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Professional Practice Action Plan – Service Design

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Service design

Stickdorn and Schneider (2011) describe service design thinking as an interdisciplinary approach that includes and connects various fields of activity. These fields of activity result in the design of systems, processes, products and experiences that benefit the end user (and the organisation). Service design is as an iterative process made up of four stages: exploration, creation, reflection and implementation, and are a very basic approach to structure a complex design process (Stickdorn and Schneider, 2011). Design Council (2019) describe a similar process of discover, define, develop and deliver, which is another way of working to confirm the problem definition and once to create the solution. There are also a large number of tools that can be used to conceptualise and develop ideas in each stage of the service design process. Stickdorn and Schneider (2011) specify five core principles of service design thinking: User-centred, where any (proposed) design is experienced from the user’s (learner) perspective. Co-creative, where users and associated stakeholders are involved in the exploration and design process. Sequencing, where service processes are deconstructed as touchpoints and user interactions over a period of time. Evidencing, where a user is made aware of an experience (intangible service) with something tangible. Holistic, where there’s an intent to understand and consider every aspect of the user’s context and service being designed. These principles, or at least some of these principles may be familiar to those who work in an educational context, where there’s been a pedagogical shift towards more student-centred, project-based and inquiry-based forms of learning activity, in which students whether individually or in groups e are expected to take greater control of, and responsibility for, their own learning (Beetham and Sharpe, 2013). While a single user-centred (student-centred) learning experience may not be strictly considered service design (because it’s missing the iterative process of exploration, creation, reflection and implementation) it does place them at the centre of the experience – this is a good thing. Does service design have a place in education, in all of its aspects? Sure it does. Although service design (and innovation) has its origins in manufacturing, management, business services (Carvalho and Goodyear, 2017) and more recently healthcare, social work and crime prevention, however, as identified in What’s service got to do with learning? and bemoaned by Carvalho and Goodyear (2017), service design has yet to be used in education to tackle the complex problem of designing services that integrate around the learner. This sentiment is echoed by Blomkvist, Vink and Wetter-Edman (2018), where there’s a pressing need arises to understand exactly what it is about design methods and their associated practices that catalyses service innovation. As noted on What’s service got to do with learning?, Deakin’s Cloud Campus is one example where service design has been used in education, and while it would be considered in the pejorative as student administration rather than core processes of learning (Carvalho and Goodyear, 2017) it does contribute to a student’s capacity and capability to learn. My hopes and dreams for applying service design thinking to my professional context would also be considered administrative, where my goal is to work through the four stage iterative process with my project team to refine reporting and course content updates to improve our digital learning experiences. Using the methods and tools of service design thinking by exploring (stakeholder maps, customer journey maps), creating and reflecting (idea generation, storyboarding, agile development, co-creation) and implementing (service blueprints, customer lifecycle maps), I’ll collaborate with the team to discover new perspectives on a (existing) service, visualise new ideas and concepts and then test them, and then implement the ideas to enhance our processes for producing digital learning which (hopefully) results in a better experience for learners (the ‘other’ users).

Reflective Professional Practice Plan

My context

If you would ask ten people what service design is, you would end up with eleven answers, at least (Stickdorn & Schneider, 2011). Interestingly, service design (practitioners) actively reject definition of their ‘approach’ (if not actively, are unable to provide a consistent or single definition), preferring to refer to it as a new way of thinking that combines different methods and tools from different disciplines. Perhaps, definitions are not so important or of concern when an ‘approach’ has core principles that guide a way of doing or thinking about something such as a problem, task or a digital learning experience. These principles are what interests me about service design. Because service design defies definition, I’m comfortable with how my definition of it might develop over time – more interestingly for me is how I might go about applying a service design approach to improve my work as much as possible.

From the course

One of the key concepts I’ve learned about service design so far (particularly from What’s service go to do with learning? in ‘Transforming digital learning’) is that there is a need for it in education and in digital learning, that is, if the need is to think about how you can design experiences for your intended audience / end user(s) that are useful, usable, effective and desirable. Another learning for me is that there is no common definition of service design (Stickdorn & Schneider, 2011), with Stickdown and Schneider (2011) defining service design as a way of thinking required to design services – a way of thinking that’s informed by five core principles. I see service design helping me with my practice by informing a new way of thinking, but also making available methods and tools to explore, create, reflect and implement digital learning.

Professional-self

Current (short-term goal)

I made the deposit. I hired. I fired. I did the inventory. I did ice cream scooping. The works (Rollins, 1994). My role in digital learning initiatives is to work with academics, educators and subject matter experts to design, develop and delivery digital learning experiences (manifested as short online courses / digital learning blasts / micro-learning). My role, like many others in the modern workplace, is flexible and broadly scoped to include additional duties such as project management, recruitment and management of project team personnel and reports, media production, project communications and marketing, and liaising with digital partners. A role with a broad scope is a good thing, and the broad scope is something that’s shared by others who also work in the area of digital learning in education. For example, in the May 2019 TELedvisors network webinar (will require login, but a sample from my personal notes have been placed in Appendix C), members from the TELedvisors community shared their unique perspectives and experiences of being a ‘learning technologist’, the role’s associated skills and practices, and how the role is perceived by different people and organisations. When thinking of the flexibility of my role, and the opportunities that it affords in relation to (improving our capacity and capability to create better digital learning experiences) my keen interest in service design, my goal is to adapt and apply service design principles to (an aspect of) at least one existing digital learning project (from end-to-end) during 2019, and then all new digital learning projects in 2020.

Future (long-term goal)

I’d like my future role to expand further from learning design / education design and production to service design with a focus on digital (learning experiences). Obviously there are challenges associated with this goal, and besides the ideas I’ve listed in ‘Areas for improvement’ and ‘Professional development’, additional challenges include ‘high-level organisational stuff’ such as classification of roles, project team personnel, hopes and dreams and direction of the organisation / portfolio / department, existing / available service design personnel or consultancies. Challenges aside, my goal is to incorporate and make visible an approach to service design that improves our digital learning offerings.

