Human-centered design for tech-powered learning.
Learning Communities Project
Below, you will find the planning and implementation documents for my Learning Communities project, which focused on using wikis and was completed as my final project for LDT 527.
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Planning
Problem/Goal
We did not have any sort of learning community component within our program, nor did we have a way for students to share their knowledge with both current and future participants. This created a significant gap in the learning experience and limited opportunities for students to learn from one another. It also prevented students from developing an important professional skill: documenting and sharing knowledge in a way that others can use and build upon in the future.
Objective
Implement a wiki platform that would allow students to share knowledge gained throughout the program with both current and future students. The goal was to build a strong learning community where students feel supported, contribute to one another's success, and take ownership of their learning.
Stakeholders
MATTER Career Readiness Institute (MCRI) students, MCRI facilitators, Jamf Community Education Initiatives team.
Target Audience
MCRI students.
Execution
Design Process
With this project, I discovered a gap in my own program when I began learning about the importance of learning communities. While we had been very intentional about the tools we implemented and how they impacted our students, a wiki had never been a priority because we did not fully understand how beneficial it could be.
Through this project, I was able to demonstrate to my leadership team the value of implementing a wiki and show that it was much more than a repository for storing information. A wiki can help students learn, retain knowledge, and contribute to the learning of others. I also ensured that our students would have the freedom to design and organize the wiki however they wanted. I wanted them to take full ownership of the platform so that it would reflect their needs and priorities, rather than my assumptions about what those needs should be.
Reflection
This was a very unexpected project because I did not anticipate feeling so strongly about the need for a wiki that I would end up advocating for it to my leadership team. Being able to present research on how a wiki could benefit our students, along with a clear implementation plan, was instrumental in getting the project approved and put into place.
Seeing my students actively use the wiki and organically demonstrate how much it supports their learning and development—with very little oversight from me or others—made it clear that implementing a wiki was the right decision for our program.