{"id":8547,"date":"2018-09-21T12:57:54","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T10:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newinsights.oeb.global\/?p=8547"},"modified":"2022-01-20T11:53:44","modified_gmt":"2022-01-20T09:53:44","slug":"how-to-balance-design-thinking-methodologies-with-evidence-informed-learning-design-principles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oeb.global\/oeb-insights\/how-to-balance-design-thinking-methodologies-with-evidence-informed-learning-design-principles\/","title":{"rendered":"How to balance design thinking methodologies with evidence-informed learning design principles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>As a learning design professional with 10+ years of experience, I have used many instructional design approaches. However, a year ago I moved to Accenture and joined a team called Learning Experience Design. Since then, when designing learning experiences, I suddenly keep asking myself, \u201cWhat is the next step?\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The \u2018thing\u2019 that shook things up for me is Design Thinking. This approach is at the core of what my team does. I had to take a deep dive into it, as I regularly need to facilitate virtual Design Thinking sessions with global clients (sponsors, learners, and other stakeholders), and I obviously need to know what I\u2019m doing. As Connie Malamed states in one of her blogs<\/a>, \u201cDesign Thinking is an approach for deeply understanding the audience and their challenges, in order to generate creative and effective solutions.\u201d Sounds great, right?<\/p>\n

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As with any trend, I think we should be careful about jumping on the Design Thinking bandwagon without fully understanding how it can positively and<\/em> negatively impact learning experience design. Design Thinking provides great opportunities; nonetheless, I think we need to make sure to balance it with evidence-informed learning design principles, such as what learning sciences tells us about effective learning strategies. We need to combine both in order to design the best possible learning experience. Let\u2019s explore this a little bit more.<\/p>\n

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The image below shows the \u2018traditional\u2019 design thinking process, which starts with an \u2018Empathize\u2019 phase (sometimes called \u2018Understanding\u2019, \u2018Discovery\u2019 or something similar).<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>
\nDesign thinking process<\/a><\/p>\n

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By the way, let\u2019s call our learners \u2018workers\u2019 because, as the next paragraph illustrates, they are<\/em> workers first, and they might or might NOT be learners! It depends whether or not a learning solution actually turns out to be part of the overall solution to solve the business problem at hand.<\/p>\n

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First, I\u2019m not sure if \u2018Emphathize\u2019 should be the first phase when it comes to solving performance issues. I\u2019d say that there is a business problem first, and only when it\u2019s clearly identified can we move on to the Empathize phase in order to understand the workers\u2019 experience in relation to the business problem that\u2019s been identified.<\/p>\n

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Next, how<\/em> should we empathize with workers? Should we ask what they like or want? I don\u2019t think so. After all, we know that what people prefer is not necessarily good for them: We like sugary and fatty food, we like to binge-watch TV shows, and the list goes on \u2013 see a blog on this topic from my blog partner Paul A. Kirschner here<\/a>). When we empathize with workers, we should focus on what they do, what their challenges are, and what their needs and motivations are.<\/p>\n

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So far, I\u2019ve learned that one of the benefits of using Design Thinking for learning experience design is that it enables divergence. (When I say \u2018divergence\u2019, I mean that we take a step back and open the space, in this case to generate insights around people\u2019s jobs and their goals and challenges). Using Design Thinking methods, such as What\u2019s on Your Radar and Think Aloud Testing, makes diverging efficient and effective when you bring in multiple stakeholders across many roles (e.g., sponsors, business leaders, and workers). Bringing all these people together helps create mutual understanding and visualize the bigger picture to help all stakeholders see, for example, that the two-day workshop that they originally had in mind is not going to do the trick. Sometimes it even shows that learning is not part of the solution! Interestingly, I\u2019ve found that sometimes you might need to use a \u2018traditional\u2019 method such as Cognitive Task Analysis to get the specific insights you need.\u00a0 Hence my recurring question, What is the next step I\u2019m taking? Sometimes you need to use instructional design methods in the Design Thinking approach to get what you need!<\/p>\n

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What about the Ideation phase? I find it challenging to decide when to collaborate and co-create with stakeholders and when to take \u2018a time out\u2019 and work on my own or with other learning design professionals. In both cases, there is a need to use solid evidence from learning sciences to make sense out of all the \u2018user output\u2019 and decide on next steps. (I often see ideas from stakeholders that might be fun or creative but will be detrimental for learning). Of course, keeping them involved during the ideation phase works for a \u2018mutual sense of ownership\u2019 and perhaps also helps them understand why certain design decisions are made. I\u2019m just not entirely sure yet what the most effective approach is.<\/p>\n

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This is what my workshop at OEB is about: how to find the balance between a Design Thinking approach and \u2018traditional\u2019 instructional design methodologies and evidence-informed learning design principles. I am looking forward to figuring it out through exploring real-life project examples with you!<\/p>\n

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Written by Mirjam Neelen<\/em><\/p>\n

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Mirjam Neelen<\/a> will facilitate a Knowledge Factory about How to Use Design Thinking Effectively in Learning Experience Design<\/em><\/a> on Friday, December 7 from 14:30 \u2013 15:30<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a learning design professional with 10+ years of experience, I have used many instructional design approaches. However, a year ago I moved to Accenture and joined a team called Learning Experience Design. Since then, when designing learning experiences, I suddenly keep asking myself, \u201cWhat is the next step?\u201d.   The \u2018thing\u2019 that shook things […]<\/p>\n

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