request for the Self-Directed Pathway. I don’t want to weaponize design or bureaucracy to make it harder for people to do work. I’m inspired by the image of a coin sorter — if you have the drive and functioning ability to submit a request for the Self-Directed Pathway, you are more poised to have the drive and functioning ability to successfully complete the pathway.
What part of the thing do you wish you could avoid? Why? What part do you want to protect?
I wish I could avoid Canvas. We have good website environments, but they aren’t a known quantity for students like Canvas is. I’m trying to think of Canvas as a “port” for students to access other well-designed content. With that said, I’d like to eventually create assignments that Foundations of IDS students will submit to our website for publishing…
Write a list of words that come to mind that are worrying you about designing the thing.
labor, time, Canvas, technology, communication, clarity, long-term relevance
Write a list of words that come to mind that are inspiring you about designing the thing.
possibility, clarity, future staff labor reduction, creative, fun, engaging, interesting, challenging
Once the thing is designed, and you and the people you’ve identified have experienced it, how do you hope you will all feel? What will matter most? Why?
Students: scaffolded (is that a word?), supported, clear, lively, inspired, autonomous
Me: facilitatory, non-harried, supportive, side-lined, lively
Class time: lively, interesting, engaging, open-ended, interactive, embodied