How questions lead to better learning design
Hi, there,
Welcome to the latest edition of Learning Included!
Now, we ❤️ asking questions at LearnJam. We believe really great questions can do a number of things.
Questions can:
- encourage flexible thinking and help us push back against simplicity
- help us relate new insights or information to our own contexts and experiences
- raise awareness of our limiting beliefs and therefore help us to develop learning mindsets
- help us uncover gaps in our thinking by showing or highlighting additional layers of meaning or detail
The power of questions shaped our thinking around tools we’re developing for Inclusive Learner Experience Design (ILXD). We thought we’d share these with you, as well as some other resources and articles that have inspired us.
We hope you enjoy!
Cards for Inclusive Learning
As part of a project we’ve been working on with Innovate UK, we’ve developed a set of card decks designed to raise awareness of inclusive learning design and to promote reflection on what makes a learning experience inclusive.
Each deck helps you explore one of the four dimensions of inclusive learning, using question prompts for reflection and action.
The four decks cover:
The Learner: who the learner is and what they bring to the learning experience
Environment: where the learner is, whether the physical or digital environment
Materials: what the learner is learning (coming soon).
Interactions: how the learning material is presented to and accessed by the learners (coming soon).
The cards are currently in beta, and you can have your responses to the questions emailed to you once you’ve finished exploring the decks.
12 cognitive biases that Product Managers should be aware of
Questions (and the preparedness to boldly ask them) can help us expose our own biases that, if unchecked, will dramatically influence the decisions and behaviours we bake into our learning products.
In this 4 mins read, Robert Drury of Getting Started in Product lists out some cognitive biases to be aware of when making product decisions, including:
Actor-observer bias: the tendency to attribute your own actions to external causes while attributing other people’s behaviours to internal causes.
False consensus effect: the tendency to overestimate how much others agree with you.
Why you need curious questions to spark innovation
It’s now widely acknowledged that the skills needed to succeed in the workplace are changing, with creative thinking being highly coveted by employers.
In this Forbes article, Greg Orme argues that there is no direct line to creativity – it’s not something you can just switch on. Instead, he argues that creativity is a natural byproduct of curiosity which can be developed through asking more and better questions.
Give his tips a try and see where they take you.
In case you missed it …
We touched on innovation x creativity in our podcast, Adventures in Learning Design.
You can check out the full ep here.
Tarot Cards of Tech
If you’ve already heard us banging on about these cards, then we apologise. If you’re hearing about these for the first time, then you’re welcome.
The Tarot Cards of Tech are a set of questions and “provocations” designed to help creators and designers fully consider the impact of their technology.
The cards’ originators, the Artefact Group, are strong advocates for responsible design. They recognise it’s time to replace the Silicon Valley mantra “move fast and break things” with “slow down and ask the right questions”.
Thanks!
See you in a couple of weeks for the next instalment of Learning Included!
All the best,
The LearnJam Team
