Educational offerings guidelines - module elements

From [[http://cpsquare.org CPsquare]], the community of practice on communities of practice.

Traditionally we use a week-long module to organize the time in CPsquare workshops.

See also: Educational offerings guidelines overview and Educational offerings guidelines - workshop elements.

Here are elements that the design of a week's schedule may typically consider (and that may be explicitly described in a participant handbook):

• Each week needs a topic or a focus question (and a title).
• We identify reading(s) and other resources (e.g., screen-casts or videos) in advance so that people can prepare offline (and catch up later) if necessary.
• Each teleconference call is designed to accomplish several outcomes, so decisions need to be made about:
  • Call logistics, length, and platform;
  • Appropriate amount of socializing to support group formation;
  • Looking back or summarizing what's been done so far;
  • Looking forward to the coming week, establishing goals or context; and
  • A topic for substantive conversation and thinking together.
• Small group formation and negotiation is a key opportunity for learning, so CPsquare workshops support pairings, alliances, and small-group formation. Those social processes are often as important as the products those groups produce or the resources they study.
• Activities that encourage interaction and collaboration also result in useful artifacts that participants can put to work at home. These artifacts are shared with other participants, with other cohorts, and with members of CPsquare. The production of artifacts builds on earlier work in a workshop and benefits from support from workshop leaders and mentors.
• We include guest speakers, visits or interviews that make connections to living practice outside the workshop.
• Although workshop leaders are involved in a whole workshop, our distributed leadership model works partly through turn-taking where one person takes on a leadership and facilitation role in a particular week. Playing that role for a week in a CPsquare workshop includes:
  • Leading the inquiry as a thought leader or authority on a particular subject.
  • Promoting interaction within the group of participants, with guest speakers, and with the resources being presented that week.
  • Being careful that the hand off from and to other leaders is visible and explicit.

This document reflects the direct contributions of Alice MacGillivray, Barb McDonald, Bronwyn Stuckey, Etienne Wenger, Jenny Mackness, John Smith, and Naava Frank.