We will begin our first week with a review of the basics of instructional design, starting from the simple question: what does it mean for someone to learn something? Because people rarely retain facts, we will practice designing learning objectives targeting the types of abilities, actions, or attitudes that we want those taking our workshop to acquire. We’ll work together to make these as specific (and in some cases, measurable) as possible. We’ll also learn how to research what those taking our course need before designing.

Week 2-Cognitive Load, Clear Visuals, and Flipped Classrooms

In this second week we will learn ways of keeping the audience’s focus in a virtual environment. We’ll look at the problem of cognitive load: how our minds cannot hold too much in our working memory at once. Managing students’ cognitive load well generally means that teaching should be done in small increments, with time in between for students to try to implement what they have learned and work it into their long-term memory. We’ll explore the way that visuals can help with managing cognitive load and working memory, and learn a technique for testing just how much of our own lectures are necessary or memorable. Finally, we’ll consider the focus-related (and other) benefits of a “flipped classroom” where the first “download” of information happens at the students’ own pace, outside of class, and synchronous learning time is used for coaching, exercises, peer interaction, and feedback.

Week 3-Getting Exercises to Work - Flight Simulators, Witnessing, and More

This week we turn to the importance of exercises, which allow participants in workshops to take information presented to their short-term memory and embed it in their long-term memory and understanding via practice doing and teaching. We’ll look at exercises that help participants learn through doing, those that help them learn by teaching, those that help them work through a simulation of what it would be like to do an important activity, and exercises that help participants share vulnerabilities and recognise the need for learning in areas where they might otherwise experience psychological resistance. We’ll practice testing exercises within small groups, as it is only possible to know if an exercise will work by testing it. Next week, in smaller cohorts, we will do even more testing of exercises to get a handle on the best way of developing highly effective workshop exercises.

This week we look at how to build an arc within a workshop to keep energy high and land key points. We’ll learn key aspects of shaping a workshop, from creating the right expectations to taking the “temperature” of the group early on to signposting clearly throughout. We discuss how to test and refine virtual workshops after each run, from what to look for during the test to how to shift timings of a course with care. We look at common issues with virtual workshops, how to spot them when they occur, and how to fix them.

Finally, we will look at the many ways to help participants in our learning programmes sustain their learning long after they leave our classroom, watch our videos, or complete our modules - from building networks for participants to offering follow up sessions to helping participants change their environment and day-to-day habits.