Value: 10%

A gentle reminder that as with all LRNT courses, you are expected to incorporate APA standards for citations, formatting, and references and to back up your writing with evidence and appropriate academic literature as necessary. You are required to pay attention to grammar and clarity and to avoid colloquialisms. References are not included in the assignment word count. Also, don’t forget the numerous resources available to you as you build your competence and fluency with APA formatting and writing style. In particular, check out the RRU APA 7 formatting checklists and RRU WriteAnswers, which allow you to ask your APA questions.

Purpose

The purpose of Assignment One is to provide you with the opportunity to participate in the beginning stages of a design thinking process and to consider a real-life problem and the needs of a learning community in context more deeply.

Instructions

Working with a partner of your choice, you will begin the Design Thinking process by focusing on the first two essential steps: Empathy and Define. These steps are crucial for gaining a deep understanding of the unique needs and challenges learners face in their specific contexts. By concentrating exclusively on these initial stages, you and your partner will dive deeply into exploring and understanding the learning experiences within a particular context.

You must identify a design challenge situated in a real-world context; this could be a challenge or problem anchored in one or both of your settings or that you have encountered in the literature and other sources through your journey in the program. You will negotiate and agree on one challenge to define.

You might begin by having each partner share their individual experiences, focusing on specific challenges they face in their educational environments (teaching, learning, ID, leadership). You should look for overlapping themes, for example, issues related to curriculum design or technology integration. By identifying recurring themes, you will be in a better position to pinpoint areas where both of you experience similar challenges.

Discuss the impact of these challenges to determine which issues are most pressing and can help you to prioritize which challenge to ultimately focus on. You should validate your shared challenge by providing specific examples from your own experiences. Sharing specific examples will help you ensure that the challenge identified is genuinely shared.

You and your partner will document the first two stages of the design thinking process you have engaged in, and you will share your discoveries in the form of a recorded Pecha Kucha presentation.

Your Pecha Kucha presentation should share the context (e.g., setting, professional demographics of learners, cultural backgrounds etc), some challenges the learner audience faces (e.g., time management, technology barriers, language difficulties, subject complexity), and the “problem statement” you have developed.

You can use (or adapt) the Assignment 1: Design Thinking Challenge Worksheet (Google Doc) to help document your process, or you are welcome to use any additional tools or methods to capture your process.

Submission

Deliverable (1) documentation of the process

You could do this in a few ways; we are not prescribing that. You could use the Google Doc provided, or alternatively, you could choose to document your partner process in another medium (for example, OneDrive, Word document, Miro board, etc., or a template you have discovered through the design thinking process examples) as long as the result is a document that captures the process being submitted into the Assignment 1 Moodle dropbox.

Deliverable (2) Pecha Kucha

You will articulate your discovered design challenge(s) and present your synthesized problem statement in a recorded Pecha Kucha presentation that will be shared on your blogs. When you post, include an introduction that situates your Pecha Kucha presentation. This introduction should contain a short context background and a brief overview of your design challenge (like an abstract). Providing this introduction is important because it helps set the stage for your audience, ensuring they understand the relevance and purpose before diving into the presentation.

Ensure you include the following in your Pecha Kucha:

• Introduction of the design challenge and its context
• Key insights and factors contributing to the challenge
• A synthesized problem statement that clearly articulates the learner’s needs or challenges

Pecha Kucha Inc. (2022) shares that a “PechaKucha 20×20 presentation format is a slide show of 20 images, each auto-advancing after 20 seconds. It’s nonstop, and you have 400 seconds to tell your story, with visuals guiding the way.”

Submit deliverable (1) to the Assignment 1 Moodle Dropbox. Post deliverable (2), your Pecha Kucha recording, with a brief introduction on your blog(s). Review at least two other Pecha Kucha blog posts and provide feedback in the Week 3 peer review forum as a part of your learner contribution.

Ensure you include the following:

• Introduction of the design challenge and its context
• Key insights and factors contributing to the challenge
• A synthesized problem statement that clearly articulates the learners needs or challenges

Grading

This assignment will be marked according to the following rubric:

Criteria	Exemplary  A+ to A	Proficient A- to B+	Developing B to B-	Insufficient  F
Adherence to Academic Standards (APA, Spelling, Grammar)	APA, spelling, and grammar are error-free, enhancing clarity	APA fewer than 3 errors, spelling, and grammar have minimal errors, with minimal impact on clarity	APA fewer than 10 errors, spelling, and grammar have multiple errors, impacting clarity	APA, spelling, and grammar errors are pervasive and severely impede clarity, making the work difficult to understand
Process Documentation Completeness	Provides a detailed overview of the interview process, which captures cthoughtful insights, including direct quotes or paraphrased responses. Strongly ties the interview findings to the Empathy and Define stages, demonstrating clear connections between the interview data and the identification of user needs or problem definition	Provides a general overview of the interview process, which captures surface-level insights, may or may not include direct quotes or paraphrased responses. Ties the interview findings to the Empathy and Define stages, demonstrating connections between the interview data and the identification of user needs or problem definition	Overview of the interview process is lacking and offers limited insights. Loosely ties the interview findings to the Empathy and Define stages, stopping short of making connections between the interview data and the identification of user needs or problem definition	Provides little to no overview of the interview process, with minimal or no insights. Fails to tie interview findings to the Empathy and Define stages, with no clear connection to user needs or problem definition
Pecha Kucha: Understanding and Application of Empathy Stage	Demonstrates deep understanding with the learning community’s needs, showing genuine empathy and nuanced understanding of their real-world needs. Student voice is prominent, reflecting personal and contextual insights	Demonstrates clear understanding of the community’s needs. Student voice is present, and the connection to real-world problems is evident but could be more detailed	Shows a basic or superficial understanding of the community’s needs. Limited use of student voice or real-world connections	Shows little to no understanding with the learning community, with minimal or no evidence of empathy or understanding of their real-world needs. Student voice is absent or unclear, with no personal or contextual insights provided
Pecha Kucha: Problem Definition Stage (Framing the Challenge)	Effectively defines a real-world problem based on rich insights gathered during empathy. The problem is framed clearly, showing a deep connection to the needs of the learning community and the broader real-world context. Student contributions shape the definition	Defines the problem with good alignment to the learning community’s needs. Real-world connections are clear, and student input contributes to the framing process	Defines the problem, but the connection to community needs and the real world is unclear or superficial. Limited integration of student voice	Problem definition is unclear or disconnected from the community’s needs and real-world context. No evidence of student voice or personal contribution
Pecha Kucha Presentation (format)	Each slide is perfectly timed at 20 seconds, with seamless transitions.  Visuals are highly engaging, clear, and perfectly aligned with the presentation’s message Presentation includes the contribution of all group member	Slides are timed at about 20 seconds, with mostly seamless transitions.  Visuals are engaging and aligned with the presentation’s message. Presentation includes the contribution of all group member	Timings and transitions are off. Visuals are present but not necessarily aligned with the presentation’s message Presentation includes the contribution of all group member	Timing is significantly off, with poor pacing throughout the presentation. Visuals are unclear, irrelevant, or fail to support the presentation’s message.  Presentation does not include the contribution of all group members