Areas for improvement

Current (short-term goal)

The strengths that I bring to the area of digital learning practice are in storyboarding and prototyping interactions and learning activities (which works best when collaborating with others in project team and subject matter experts / academics), as well as media production (copywriting, communications, script writing, audio production, video production and design). In the short-term, I’d like to make better use of these strengths by trialling, evaluating and then implementing more efficient design, development, delivery and evaluation processes, for example, adopting and co-opting the Google design sprint methodology to answer questions about the digital learning that we develop, our processes and possible directions we can take it, and most importantly test assumptions (Margolis, 2014). Ideally, I’d want to trial this with at least one digital learning project (as described in the ‘Current (short-term goal)’ section of ‘Professional self’.

Future (long-term goal)

In the long-term, I’d like to change and improve my approach to reflection, and become more of a reflective practitioner (Sletto, 2010) by formalising it and making it more part of our team production workflow for all of our digital learning offerings, and less of a happy accident. As I commented on Step 3.8 Models of reflection in education in Week 3 of EEE726.4 Evaluating digital learning practice, for our digital learning projects, we ask selected project members to prepare an end of project report/summary that adopts Gibbs’ reflective cycle. We find this model works for us because we entrust them with their professional expertise from phase (1) to phase (5), and then collaborate with them on the phase (6) action plan. In phase (6), we work with them to rate/rank proposed improvements/updates/edits in order of priority/urgency etc and when they’ll be actioned, for example, short, medium or long-term. We then use this as a tracking sheet of tasks to be assigned to the team to get done before the start of the next run. Furthermore, I’d also like to find out what users (learners) of the digital learning experiences that I build actually need (more of), ideally by carrying out user experience (UX) research. Right now, our design decisions for our digital learning experiences are informed by data but we never really have the opportunity to carry out research in the formal sense of defining a research objective choosing a research method and writing a research plan. I’d like to change that. While there are many resources (and consultants) available, the Research user experience (UX) – Digital Standards prepared by The State Government of Victoria will most likely be the resources that I’ll use to make a start. While learning how to carry out UX research by just doing it is probably the quickest (State Government of Victoria, 2019), I’d consider adding UX research training (either self-directed online or by attending workshop by an organisation like General Assembly) to my list of professional development, if possible. To inform my UX research, I’ll need to get better at working with data (generated from carrying out research and data generated by multiple runs of our short online courses) to inform our decision making. This means ‘Introductory data science, wrangling and visualisation’ is another area that I’d like to improve, and most likely, add to my ‘Professional development’. My hope is that all of this contributes to me becoming more like a T-shaped person (Hansen, 2010), as defined by IDEO CEO Tim Brown, where the person has two characteristics – a vertical characteristic (depth of skill that allows the person to contribute to the creative process) and a horizontal characteristic (disposition for collaboration across disciplines) that form a shape of the letter ‘T’.

Multi-disciplinary team

Current (short-term goal)

My digital learning team is incredibly small considering its output and increasing number of projects that are commencing and continuing run since the inception of the team around five years ago. While digital learning (meaning exclusively online) is an area of interest for the organisation, it’s of less interest than the on-campus learning experience. This explains my comment on Step 2.10 Your professional practice plan as outlined in the Current (short-term goal) section of ‘Multi-disciplinary team’ in my Reflective Professional Practice Plan (Appendix A), where I moaned that I’d need to beg, borrow or steal additional human resources at 0.8 time fraction from within my organisation to join my team during the next 6 months. In her reply to my comment, Lisa, course mentor for ‘Transforming digital learning’ mentioned alternatives or workarounds such as student placement or work integrated learning (WIL) as possible solutions to my predicament. These alternatives are promising, but are faced with the challenge of student availability that best fits our production schedule, which is largely indifferent to the on-campus semester experience, due dates, exam periods etc – these students are most to be our talent pool! My organisation’s definition of WIL extends to student-led and defined projects that feature interventions and input from industry, not students working for industry on projects. Another alternative, and the most likely to be approved, is casual labour.

Future (long-term goal)

My long-term goal is to build a permanent team dedicated to the production of digital learning. As mentioned in my ‘Areas for improvement’, I’d like to get much better at working with data (generated from carrying out research and data generated by multiple runs of our short online courses) to inform our decision making. I’d then use my newfound data science acumen to demonstrate and garner organisational support for additional human resources to support digital learning production going forward. Naturally, a full-time project team member would be preferred, but if that’s not possible, an alternative could be to seek a solid commitment from colleagues (with skill sets, knowledge and availability) within the department / portfolio or organisation to provide assistance to carry out specific tasks along the production pipeline. We schedule our production reasonable far in advance, which means we’d be able to relatively easily identify peak production / resource usage that would help communicate our needs and minimise interruptions to the colleague’s own production.

Professional development

Current (short-term goal)

Currently, my short-term goal is to complete my Master of Professional Practice (Digital Learning) within the next 18-24 months, but hopefully sooner! I’ve recently joined (and started lurking around) the TEL edvisors community of practice, which complements the ‘Ed designers community of practice’ and the recently formed ‘Learning analytics community of practice’ that’s active in my workplace, and that I’m a part of. Being part of these professional networks/communities (of practice) is a good thing, and something I’ll keep being a part of for the long-term.

Future (long-term goal)

To improve my future practice, I’d like to gain a minimum of six months work experience, mentoring or shadowing in the service design profession (focussing on digital) during the next 12 months. To guide my long-term goal, I’ll need to map it out. Effron (2018) describes the idea of creating your own ‘personal experience map’, where you list the experiences you want to acquire in the next two to five years to grow your career. You can make a start on your map once you’ve interviewed experts in your field. According to Effron (2018), interviewing experts in your field can help you understand which experiences (functional and management) can assist with building your competency – the interviews provide you with raw material to create your personal experience map. Experts in the field that I’d most like to interview and ask for insights would include specialists from organisations (outside of education) like Deloitte Digital, PwC digital services, KPMG Digital Consulting Services, Nous and SEEK.

