9:59:59.000,0:00:02.961
(Stephen Downes) So, hello everyone.

0:00:05.529,0:00:07.768
I'd like to state and for the record,[br]

0:00:08.409,0:00:10.078
I love the blue dots.

0:00:11.047,0:00:11.976
(LAUGHTER)

0:00:11.976,0:00:14.327
I've been sitting there[br]watching the blue dots.

0:00:16.501,0:00:23.116
So, I've been cast in the role of [br]the person who finds the problems

0:00:23.116,0:00:25.163
with the topic that we're all praising.

0:00:26.191,0:00:29.228
I do like agile design, I like it a lot.

0:00:29.228,0:00:32.804
And I like the concept of [br]agile <i>learning</i> design,

0:00:32.804,0:00:34.161
I like it a lot.

0:00:34.976,0:00:40.176
But, you know, I've been in the field [br]of programming for many years.

0:00:40.536,0:00:43.840
I've been in the field of learning design [br]for many years.

0:00:43.840,0:00:47.561
I've worked on small projects,[br]I've worked on big projects,

0:00:47.566,0:00:49.781
I've been the peon [br]at the bottom of the pile

0:00:49.781,0:00:55.171
and currently I'm the program leader[br]responsible for producing outcomes.

0:00:55.171,0:00:57.204
So I've seen it from different angles.

0:00:57.204,0:01:00.838
And there's so many ways it can go wrong,

0:01:00.838,0:01:08.212
especially when we move from the [br]fairly static domain of software design

0:01:08.212,0:01:12.303
to the far less static domain[br]of learning design.

0:01:13.540,0:01:14.876
That's learning design.[br]

0:01:16.002,0:01:19.451
It's the least agile thing [br]you'll ever see.

0:01:20.986,0:01:25.277
That's actually a graphic from IMS

0:01:25.277,0:01:28.400
which produced the learning design [br]specification.

0:01:28.933,0:01:31.554
That's supposed to be [br]pretty open and flexible,

0:01:31.554,0:01:35.366
It's like a play with a director and roles[br]and all of that.

0:01:36.420,0:01:39.786
But, you know, once you're into the thing,

0:01:40.263,0:01:42.803
there isn't a whole lot of flexibility [br]happening

0:01:42.803,0:01:48.490
and it leads to questioning just [br]what is it that we're up to

0:01:48.895,0:01:51.504
when we are talking about [br]agile learning design?

0:01:51.765,0:01:55.766
Are we talking about [br]agile 'learning design'

0:01:56.658,0:02:01.021
or are we talking about [br]the design of agile learning?

0:02:01.775,0:02:03.273
Two different things.

0:02:03.740,0:02:06.415
And it seems to me that [br]it doesn't make sense

0:02:06.415,0:02:11.040
to give the instructional designers[br]all that freedom and flexibility

0:02:11.040,0:02:13.920
if we're going to march students[br]lockstep through

0:02:13.920,0:02:16.372
a predefined kind of process.

0:02:18.243,0:02:21.255
Here's what agile learning design[br]ought to look like.

0:02:22.491,0:02:24.163
There's a flow.

0:02:24.483,0:02:26.677
This is agile design generally, right?[br]

0:02:26.677,0:02:28.505
And it's an iterative thing,

0:02:28.505,0:02:30.781
and yet people don't talk [br]about that so much

0:02:30.781,0:02:32.765
but it's an iterative thing.

0:02:32.765,0:02:38.750
Each iteration is like designing a full[br]and complete product,

0:02:38.750,0:02:42.866
and then you might spin off [br]some side things, some prototype things

0:02:42.866,0:02:47.467
as you need to, but, you know, [br]version 1, version 2,

0:02:47.480,0:02:50.071
you're doing the same thing over again.

0:02:50.431,0:02:53.281
No course in the world,[br]well, maybe not no course,

0:02:53.281,0:02:56.779
but few courses in the world [br]are designed that way.

0:02:56.779,0:03:00.402
Courses progress from Lesson 1, [br]Lesson 2, Lesson 3, Lesson 4.

0:03:00.402,0:03:05.869
They don't cover all of geometry [br]and then all of geometry in more detail

0:03:05.869,0:03:07.590
and all of geometry in more detail.

0:03:07.590,0:03:11.640
It's a different way of thinking[br]about the process.

