Step 1: Understanding the Challenge
1. Getting started
The aim of this week is to discuss the initial steps in the Design Thinking process that are primarily addressing the identification of the most important challenges, and to go into research to better understand them. This week’s content encompasses the first 2 steps of the publication Design Thinking for Educators by IDEO, namely the Discovery and the Interpretation. These steps will be presented in depth later in this section.
Before getting to this, it may be useful to discuss some of the peculiarities of adult basic skills programs that have significant impact on the design process.
1.1. The nature of basic skills provision
The most central policy addressing adult basic skills is called the Upskilling Pathways. Its core is the Council Recommendation adopted in 2016. It promotes a systemic approach to putting basic skills provision in place in Member States through implementing three steps i.e. skills assessment; tailored learning offer; and validation of prior learning outcomes to adult learners. The Upskilling Pathways presents an approach that is rather complex and requires a wide cooperation among different sectors (e.g., education and training, employment, social).
In this section, some key characteristics of adult basic skills programs are presented. In the following video a narrative, learner-centred approach is presented that describes the importance of taking the individual at the centre of learning due to their very own and special circumstances and experiences from the past. The Design Thinking process follows this approach and allows for starting from the challenge! Watch this short video to have an overall introduction to the main challenges in adult basic skills provision.
Source: European Commission
Individualised learning
One of the main features of successful adult basic skills programs is the focus on the individual needs and preferences of the learner. “There is no one-size-fits-all; employed, unemployed and inactive people and the many different sub-groups all have specific needs” – says the text of the Recommendation on Upskilling pathways (2016). The need for designing learning specifically for the individual is essential for many reasons. Adults with less developed basic skills tend to have bad experiences with learning and might have dropped out of the education system at different stages resulting in different competence sets that are very hard to address by a standardised curriculum exclusively. Hence, one key success factor to basic skills programs is about “learning opportunities that are specifically tailored to beneficiaries' individual learning needs, as identified by the skills assessment, and informed by intelligence on labour market opportunities” (Recommendation on Upskilling pathways, 2016).
Flexibility
The video introduction in the introduction on Upskilling Pathways show the importance of personal narratives, individual differences not only in adults’ skills, but also in the life contexts and situations. “The Recommendation underlines that the offer of learning should be flexible as well as of high quality. Offering suitable learning pathways to adults depends on the flexibility of the system and how it enables adults to combine learning with work or a busy family life. (…) Distance and Web-based learning also offer flexibility to the learners in terms of when and where they learn. (...) To facilitate the tailoring of learning to individual needs, in particular by giving people the opportunity to achieve the learning they need to fill gaps in their existing knowledge, without completing an entire programme, the programmes themselves must be designed in a flexible way. They can be made up of building blocks towards the desired outcome that can be studied as a whole or in part”. (Taking stock report on Upskilling Pathways 2019, p 15).
Recognition of prior experience(s)
The focus on individualised and flexible learning shed light on the need for being aware of what learners already know, have experience with. Hence, upskilling programs should, where possible, also provide chance for learners to recognise, and validate their prior learning (or working) experiences. The validation of prior learning (that can take the forms of identification, documentation, assessment and certification), “includes possibilities for unemployed people or those at risk of unemployment to undergo a ‘skills audit’ aimed at identifying their knowledge, skills and competences”, which is also an integral element in the three-step approach of the Upskilling pathways (Recommendation on Upskilling pathways 2016, p. C 484/3). Digital badges and certificates can also be the means for the recognition of acquired skills. The European Commission’s working on a common approach to micro-credentials to help stakeholders in training and employment use these tools in a transparent way in the EU. This can further ensure flexibility, individualisation and access to learning.
Contextualisation
Last but not least, outreach success and completion rates in adult basic skills courses greatly depend on the extent to which learning content and environment can consider the learners’ lives. “Relevance and contextualisation are essential principles in adult learning. If the individual adult learners understand how newly acquired information can benefit them, they are more likely to retain it and to be more motivated for further learning” – as Graciela Sbertoli, Secretary-General of EBSN puts it in a recent EPALE blog post. Read her piece to learn more about the need for contextualised learning settings in adult basic skills provision.
1.2. Strengthening resilience with basic skills training
Making citizens and societies more resilient to unexpected challenges and allowing them to become more prepared to adapt quickly to fast changing circumstances are of key importance. General experience and the thematic focus of the European Skills Agenda reflect the need for investing in skills and in important areas of people’s lives such as their health, work, finances and social fairness.
Without the necessary basic skills, participating in society is hindered. Take a look at the European Commission’s infographic leaflet to find more details on how basic skills training can improve life chances: https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=1224&moreDocuments=yes
In the next section, some initial design steps will be presented that can serve as a guiding thread to planning basic skills processes. These steps involve joint planning, teamwork, and a close investigation on what the issue is presented to be. These initial steps can be used as a tool to make the first couple steps in designing basic skills courses that are centred around learners’ needs and their own context.