Evaluation

Current (short-term goal)

Currently, we have our own in-house evaluation frameworks, for both the evaluation of the digital learning that’s been developed (like a developer checklist / quality assurance) and the experience of the learners (project team course summaries – during / after course run), and the experience of the project team (that’s an area for improvement). The experience of the project team is much like a postmortem, where we examine both what went right and what went wrong how often, and why (Shirinian, 2011). As mentioned in my comment on Step 2.9 Evaluating innovative practices, my goal is to review our current evaluation frameworks (in-house checklist derived from WCAG 2.0, feedback from digital education partner, academics and subject matter experts) and then compare and contrast against existing and emerging frameworks (for example, OSCQR Course Design Review and the WoVG Digital Standards Framework) and (adopt, adapt and then) apply to at least one digital learning project during the next 12 months.

Future (long-term goal)

In the long-term, I’ll continue to monitor and maintain the adopted digital learning framework to determine currency and relevance to digital learning projects during next 18 months. With this approach, I’d like to incorporate service design thinking and methodologies from Agile software development (I understand that we’re not making software, but we can still place the ‘user’ (learner / team member) at the centre of what we do), which privileges individuals and interactions over processes and tools, responding to change over following a plan and collaboration (Beck et al., 2009). Some service designers may argue that Agile development is considered a tool of service design, and it most likely true, but I wanted to make a clear distinction about what ‘things’ I’d like to use to achieve my long-term goal of evaluating my professional practice.

Reflecting on my feedback, and more

I found the peer feedback on my professional practice action plan to be reasonably helpful, particularly the recommendations on how I can improve the ‘investigation’ (and ‘reflection’, although reflection is part of this submission, not the previous) section by focussing on the user (of the service). In response to the recommendation, I included further detail on the methods and tools of service design that could be used to better understand my ‘users’. My peer feedback referenced the MUSIC model of academic motivation as an approach that I could use to help build my service. As my use of service design is to refine reporting and course content updates to improve our digital learning experiences, the MUSIC model isn’t the best fit for this context, and considering my users and the five principles of service design thinking that will inform my usage, the MUSIC models components of empowerment, usefulness, success, interest and caring are appropriately addressed/considered throughout the process. The feedback also suggested my non-reference hyperlinks to be included in the references section of my plan as they won’t be discoverable if action plan was a print-based experience. I value the suggestion, but because the hyperlinks were not citations and only examples to further illustrate an idea I won’t include them – the examples are still authentic or valid (as a print-based experience) and are not predicated on the hyperlink functioning.

References

This reference list both acknowledges and attributes the original authors and sources of information included in my Professional Practice Action Plan.

Beetham, H., & Sharpe, R. (Eds.). (2013). Rethinking pedagogy for a digital age: Designing and delivering e-learning. RoutledgeFalmer.

Beck, K., Cunningham, W., Thomas, D., Sutherland, J., Schwaber, K., Highsmith, J., Cockburn, A., … Martin., R., C. (2001) Manifesto for Agile Software Development. Retrieved from https://agilemanifesto.org/

Blomkvist, J., Vink, J., Wetter-Edman, K. (2018) Staging aesthetic disruption through design methods for service innovation. Design Studies, 55, 5 – 26.

Carvalho, L., Goodyear, P. (2018) Design, learning networks and service innovation. Design studies, 55, 27-53.

Design Council (2019) The Design Process: What is the Double Diamond? Retrieved from https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/design-process-what-double-diamond

Effron, M. (2018) A Simple Way to Map Out Your Career Ambitions. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2018/11/a-simple-way-to-map-out-your-career-ambitions

Margolis, M. (2014) The GV research sprint: a 4-day process for answering important startup questions. Retrieved from https://library.gv.com/the-gv-research-sprint-a-4-day-process-for-answering-important-startup-questions-97279b532b25

Hansen, M. (2010) IDEO CEO Tim Brown: T-Shaped Stars: The Backbone of IDEO’s Collaborative Culture. Retrieved from https://chiefexecutive.net/ideo-ceo-tim-brown-t-shaped-stars-the-backbone-of-ideoaes-collaborative-culture__trashed/

Rollins, H. (1994) Get in the van. Los Angeles: 2.13.61 [Publications]

Shirinian, A. (2011) Dissecting the postmortem: lessons learned from two years of game development self-reportage. Retrieved from https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/134679/dissecting_the_postmortem_lessons_.php

Sletto, B. (2010). Educating Reflective Practitioners: Learning to Embrace the Unexpected through Service Learning. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 29(4), 403–415. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X10362771

State Government of Victoria (2019) Research user experience (UX) – Digital Standards. Retrieved from https://www.vic.gov.au/research-user-experience-ux

Stickdorn, M., & Schneider, J. (2011). This is service design thinking: Basics-tools-cases. Amsterdam: BIS Publishers.

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Digital learning intervention plan for a 6 credit point postgraduate Mindfulness ‘Train-the-Trainer’ program

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Context and cohort

Mindfulness, in its simplest and most universal sense, is a mental discipline that involves training attention (Hassed, n.d). Mindfulness is also about intentionally paying attention to whatever you’re doing and what’s happening around you, which as a practice, can result in improvements to cognitive and academic performance, health and wellbeing and improved relationships. Deliberately paying attention is important, and as research by Sheline, Barch, Price, Rundle, Vaishnavi, Snyder, and Raichle (2009) and Broyd, Demanuele, Debener, Helps, James, and Sonuga-Barke (2009) suggests, when we’re not paying deliberate attention our brain switches to ‘Default Mode’ – a type of attention associated with poor cognitive functioning and impaired performance.

With growing evidence to support the efficacy of mindfulness interventions in improving cognitive and academic performance (Chan & Woollacott, 2007), health and wellbeing (Hofmann, Sawyer, Witt, & Oh, 2010) and improved relationships (Gambrel & Keeling, 2010), it’s not surprising that mindfulness is being explored by many education sectors to be part of their health and wellbeing programs. Indeed, these initiatives show promise, and as suggested by Zenner, Herrnleben-Kurz and Walach (2014), mindfulness-based interventions for children and youths are able to increase cognitive capacity of attending and learning.