0:03:13.125,0:03:18.587
So, one of the major concepts[br]in agile learning design,

0:03:18.587,0:03:20.972
in agile design generally, is the Scrum.

0:03:21.522,0:03:26.321
The Scrum is basically [br]a self-organizing development team.

0:03:27.344,0:03:30.178
It is originally drawn from the idea that

0:03:30.178,0:03:34.414
programmers are the smartest people [br]in the world and do not need management.

0:03:34.863,0:03:39.669
No, I'm just kidding, but there is [br]the idea here that

0:03:39.669,0:03:44.792
the programmers know how to program, and[br]they know how to produce the outcomes,

0:03:45.503,0:03:49.922
if they're left to do the job for [br]themselves, to organize for themselves.

0:03:50.247,0:03:54.791
And indeed, in the Scrum meeting,[br]as you are mapping out the task,

0:03:54.791,0:04:00.031
each of the tasks, in the Scrum,[br]is self-selected by the programmer.

0:04:00.031,0:04:03.589
So, they're volunteering to jump in,[br]to do these things.

0:04:03.589,0:04:08.414
They're taking commitments on themselves,[br]they're specifying how much time,

0:04:08.414,0:04:11.090
how much effort will be required [br]to produce the commitment.

0:04:11.972,0:04:19.134
So, OK: that's good[br]but this doesn't happen by magic.

0:04:20.249,0:04:25.221
It takes time, and agile [br]is typically employed

0:04:25.221,0:04:27.744
in larger software development projects.

0:04:27.744,0:04:31.824
But when we're doing learning design,[br]we're doing something a lot smaller

0:04:31.824,0:04:33.445
and a lot more precise.

0:04:33.445,0:04:35.099
The question came up earlier, you know:

0:04:35.099,0:04:38.481
"What about, you know, high-volume[br]instructional design?"

0:04:38.481,0:04:44.548
Well, high-volume in instructional design:[br]you don't have time for 3,4,5,6,7 weeks

0:04:44.548,0:04:48.245
of your development team [br]organizing itself.

0:04:50.408,0:04:51.481
Another problem:

0:04:52.519,0:04:58.412
as your projects get bigger -- and we've [br]worked on some very large projects --

0:04:58.812,0:05:02.464
your teams get very large.

0:05:02.464,0:05:04.882
If you think about [br]all the different people who can,

0:05:04.882,0:05:08.859
and eventually will get involved[br]in the design of your learning,

0:05:08.859,0:05:11.513
or in the delivery of your agile learning,

0:05:11.995,0:05:16.523
you've got designers, you've got[br]subject matter experts,

0:05:16.996,0:05:23.101
you've got programmers, you've got[br]human interaction specialists, etc.

0:05:23.101,0:05:26.781
Then so (check) you get a very large,[br]very complex team.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
As you get larger teams, you will not[br]generate more efficiency, it's well known:

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
you generate less efficiency.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So, what's the solution?[br]Split the teams.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
OK. Now you have competing development [br]teams working on the same project.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This sounds, like, you know, OK, [br]we've split the task, it's great.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But when you split the task,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
you now have two different groups [br]of people with different objectives,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
different responsibilities.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They're competing often for resources,[br]they're competing often for priority.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We have a project where we had [br]two agile teams.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We ended up with two versions [br]of the thing that we were developing.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Basically, they had -- they didn't split[br]into functional groups,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they -- what's the word for it? [br]errh one-cell devide: mitosis --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So basically, we got two small versions[br]of the project we were trying to create.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Another pitfall:

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
if you try to organize your groups into,[br]you know, OK,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
this group will do <i>this</i> part of it,[br]this group will do <i>that</i> part of it,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
you get specialized Scrums.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So now, nobody's working on [br]the final project and the final product.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And there is the danger -- I've seen this[br]and we've had this:

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in effect, I'm living this [br]at this very moment

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
where everybody, all the teams [br]want to do the analysis bit,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
or the rapid prototyping bit.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
But we're trying to bring a product [br]to actual users, at the end.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We want it to be a deliverable product.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Nobody wants to do the last stage[br]of error testing, of hardening the code.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That's the least popular scrum.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So they go back to they are wanting [br]to do prototyping again.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Finally -- well, not quite finally[br]but we're getting there --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who is the product owner?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In the Scrum process, [br]you're delivering outcomes

