What did I expect?

I expected a highly structured approach – that is almost inevitable where a technique is being taught through a worked example.  The level of structure was – as has become typical in MAODE – rather more than I expected at MA level.  With the trend even at GCSE to move back from heavily prescribed learning and assessment it is a jolt to be force-fed with processes, templates and headings down the required path.  I thought however that we handled it well – we didn’t ignore the process but we did take some shortcuts and overrides in line with our team judgement.

What did I hope for? What did I do, and what did I achieve?

I hoped to learn about design and I achieved that. I was (more than most) unfamiliar with software/learning design processes and I found the structured approach useful. I particularly liked the Personas, Forces and Use Cases which required me to take that user perspective.  I was surprised at the degree of care we had to take to ensure engagement from users.  I am from a generation used to doing what they are told – I have to learn to earn that attention from the current generation of users.  This is valuable for me as I take the MA forward into real application in today’s environment.

Which barriers and challenges did I confront, and how did we resolve them? Finally, what did I learn?

We are counselled only to talk about process as it impacts the learning but I can’t ignore the barriers put in place to practical learning by the micro-sequential process (by item, by day, by each team member) which flew in the face of availability for a part-time, world-spread course membership.  This impacted learning by compressing useful processes into windows of availability and making it impossible to compare learning and interpretation because of the mismatch of timings.  We resolved this by a sequential approach of building on each other’s work which was highly successful – but would have been high risk in a less cohesive group.

I have already discussed the learning I achieved about design.  I also learnt the real value of trusting and respecting the intellectual inputs of fellow learners as complementary and part of one’s own learning process.