So, how can a university better equip their students for the rigours of study and ensure they’re less stressed and performing at the best of their academic abilities? Mindfulness programs limited only to face-to-face workshops may impact the continued adoption of mindfulness practices (particularly if workshops require participants to travel or be in residence for a number of days, a retreat for example) – something that the affordances of digital may be able to counteract by providing greater flexibility and cost-effectiveness of delivering programs at scale. Already, there are a number of organisations (Center for Mindfulness, Openground), resources (www.mindfuled.org, www.mindfuleducation.org, Reachout) and digital tools (smilingmind, headspace, The Mindfulness App, Calm) available that share ideas and training opportunities for mindfulness programs as well as the development of a personal practice, but there are few digital solutions that directly support the development and capacity of teachers.

Teachers are probably the best placed to impart mindfulness practices to their students, and according to Zenner, Herrnleben-Kurz and Walach (2014), ideal for promoting mindfulness in their pupils through teaching mindfully, and through teaching mindfulness directly in diverse settings. An alternative to mindfulness-specific programs, would be to make mindfulness an essential component of a teachers unit of study, where practising teachers embed mindfulness as part of their teaching. To do this, they’ll need training.

My digital learning intervention plan describes the specifications for a 6 credit point postgraduate Mindfulness ‘Train-the-Trainer’ online program. Aimed solemnly at practising teachers in higher education, this AQF level 8 criteria program trains teachers how to embed mindfulness practices into their online teaching. This program is not designed for pre-service teachers, although pre-service teachers may benefit from the personal mindfulness practices in the program. This program could also be amended to suit other education cohorts as well as corporate and other professional contexts.

It’s also worth noting that any digital platforms, services, tools or apps mentioned in this digital learning intervention plan are not prescriptive, nor is the plan dependent on any one of these. Any platforms, services, tools or apps mentioned are for reference only, and for the purposes of this plan, it’s assumed that they, and all program content (including learning activities and assessments), meet all organisational requirements for data protection and privacy and the Level AA success criteria of W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.

Intended learning outcomes

The following learning outcomes (LOs) describe what the participant* should know and be able to do at the end of the Mindfulness ‘Train-the-Trainer’ program. By the end of the program, the participant should be able to:

  1. relate the history and origins, science and evidence, and underlying principles of mindfulness
  2. describe and demonstrate formal and informal mindfulness practices
  3. formulate appropriate mindfulness interventions to facilitate learning
  4. apply mindfulness practices to unique contexts, including stress, performance, communication, relationships and movement
  5. incorporate mindfulness practices and principles with learning theories and principles to embed mindfulness-based learning experiences.

*Please note, I’ve used the term ‘participant’ instead of learner / student to avoid potential confusion between the context of a learner / student in this online program and the future-state where the participant is teaching learners / students’ in their online program.

Placed within the ‘Relational’ level of the SOLO Taxonomy (Biggs & Collis, 1982), the learning outcome LO1 is critical given the participant’s eventual teaching context, where they’ll need to show a connection, benefit and value of undertaking mindfulness practices to their students (which also benefits the participant’s own understanding of mindfulness) and other stakeholders. The participant’s capacity to relate what it means to be mindful, the cost of unmindfulness, default mode and being able to present a case for being mindful is vital, particularly when faced with the challenge of changing preconceptions towards mindfulness. This is particularly useful when participants are required to justify the benefits any additional efforts of mindfulness practices to students and organisational stakeholders.

Placed within the ‘Multistructural’ level, LO2 prepares the participant to lead a variety of meditations / exercises (formal practice) and elaborate on the spheres of mindful practice as well as the attitudes of mindfulness and its qualities (informal practice). The participant’s capacity to model what it means to be mindful through the demonstration of formal practices is essential, as is the skill to lead students through a meditation that helps cultivate their own ongoing practice. Attitudes and qualities (curiosity, openness, non-reactivity, self-awareness), spheres of practice (mundane moments, leisure time, communicating, movement, working) also known as informal mindful practices, are also aspects of mindful the participant will need to master and demonstrate to their students – informal practices are equally important as they’re the majority of moments that make-up the day.

Placed within the ‘Extended Abstract’ level, LO3 readys the participant to create their own mindfulness interventions relevant to their students and teaching context. Context shape content, and the program participant’s understanding of how mindfulness interventions (which practices, and in what sequence etc) can be assembled in response to their specific teaching context is critical for student learning, not only the mindfulness practices but also the unit of study.

Placed within the ‘Relational’ level, LO4 charges the participant with skills for teaching students how to respond to the stress response, understand the cognitive aspects of stress and mindful stress reduction, which is critical in an educational setting. Of equal importance is performance, communication, relationships and movement. The program participant will be teaching students how to apply mindfulness practices to situations/approaches that contribute to impaired performance, including distraction, multi-tasking, apathy, mindsets and cognitive biases. Communication and relationships can also contribute to impaired performance and stress – with this learning outcome the participant will be able to teach students how to apply mindfulness practices to these contexts.

Placed within the ‘Multistructural’ level, LO5 equips the participant to better understand how students learn and how mindfulness-based learning experiences can be embedded in their teaching practice. As this program is designed for practising teachers, it’s likely the participant will have their own unique approach and preferences for learning theory and principles preferences that informs their existing teaching practice. While this is understandable, this learning outcome is predicated on learning in a digital age and how the affordances of technology can increase the availability of mindfulness-based experiences that can better equip students for the rigours of study and ensure they’re less stressed and performing at the best of their academic abilities.

Assessment

The Mindfulness ‘Train-the-Trainer’ program contains three summative assessment tasks.

Assessment task 1: Leading a meditation session

For this assessment task (AT), the participant is required to submit a recording of them leading a meditation session (maximum 10 minutes). The purpose of this assessment is for the participant to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in formal mindful practices and the application of mindfulness practices to unique contexts. This assessment reflects the participant’s eventual teaching context, where they’ll need to lead a meditation session within their digital offering and / or provide instruction and support around their student’s use of digital tools.

The meditation session must be based on the participant’s context and must include any additional information that may be needed by the audience prior to commencement of the session. As part of the submission, a transcript of the meditation used in the session must be provided. The submission format is flexible, meaning a video or audio recording of the participant leading the session is acceptable. If audio is submitted, supplementary photographs of the participant demonstrating the desired position / posture are required to provide an equivalent instructional experience. The video hosting service used to submit the recording is also flexible, where the participants can choose from a service that permits sharing of ‘Unlisted’ videos, for example Vimeo or YouTube.

