Learning and Teaching Workshops

When I began as an Educational Designer in my current institution, the biggest revelation I carried through from my past experiences was that showcasing peer work can be much more motivating for staff than giving presentations or creating informational documents. Improvements were much more tangible when they were suggested by someone in the same position as them. Unfortunately, I found there were so few examples of good practice that showcasing educators just wasn’t an option. Yet. The focus in the faculty at the time was very much on ‘you need to do this’ and very little on ‘this is how we do it’. I knew I needed to do a lot of practical, hands-on groundwork to get staff working towards better practice, so I created a series of workshops that focused on the ‘how’.

I immediately felt a challenging combination of both anxiety and excitement. I missed teaching, and running workshops would be a step closer to the satisfaction I got when I saw those ‘ah-ha’ moments as an educator. The anxiety predominantly came from my lack of familiarity with the subject areas of the faculty, and I wasn’t familiar with many of the staff. I didn’t know how receptive they would be to PD that used active learning, given that the majority of PD in the faculty was lecture driven. I was also concerned about thoughts voiced by other Educational Designers in the institution, specifically that academics sometimes didn’t respect professional staff members and were reluctant to listen to their advice. I hadn’t experienced that yet, but it’s not to say it didn’t happen.

Designing the workshops: Bridging the gap with practicality

Putting my anxiety aside, developed a series of workshops targeted at the major gaps in knowledge in the faculty. I combined principles of scenario-based learning and active learning and created engaging experiences that facilitated deep understanding and transformative growth. I would start with a poorly developed example on the topic, designed in a way that highlighted specific areas I wanted to speak to. For example, I would create an assessment task that was aligned with a learning outcome that uses the verb ‘demonstrate’, but the assessment itself was a series of multiple choice questions that aren’t designed to assess a student’s ability to demonstrate a practical skill. Participants engaged in group discussions to analyse the problems in the examples I had set, reflecting on similar issues in their own units. I would then give feedback on the problem areas that were identified, give feedback to participants that came up with quality solutions, and offered further solutions and practical advice. In a sense, the workshops were designed as the reverse of what academics are familiar with in their own teaching. I started with the activity and no pre-class content, so the content was revealed in the debrief. This meant that the ‘answers’ were not given upfront as ‘content’, and the participants needed to work together and use their own strengths to learn, and the ‘content’ was wrapped in feedback in the debrief.

Developing a bank of workshops

Over the years, workshops have been introduced and retired as needs have changed. Predominantly workshops have focussed on two main categories. One category has focussed on improving assessment practices and has included workshops such as ‘Developing Rubrics’, ‘Giving Effective Feedback’, ‘Revising Assessment Tasks’, ‘Writing Learning Outcomes’, ‘Peer Assessment’, and ‘Writing Quality MCQs’. The second category has provided educators with practical strategies for enhancing the classroom, both virtual and physical, and has included workshops such as ‘Designing Learning Activities’, ‘Virtual Classroom’, ‘Online Discussion Forums’, and ‘Active Learning’. This has equipped educators with the skills to create engaging and purposeful learning experiences.

Driving positive change and building capability

These workshops became a catalyst for positive change, particularly during the unexpected challenges posed by COVID-19. I had already adapted the workshops to run online, ensuring continued support for our Malaysia campus. It was a gratifying experience to witness a surge of interest and basque in my ‘here’s one I prepared earlier’ moment when staff came to me seeking support.

The most valuable lesson I learnt from this experience is that no academic staff who ever attended my workshops were disrespectful. I have seen academic staff that don’t show respect, however; they don’t show respect to anyone, so this attitude has nothing to do with being a professional staff member. I found the opposite to be true. I have a growing number of staff who attend my workshops regularly, and seek my feedback when making impactful changes to their units. I found that there was a misconception that the educators ‘don’t want to do the work’ and in fact, I found many of them are highly motivated and engaged and are constantly seeking feedback, revising and improving their units.

Evidence of the impact

The workshops proved to be a valuable experience for educators seeking growth and practical insights. The feedback I received reflected the impact and effectiveness of the workshop sessions. Participants expressed their appreciation for the comprehensive nature of the workshops, with one attendee stating, ‘As a newcomer to teaching, the entire workshop was insightful.‘ Focusing on active learning has proven to be successful and the activities resonated well with participants. As one participant shared, ‘The live demonstrations and practice exercises allowed me to apply the concepts immediately.‘ My background in Creative Industries has allowed me to fine-tune my presentation and rapport-building skills, which often get highlighted in participant feedback. ‘Dana’s friendly and engaging presentation style made the workshops enjoyable’.