2. Designing initial steps
Design Thinking for Educators provides great tools to help practitioners, heads of instruction to think about solutions to existing challenges at hand. Therefore, a few stages and design steps are presented here. Read them through and try to reflect on how these steps could be applied to your context, institution! At the end of this week’s materials (i.e. Design Thinking Activities), you will have the chance to put some of these steps into practice!
2.1. Review the Challenge
IDEO’s Design Thinking for Educators (p. 26) proposes 4 steps through which educators can de- and re-fine the challenge ahead.
Collect thoughts
This stage is about collecting ideas, main considerations regarding the design challenge, and trying to generalise why people would find the topic you deal with relevant and useful. The main scope is designing basic skills programs that could strengthen resilience of adults. It may be useful to think through the following points at this stage:
- What is the main challenge to my target group?
- How could the issue be put into objectives?
Review constraints
It is useful to make a list of potential limitations, constraints that can impact the successful implementation of the design product i.e., the basic skills training program. Some key considerations at this stage could be:
- Are there any obstacles in the human resources for designers, trainers or adult learners that are already visible?
- What are the limitations/potentials in the financial capacities?
Reframe challenge
If necessary, it is advisable to re-fine the scope of your challenge(s), based on the considerations that were collected in the earlier phase. Here are some points for reflection:
- Do the limitations / opportunities mapped earlier require the design team to change the scope of the challenge and the design product itself?
- Did the design team manage to explore all the risk factors?
Create a visible reminder
It may prove helpful to visualise the challenge so that everyone in the design team can see them through the process and come back to it for further consultations. Some examples could be:
- mindmaps
- posters
- list of risks / potentials
2.2. Define your Target Group
Understanding the main motivations and needs of adult learners is key to designing basic skills programs. At this stage, it is suggested to think about the individuals and the characteristics of the target group who will be the beneficiaries of the design product.
List immediate contacts
Initially designers could think of potential circles of people in their reach who can be in the need for a design solution (e.g., new training program, auxiliary tools).
Think more broadly
At this phase, designers may add other circles of people from the wider network of their own that could be relevant to the challenge(s) at hand.
Build an overview
Looking into the background and potential relationship of people who were mentioned before is useful to get a clear picture of the target group and their main motivations, doubts, and potential challenges. Designers can create a visual overview of the main target group and their relationship toward the topics that the design team aims to address.
Create a visible reminder
The visualisation should be accessible to all those working on the design product. The target group’s needs, and potentials could be illustrated along with some key considerations unearthed before during this step.
2.3. Learn from Practice
In order to gain inspiration for the design product, it can be a good idea to look at how others with similar challenges and potentials went about the design process. In this online course, two case studies will be presented with a specific focus on typical initial steps in upskilling programs targeting adults i.e., skills assessment. Make sure to check these case studies after covering this section. Besides other examples for adult basic skills program elements, this could also be the stage to collect all previous experiences among the design team that connect to the current challenge. Designers may engage in research processes that involve experts and learners themselves.
- Listing challenging scenarios that looks/feels similar to the current challenge
- Connecting with others who have gone through similar challenges to learn from their experiences
- Making arrangements for interviews or visits to these contacts, if necessary
2.4. Identify themes
Based on the preliminary planning cycles try to come up with a list of topics that can address the challenges identified before. This is the stage for making sense of the collected information and sources of inspiration to find the best design product ideas based on the major themes discovered before. Some activities for this phase could be:
- Cluster related information
- Find headlines in the body of information or notes collected through interviews
- Turn headlines into statements to clearly define the challenge and solution propose
2.5 Analyse your findings
The analysis of the information collected through research is a crucial part of crystallising the design process. At this stage designers may search for connections and relations among the themes that were identified before. Going into detail discussion to find the deeper relations among these themes is also essential for the design team to see if there are any misconceptions or differences in opinions regarding the topics among the members of the team. Inviting someone outside from the design theme can be also beneficial to gain feedback regarding the underlying assumptions that's the design team came up with. At this stage it is also important to be prepared to let some of the things and solutions go if they don't seem to be the most relevant direction ahead.
2.6 Turn insights into actions
After the analysis the design team could move on to make the findings of the analysis adaptable to practical contexts by the end of which the design team comes up with an action plan containing a series of steps that lead to the successful design of the product. The initial phase of the design process could be considered fulfilled when the design team is aware of the next steps ahead. At this stage the so-called ‘how might we sentences’ can be developed. These sentences allow for further generation of ideas and clarification of the goal. one example of such sentences could be:
- How might we offer basic skills programs for adults that can best address their learning needs in the context where they are through means that they can use leading to tangible results?