To guide the participant’s submission, the following materials will be provided: expository information (assessment task brief / scope, how-to information, technical requirements, deadlines, academic integrity) including a worked example, assessment rubric, and references to related learning materials.

Format: Multimedia (Video, Audio, Photographs / Images, Written)

Word count: Determined by duration of meditation (if 10 minutes, roughly 1,000 to 2,00 words)

Weight (%total mark): 20%

This assessment task aligns with a number of key elements (1, 2, 3, 7 and 9) from a model of authentic learning (Herrington, Thomas & Oliver, 2010) and maps to LO2 and LO4. Refer to Appendix A for the assessment task rubric.

Assessment task 2 – Implementation plan for a mindfulness intervention

For this assessment task, the participant is required to submit an implementation plan for a mindfulness intervention in their teaching context. The purpose of this assessment is for the participant to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in formulating mindfulness interventions to facilitate learning in their specific context. This assessment reflects the participant’s eventual teaching context, where they’ll need to plan, explain and advocate for the mindfulness intervention to be included as part of their teaching. The resulting plan could also potentially be used to inform similar interventions carried out by peers, or even elsewhere within the organisation.

The participant’s plan will need to describe the teaching context, goals and objectives, the resource implications (personnel, budget, tools, equipment and technology, facilities), schedule, management and reporting, any risks (of implementing or not implementing the mindfulness intervention), and associated contingencies.

Like Assessment task 1, this assessment task will provide expository information including a worked example, assessment rubric, references to related learning materials within the program will also be included to guide the participant’s assessment submission.

Format: Written

Word count: 1500

Weight (%total mark): 30%

This assessment task aligns with a number of key elements (1, 2, 3, 7 and 9) from a model of authentic learning (Herrington, Thomas & Oliver, 2010) and maps to LO2, LO3 and LO4. Refer to Appendix B for the assessment task rubric.

Assessment task 3 – Mindfulness intervention business case

For this assessment task, the participant is required to submit a business case for a mindfulness intervention in their teaching context. Building on AT2, the purpose of the assessment is for the participant to demonstrate their reasoning for initiating a mindfulness intervention in their specific learning context and to provide stakeholders with information they need to make a decision. This assessment reflects the participant’s eventual teaching context, where they’ll need to communicate the strategic, economic, commercial, financial and management ‘cases’ of the mindfulness intervention to stakeholders, who are most likely responsible for approving and resourcing the intervention.

The business case must contain an executive summary, finance, project definition, project organisation section (Workfront, 2019) and must provide a clear justification for the intervention on the basis of its expected benefit to students and the organisation.

Like previous assessment tasks, this assessment will provide expository information to guide the assessment submission.

Format: Written

Word count: 2500

Weight (%total mark): 50%

This assessment task aligns with a number of key elements (1, 2, 3, 7 and 9) from a model of authentic learning (Herrington, Thomas & Oliver, 2010) and maps to LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5. Refer to Appendix C for assessment task rubric.

Learning activities

For this program, it’s assumed that all learning activities are inherently social, where participants, as described by Laurillard (2012), learn through peer discussion. Participants can share their thoughts on prescribed discussions, provide their own comments and respond to others, reflect on what they’ve learned, and check their understanding with a quiz. It’s also assumed that participants can engage with content and be provided with ‘mentoring’ from highly responsive members of the course team on the platform, and elicit extrinsic feedback from the lead educators on their activity (which is then provided via email and bespoke summary videos).

Learning activity – What do you know about mindfulness?

For this learning activity, participants need to share what they know about mindfulness with other participants, watch a video featuring mindfulness experts introducing mindfulness and then reflect on any ideas or concepts presented in the video that are new, meaningful or challenge their existing assumptions of mindfulness and mindfulness practices. Participants then share their personal reflection, list ideas or concepts important to them and then briefly explain how these ideas or concepts could be integrated or change their existing teaching practice. Participants then select one idea or concept and then elaborate on how they’re going to practise it / apply it outside of the online program and to their teaching context.

This learning activity adopts the 4-A Model, where participants anchor the content within their experience, add new information, apply the content in a new way or to a new situation and then decide how they will use this learning in the future (Goetzman, 2012). The activity aligns with all nine elements from a model of authentic learning (Herrington, Thomas & Oliver, 2010) and also maps to LO1, LO3, LO4, LO5 and assessment task (AT) 2 and AT3.

For a mockup of the learning activity, please refer to Appendix D.

Learning activity – Out of the chair and into your life!

For this learning activity, participants need to share what they know about formal and informal mindfulness practice and watch a video featuring experts describing each practice, its application, differences, strategies and exercises and digital tools that can help increase an awareness of mindful development. Participants then reflect on any ideas, concepts or digital tools presented in the video that are new, already aware of or are meaningful and contribute to their development. Then, participants share their reflection, explaining how they could apply formal and informal mindfulness practices to teaching context. Participants then share the digital tools they’ve chosen to help support their mindful development and help track their progress.

This learning activity adopts the 4-A Model (Goetzman, 2012) and aligns with all nine elements from a model of authentic learning (Herrington, Thomas & Oliver, 2010). It also maps to LO2, LO3, LO4 and AT1 and AT2.

For a mockup of the learning activity, please refer to please refer to Appendix E, Appendix F and Appendix G.

Learning activity – Flip the script

For this learning activity, participants need to identify an aspect from their teaching context that would benefit from a mindfulness intervention, prepare a script for meditation that benefits the identified aspect and then share it with other participants for review and feedback. After receiving feedback on their work, the participant needs to reflect on any amendments they would improve their script. As part of the learning activity, the participant will also need to provide feedback on a script submitted by at least one other participant.

This learning activity aligns with all nine elements from a model of authentic learning (Herrington, Thomas & Oliver, 2010) and maps to LO2, LO3, LO4, LO5 and AT1, AT2 and AT3.

For a mockup of the learning activity, please refer to Appendix H.

