workshop sessions

Images: Sebastiaan ter Burg (CC BY 2.0), Creative Sustainability (CC BY-SA 2.0), Heinrich Böll Stiftung (CC BY-SA 2.0), CC0

Agnetha is fortunate that the staff in her new department seem to be amenable to participating in a professional development or strategy meeting. She can see that this could be an excellent opportunity to address the digital pedagogy aspects and identify the current baseline of the department with regards DigCompEdu. She needs to make a few decisions about how to go about this in practice.

Choice of Facilitator

Agnetha is confident enough to run a workshop-style session with her staff, but wonders if it might help to invite in an external facilitator to avoid any colleagues feeling under pressure from their manager, or simply complying rather than engaging as actively as they could. She's fortunate in that there is a Teaching and Curriculum Development Centre in the university and she agrees for one of their staff who is an experienced workshop facilitator to manage the session.

Motivation - "what's in it for me?"

Whilst Agnetha's main purpose in running this event is to gather information about the current digital competency levels of her team and to open up longer term conversations about technology and teaching within their programmes, she knows that she also needs to think about what value attending and participating in such a session will offer to each of the individual attendees. She could emphasise that they will leave the workshop with a personal digital profile and having identified their strengths and areas to explore in future. In addition, by working with colleagues they will get an opportunity to exchange ideas and perhaps learn about other tools and approaches being used in the department.

That idea of leaving the workshop with something can also be reinforced if it actually is a real artefact! Many workshop designers realise that 'hands on' activities using a variety of tools and media can help to boost engagement and retention of ideas learned.

Materials & Resources

Although our area of interest is digital technologies, that doesn't mean that we should constrain ourselves to only use digital tools. In-person workshops can benefit from considering a wider range of materials, particularly those which are tactile and associated with activities that promote discussion. Flip-charts, 'post-it' pads, coloured paper, cards, etc, are all standard tools for workshop facilitators!

Bear in mind though, that sometimes people have had to endure ill-conceived workshop events and might frown at the sight of flip charts and sticky pads! Though, in general, what many academics can find frustrating about workshop style events is not necessarily the 'childish' looking materials but rather if there seems little point to the activity, or if the activity seems inauthentic or contrived. Fortunately for Agnetha, she has clear goals and ideas and she can guide the facilitator in drawing up the agenda/schedule for the session.

Agnetha knows that having all the data from each participant captured online would make analysis easier and quicker, but she also knows that filling in an online form or checklist is a very individualised activity. The facilitator suggests using a set of printed, colour, cards which contain each of the competences and proficiency levels from DigCompEdu. In addition, each person can be give a printed sheet on which they can record their own level for each of the competences. Participants can work through the individual domains and competencies in pairs, or small groups, discussing the topics whilst filling in their own profile sheet. At the end of the session, the participants can keep their own profile sheets, but the facilitator can take a quick snapshot of each using a phone so that the data can be accessed and collated after the event.

Examples of cards with DigCompEdu competencies

Examples of printed cards covering competencies in DigCompEdu. This is simply produced from the two page spread within the original definition document and is ideally laid out for this type of use.

The actual profile sheets could be produced in a number of different formats, depending on what Agnetha and the facilitator think might work best. One approach would just be a simple tabular format, whilst some might prefer the possibility of charting out the profile on a 'radar plot' style graphic - or, indeed, having both options. An example of a possible 'worksheet' or profile card for each participant is as below. They can of course add their name to the sheet if that is required and the final result in a workshop can be photographed and collated by the facilitator.

personal profile

An example of a personal worksheet for participants to note their own DigCompEdu levels for each of the competencies and include some notes about tools they typically use in a teaching context.

We have produced a PowerPoint file with each of the competencies and the personal profile template for you to print out for your own workshop session.

- Digcompedu cards.pptx

Planning & Structure

Agnetha and the facilitator meet to plan the session. They've agreed that a timeframe that might work in this case would be to schedule the workshop for up to 1.5 hours length, and with a number of specific sections, each of which has a planned timeline, recognising from experience that there will need to be some flexibility and adaptation depending on how things go on the day.

Brief introduction
- Aims of the session
- Short overview of DigCompEdu, describing how it connects the professional and pedagogic competencies of the educator with the development of student competencies
- Instructions for the activity: working in pairs to discuss but completing individual profile
Activity - working through DigCompEdu/"Mapping Your Own Digital Profile"
- Pacing and structure can be provided by having the general description of each DigCompEdu area on screen whilst participants complete their profiles, progressing one by one through the six areas.
- Some of the areas have more competencies than others, and some may be aspects that are unfamiliar or had not occurred to participants as being their responsibility (e.g. developing student digital skills), so will need a little more time.
- The facilitator moves around the room, offering clarification and keeping discussions on-track.
Collation of results
- if done digitally, these could be compiled into an averaged profile, or one which shows the range of levels in each competence
- if done on paper, the facilitator can scan each individual worksheet with a phone camera and the data can be entered into a spreadsheet later
- if the numbers of participants is small it might be possible to do a quick compilation and present the results in the session, but for most groups this is likely to take too much time for participants to wait around - although it could be an opportune moment for a coffee break!
Brief open discussion followed by concluding remarks
- If the results are to be processed later, then give the participants a timescale for when these will be made available and how they will be shared (email, or at a follow-up meeting)
- Agnetha could give a brief mention of 'bigger picture' aspects (technologies currently being used, specific issues relevant to the department or the institution, outline of possible future actions or how plans will be developed) provided she has this pre-planned before the session but willing to adapt if anything arises.

Never end such sessions without thanking all the participants for their time, effort, and ideas!

Reflection

Do you think running such a workshop would be feasible in your department/unit/team?

What particular considerations would you have to take into account for your team and context?

Can you see other ways in which you might be able to gather this kind of information from your own team?

Do you, personally, have experience of running this type of workshop? Would you feel comfortable doing so, or would you prefer an 'outside' facilitator?