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and the idea is that, [br]as you go through each spring,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
which is short-term cycle[br]through your development process,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
you're producing outcomes,[br]you're producing deliverables

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and these deliverables [br]are delivered to the product owner

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who will set the deliverable,[br]and even more importantly,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
define the conditions for the completion[br]of that deliverable.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Did you do it or not?[br]How do you know?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Well, you have to have certain criteria:[br]pass this test, reproduce this function.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It has to be really solid [br]and ........ (check)-free.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Well, that good in education -- Sorry, [br]that's good in software development,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
your product owner is your client,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
perhaps your architect, [br]somebody like that.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They know what they want.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Education is completely different.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In education, there is [br]no product owner per se.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Think about it, think about the different[br]populations that are involved in learning.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
There is the end user, [br]also known as the student,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who, in the typical instructional design[br]process, does not show up until

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
after the instructional design [br]has been done.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It makes it very hard to be agile.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
There is the subject matter expert,[br]also known as the professor.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The professor has his or her own ideas[br]of what this deliverable must be.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Then there is the administrator, [br]the dean or the president,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
or the Department of extended learning,[br]or whatever,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
who have other objectives of, then [br]revenue objectives,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
or course completion objectives:[br]they have their own definition.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
All of these definitions are different.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
I guarantee you they are conflicting[br]and they are competing.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
You can't just pick one, [br]because if you pick one,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
you're not being agile for the others.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
What's worse?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
To have not only competing interests,[br]to have different levels of expertise.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We're designing this system right now,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
where we're trying to create [br]agile learning itself.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This is -- I'm not going to talk [br]about that,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that's not the purpose [br]of this particular talk --

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but but the ideas here is that[br]as the learning is unfolding,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the process, the outcomes, [br]the deliverables and all of that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
can change [br]as the needs of the learner change.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Very ambitious, really hard.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
We have to think about learning [br]differently, in order to do that.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Well, we've got our development teams.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Our development teams were raised[br]in the traditional educational system.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
<i>Their</i> idea of education [br]and online learning is:

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
create some videos, put them online.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Well, if we're iterating old world project[br]the first version of the project,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
also known as [br]the minimally viable product,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it's going to be pretty simple and it's [br]going to be something that you could do

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
with fairly traditional methods.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And your programmers and developers,[br]all other things being equal,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
will fall back on the traditional methods.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Because they're not being challenged[br]with the minimal viable product.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
The end goal where you want to get to[br]is something really flexible and dynamic,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
but by the time you get to stage 5 or so,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
they've built many, many [br]static structures,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because that's what it took to [br]the minimally viable product

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
at each release, at each iteration.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So you have to start over.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And you start over and everybody agrees,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
OK the project is about something[br]a lot more flexible than that

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and you start developing again[br]and the same sort of problem happens

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because your developers and your designer

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
did not acquire that expertise [br]in the meantime.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So they go back on what they already know.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
So there's a difficulty here.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
In instructional design, we're attempting[br]to create an outcome

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that is not part of the skill set of the[br]people producing the product

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
that results in the instructional design.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Finally, learning objectives.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
This is the madder thing, right?

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And I get this one all the time: we do[br]connectivist-style MOOCs,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
the connectivist-style MOOC, we say[br]there is no curriculum,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
it's not about acquiring a certain [br]predefined body of content,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
because we want to meet [br]participants' needs

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
as they go through the course, and [br]these needs are different for every person

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
and these needs change over time.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And it should be up to the participant,[br]who ought to be the product owner,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
to define what success is and [br]define what the outcome should be.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's a moving target.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Nobody who funds education [br]wants to deal with that. Nobody.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
Every last one of them wants to see[br]course completions, certificates,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
competencies, curricular outcomes.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
They want them defined ahead of time,[br]they want them approved

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
by the curriculum board or [br]the school board or whoever is in charge.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
All of this must be set ahead of time.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
And then you're supposed to go on ..... (check)

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It is two very contradictory perspectives [br]at work here.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
It's not possible to do agile learning,[br]much less agile learning design

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
in an environment where the structures[br]and the outcomes are predefined.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
That's meek (check), that's my short talk[br]and I thank you very much.

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
(LAUGHTER - APPLAUSE)