Relevance

My approach outlined in the digital learning intervention supports the learning activities and assessments, and meets the learning outcomes and needs of the participants by the very nature of being digital. Being digital is a direct response to the limited availability or exclusivity of mindfulness training (that’s traditionally been face-to-face / workshop based). Being digital means the program is immediately more accessible to prospective participants, it can operate at scale and seamlessly incorporate existing and emerging digital services and tools, potentially from other partners / providers. Being digital also means that participants can collaboratively construct knowledge (for example, through the creation of scripts, meditations etc), which is an efficiency for the program participant, where in their eventual teaching context they’ll need to formulate (or at least clearly articulate to developers and designers) their own mindfulness learning experiences.

References

This reference list both acknowledges and attributes the original authors and sources of information included in this digital intervention learning plan.

Assessment Design Decisions (n.d.). Assessment Design Framework. Retrieved from http://www.assessmentdecisions.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Appendix-A-the-Assessment-Design-Decisions-Framework.pdf

Biggs, J.B., & Collis, K., F. (1982). Evaluating the quality of learning : the SOLO taxonomy (structure of the observed learning outcome). Academic Press, New York

Broyd, S.J., Demanuele, C., Debener, S., Helps, S.K., James, C.J., & Sonuga-Barke, E.J. (2009). Default-mode brain dysfunction in mental disorders: a systematic review. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 33(3), 279-296.

Chan, D., & Woollacott, M. (2007). Effects of level of meditation experience on attentional focus: is the efficiency of executive or orientation networks improved?. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 13(6), 651-658.

Gambrel, L.E., & Keeling, M.L. (2010). Relational aspects of mindfulness: Implications for the practice of marriage and family therapy. Contemporary Family Therapy, 32(4), 412-426.

Goetzman, D., M. (2012) Dialogue Education Step by Step: A Guide for Designing Exceptional Learning Events. Global Learning Partners, Inc.

Hassed, C. (n.d.). The Health Benefits of Meditation and Being Mindful. Retrieved from https://www.monash.edu/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/694192/The-health-benefits-of-meditation-and-being-mindful.pdf

Herrington, J., Thomas, C., Oliver, R. (2010). A Guide to Authentic e-Learning. New York and London: Routledge.

Hofmann, S., G., Sawyer, A., T., Witt, A., A., & Oh, D. (2010). The effect of mindfulness-based therapy on anxiety and depression: A meta-analytic review. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 78(2), 169.

Laurillard, D. (2012). Teaching as a design science: Building pedagogical patterns for learning and technology. Routledge: London.

Ramsburg, J., Youmans, R. (2013). Meditation in the Higher-Education Classroom: Meditation Training Improves Student Knowledge Retention during Lectures. Mindfulness. 5. 10.1007/s12671-013-0199-5.

Sheline, Y. I., Barch, D. M., Price, J. L., Rundle, M. M., Vaishnavi, S. N., Snyder, A. Z., … & Raichle, M. E. (2009). The default mode network and self-referential processes in depression. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(6), 1942-1947.

World Wide Web Consortium. (2018) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. Retrieved from https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/

Workfront. (2019). How to Write a Business Case ― 4 Steps to a Perfect Business Case Template. Retrieved from https://www.workfront.com/blog/how-to-write-a-business-case-4-steps-to-a-perfect-business-case-template#thebusinesscasetemplate

Zenner, C., Herrnleben-Kurz, S., Walach, H., (2014). Mindfulness-based interventions in schools—a systematic review and meta-analysis. Retrieved from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00603/full

Appendix A

Rubric for ‘Assessment task 1: Leading a meditation session’.

Criteria Excellent (HD) Very good (D) Good (C) Satisfactory (P) Unsatisfactory (F)

Introducing the practice

Explanation of the formal mindfulness practice (25%)

 Explanation of formal mindfulness practice is thorough and includes highly detailed information on how the practice applies to the unique context. Explanation of the formal mindfulness practice is very clear and provides a detailed description of how the practice applies to the unique context. Explanation of the formal mindfulness practice is clear and provides a reasonable description of how the practice applies to the unique context. Explanation of the formal mindfulness practice is rudimentary and provides a brief description of how the practice applies to the unique context. Explanation of formal mindfulness practice is unclear and / or not shown. There is no information given to how the practice applies to the unique context.

Preparation and position

Demonstration of seating / position and relevant preparatory information (25%)

 Seating / position is clearly demonstrated and of exceptional standard. Highly detailed preparatory information has been included. Seating / position is clearly shown. Detailed preparatory information has been included. Seating / position is shown. Preparatory information of reasonable quality has been included. Seating / position is shown. Some preparatory information has been included, but lacks detail. Seating / position is unclear and/or not shown. Preparatory information has not been included.

Guiding the practice

Effective instruction and guidance (25%)

 Instruction and guidance throughout practice is detailed and sequential. Highly detailed debrief/enquiry process has been included. Instruction and guidance throughout practice is very clear and sequential. Detailed debrief/enquiry process has been included. Instruction and guidance throughout practice is clear and sequential. debrief/enquiry process has been included. Instruction and guidance throughout practice is provided. A debrief/enquiry process has been included, but lacks detail. Instruction and guidance throughout practice is unclear, nonsequential and/or not provided.

Debrief/enquiry process has not been included.

Challenges and difficulties

Description of challenges and and difficulties associated with the mindfulness practice (25%)

 Description is extremely thorough and concludes with highly detailed information on management / solutions to challenges. Description of challenges are clearly described and detailed solutions or approaches to managing the challenges have been provided. Description of challenges is clear and possible solutions or approaches to managing the challenges have been provided. Description of challenges is provided. Solutions or approaches to managing challenges have been provided, but lacks depth and detail. Description is unclear and/or not provided. Solutions or approaches to managing challenges in the future are not provided.

Appendix B

Rubric for ‘Assessment task 2 – Implementation plan for a mindfulness intervention’.

Criteria Excellent (HD) Very good (D) Good (C) Satisfactory (P) Unsatisfactory (F)

Background

Learning context, identified need (15%)

Learning context is highly detailed and defined, and need for mindfulness intervention in cohort is clearly articulated. Learning context is detailed and need for intervention has been articulated. Cohort not identified Learning context is detailed. Need for mindfulness intervention has been identified, but lacking detail. Learning context is provided. Need for mindfulness intervention has been identified. Learning context is unclear and / or not shown. Need for intervention not shown.

Goals and objectives

Goals and objectives of intervention and intended outcomes (15%)

 Goals and objectives are clearly defined. Intended outcomes are clearly articulated and measurable. Goals and objectives are defined. Intended outcomes have been included, but are not measurable. Goals and objectives are defined. Intended outcomes included, but measurement strategies unclear. Goals, objectives and intended outcomes have been listed. Goals and objectives unclear. Intended outcomes not shown.

Resource implications

Budget, tools, equipment, technology and personnel (15%)

Highly detailed and comprehensive list of resources, with detailed explanation of digital tools / services. Detailed list of required resources, and mentions digital tools / services. Detailed list of required resources. Digital tools / services not mentioned. Incomplete list resources shown, but lacks detail. Required resources not shown.

Schedule

Timeline, schedule of events, duration (15%)

 Highly detailed schedule, describes in detail ‘peak periods’ and duration for cohort / events. Detailed schedule and timeline. ‘Peak periods’ for cohort listed. Detailed schedule of events and timeline. Schedule shown, but the timeline is unclear. Schedule not shown.

Management and reporting

How the project will be managed, reported and reviewed (15%)

 Highly detailed explanation of how the project will be managed, reported and reviewed. Detailed explanation of how the project will be managed, reported and reviewed. Some explanation of how the project will be managed, reported and reviewed. Unclear explanation of how the project will be managed, reported and reviewed. Management and reporting not provided.

Evaluation

Strategies for measuring success (15%)

Highly detailed metrics, milestones and performance measures linked to goals, objectives and reporting. Detailed metrics, milestones and performance measures. Metrics, milestones and performance measures have been listed. Metrics and milestones have been listed but performance measures are unclear. Strategies not provided.

Risks and contingencies

Description of risks to intervention and alternative actions (5%)

 Highly detailed description of associated risks and comprehensive contingency plan. Detailed description of associated risks. Contingency planning has limited scope. Detailed description of associated risks. Contingency planning is unclear. Associated risks and a contingency plan has been listed. Associated risks and contingency plans not provided.

Expression and grammar

Scholarly, succinct with correct spelling, grammar and punctuation (5%)

 Writing style is exceptional, scholarly and succinct that’s free from spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. Writing style is scholarly, free from spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. Writing style is scholarly, but wordy. Free from spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. Writing is scholarly and wordy. Contains some grammatical, punctuation and spelling errors. Writing is unscholarly. Many grammatical, punctuation and spelling errors.

Appendix C

Rubric for ‘Assessment task 3 – Mindfulness intervention business case’.

Criteria Excellent (HD) Very good (D) Good (C) Satisfactory (P) Unsatisfactory (F)

Executive summary

Summarises business case (5%)

 Summary of business case is thorough and succinctly conveys critical information about the mindfulness intervention. Summary of business case is very clear provides information about the intervention. Summary of business case is clear and provides information about the intervention. Summary of business case is rudimentary and lacks detail. Summary of business case is unclear or not provided.

Finance

Conveys financial implications (5%)

 Describes in detail all financial implications for intervention, comparisons of intervention costs against benefits and all associated costs. Lists all financial implications for intervention, comparisons of intervention costs against benefits and all associated costs. Lists all financial implications for intervention, comparisons of intervention costs against benefits and some associated costs. Lists some financial implications for intervention, comparisons of intervention costs against benefits and some associated costs. All financial implications unclear or not provided.

Project definition

Explains the ‘why’, ‘what’ and ‘how’ (20%)

 Highly detailed description of background, objectives, benefits and limitations, scope, business interests and associated risks. Very clear description of background, objectives, benefits and limitations, scope, business interests and associated risks. Clear description of background, objectives, benefits and limitations, scope, business interests and associated risks. Limited description of background, objectives, benefits and limitations, scope, business interests and associated risks. The ‘why’, ‘what’ and ‘how’ is unclear or not provided.

Project organisation

Describes how intervention will be set up (10%)

 Highly detailed and accurate description of how the intervention is linked to organisational governance framework. Clearly defined reporting measures. Detailed and accurate description of linkage to organisational governance framework. Clearly defined reporting measures. Accurate description of linkage to organisational governance framework. Defined reporting measures. Limited description of linkage to organisational governance framework. Some reporting measures provided. Linkages to established organisational governance framework or reporting measures not provided.

Strategic case

A case for change that fits strategic objectives of the organisation (10%)

 Highly compelling case that meets all strategic objectives of the organisation. Compelling case that meets most strategic objectives of the organisation. Case meets some strategic objectives of the organisation. Case meets few strategic objectives of the organisation. No strategic objectives provided.

Economic case

Economic value (10%)

 Case demonstrates incredibly high economic value to the organisation. Case demonstrates some economic value to the organisation. Case demonstrates low economic value to the organisation. Economic value to organisation unclear. Economic value not shown.

Commercial case

Commercial value and viability (10%)

 Case demonstrates high commercial value and viability. Case demonstrates some commercial value and viability. Case demonstrates little or low commercial value and viability. Commercial value and viability unclear. Commercial value and viability of intervention not shown.

Financial case

Financial investment is affordable (10%)

 Case clearly demonstrates affordability of intervention, and cost of not carrying out intervention. Case demonstrates affordability of intervention, and cost of not carrying out intervention. Case provides financial information, with limited affordability and cost of not carrying out intervention. Case provides some financial information, but affordability of intervention and cost of not carrying out intervention is unclear. Financial case is not provided.

Management case

Input from stakeholders is achievable (10%)

 Presents highly detailed and accurate description of stakeholders and their level of input. Clear description of stakeholders and their level of input. Some stakeholders and their level of input provided. Some stakeholder information and level of input provided, but unclear. No stakeholder information was provided.

Presentation, expression and grammar

Structure and formatting of business case. Scholarly, succinct with correct spelling, grammar and punctuation (10%)

 Structure and format is accurate. Writing style is exceptional, scholarly and succinct that’s free from spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. Structure and format is accurate. Writing style is scholarly, free from spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. Structure and format partially adopted. Writing style is scholarly, but wordy. Free from spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. Structure and format partially adopted with errors. Writing scholarly and wordy. Contains some grammatical, punctuation and spelling errors. Structure and format not present. Writing unscholarly. Many grammatical, punctuation and spelling errors.

Appendix D

Mockup of the ‘What do you know about mindfulness?’ learning activity as a digital experience.

Watch Associate Professor Henry Smyth-Jones and Dr Ingrid Magnusson provide an overview of mindfulness, its history and origins, its practices and the emerging science and evidence on this area.

As you’re watching, consider the evidence and examples of mindfulness and its application that are being presented.

Talk about it

Within the Comments, share with other learners your thoughts on one or more of the following talking points:

  • Although you might, we don’t assume you have had any prior experience with mindfulness or its applications. Of the ideas presented in the video, which ones are new to you or challenge your existing ideas of mindfulness, its practices and application?
  • Which ideas, science evidence or examples of the application of mindfulness do you find most meaningful to you and your professional teaching practice, and what are some ways you could apply or integrate them into your teaching?

Also consider reading and commenting on contributions made by other learners or following learners with similar interests as you. You can also ‘Like’ comments or follow other learners throughout the course.

Act on it

Choose an idea or concept that you found most meaningful, and then starting this week, act on it by finding out more about how others are applying the idea or concept to their professional practice (not necessarily in the field of education). For example, you may like to investigate how mindfulness is being introduced into sporting codes, business/corporate environments or in creative applications.

Throughout the week carry out your investigation, and then at the end of the week, return to this step then share what you’ve found out in the Comments.

If you’d like to find out more about the research and current thinking in this area, consider exploring the links in the See also section of this step. There, you’ll also find links to more scholarly articles on mindfulness and its effects on wellbeing from peer reviewed journals. We hope you find them useful.

Appendix E

Mockup of the ‘Out of the chair and into your life!’ learning activity as a digital experience.

Watch Professor Joni Alferson and Associate Professor Mitch Murray discuss the differences between informal and formal mindfulness practices, their application and tools that are available, and more.

As you’re watching, consider which practices you could apply to your teaching context and the challenges associated with doing so.

Talk about it

Within the Comments, share with other learners your thoughts on one or more of the following talking points:

  • Of the informal and formal mindfulness practices presented in the video, which ones do you think are most relevant to your professional practice?
  • Which informal and formal mindfulness practices would you like to try and how might you go about establishing your own mindfulness practice?

Also consider reading and commenting on contributions made by other learners or following learners with similar interests as you. You can also ‘Like’ comments or follow other learners throughout the course.

Act on it

Choose a teaching context or situation where you’d like to me more mindful, and then starting this week, act on it by practising mindfulness. For example, you may want to be more mindful at work or in your studies, or even make a very conscious effort to avoid unhelpful multi-tasking, or not to be drawn into the distractions around you so you can focus on a task of greatest importance to you.

Play the meditations available in this course or use apps such as Smiling Mind or Headspace. Be sure to track your progress with a mindfulness practice record, which is available in a print friendly or digital format.

Remember, your practice record is a valuable means of looking back over these changes, reflecting where you have come from and where you want to go to.

Appendix F

Mockup of a print friendly mindfulness practice record template (Can be filled out electronically) for the ‘What do you know about mindfulness?’ learning activity.

Day Formal mindfulness practice Informal mindfulness practice Mindfulness practised in other ways
Sample entry Conducted 10 minute body scan. Noticed tension in my body and was able to let it go. Felt more relaxed by the end. Listened to birdsong on walk to work. Such a nice way to start the day, and noticed that I was calmer and more present at work. Turned off notifications on my phone/Flight mode to stop myself from being distracted from priority tasks.
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Appendix G

Screen capture of daily mindfulness practice record included for reference only. Functional mindfulness practice record can be accessed from https://forms.gle/Jd5ayyBccTk2LTMX8

Appendix H

Mockup of the ‘Flip the script’ learning activity as a digital experience.

It’s time to bring together what you know about formal mindfulness practice and its application by writing your own script for a 5 minute meditation that would benefit an aspect of your teaching context (stress, performance, communication and relationships etc).

After you submit your script, you will then be asked to read and comment on a submission by another program participant.

What you need to do

Choose an aspect from your teaching context (stress, performance, communication and relationships etc) that would benefit from a mindfulness intervention. Your task is to write a meditation script for the teaching context, and explain its usage. Your script will have three parts.

  1. Write an introduction by briefly describing the meditation and how it complements the context (No more than 100 words).
  2. Write the meditation script (No more than 400 words). Remember, gently lead the listener through the meditation being sure to clearly describe what they’re to do or the sensations they may feel.
  3. Write a debrief, briefly describing what the listener is to do next and how they can continue to practise the meditation (No more than 100 words).

These three sections match the guidelines that will be used by other learners to review and provide feedback.

Giving effective feedback

Once you have submitted your script, you will be invited to give feedback on the work submitted by another learner. In other words, a peer review.

Constructive feedback, and the process of reflecting on the feedback you receive on your own script, are both very powerful learning opportunities, and we hope that you give and receive feedback in the spirit of creating a supportive learning environment. Here are some tips on how to give the other learner effective feedback on their work:

  • Make sure that the tone of your feedback is always constructive. There is no place in this peer review process for feedback that is negative, disrespectful or derogatory.
  • Make sure that your feedback addresses the three criteria set for the task: introduction, the meditation itself, and the debrief. If you are making suggestions, make sure they are clear, and align with one of these criteria.
  • Emphasise the positives of what your peer submitted. Look for things they did well.
  • Remember the context of this task. The task is to write a script for a 5 minute meditation that would benefit an aspect of your teaching context. Therefore, please make sure your comments and suggestions are appropriate for this task.

Reviewing the work of another learner

First read through the piece without making any notes or comments. Then read through a second time, taking the time to consider each point that is made.

Using the guidelines provided, write brief comments that provide constructive feedback to the author. Point out anything that you found particularly interesting, what you found challenging and what you learnt.

Before you submit your review, please read through again so that you can add anything you’ve missed and ensure that your comments are easy to understand. The more reviews you can do, the more you help others and learn from their experiences.