CONtent design and writing
CLC
Empowering adults with relevant UX skills through a
full-day workshop of engaging, collaborative content.
Canada Learning Code (CLC), previously known as Ladies Learning Code, champions for coding and design education in Canada. It drives results through program design and delivery, strategic industry and public partnerships.
Since 2011, the organization has had over 600,000 participants join their 10,500+ education events. In total, there are over 10,500 mentors across Canada that volunteer their time and programming skills to teach at half-day or full day workshops. I was a regular mentor from 2015-2019, teaching HTML/CSS and UX design to learners across Canada.
Summary
As part of their annual National Learn to Code Day (NLTCD) on Sep 21 2019, I was asked to be a part of CLC's advisory team to spearhead a first-time User Experience Design Workshop set to launch in all of Canada. I led and developed all the content together with the CLC team over 9 months.
On the day itself, I assisted as one of 5 mentors at the main Toronto workshop hosted at Google HQ. Led by the instructor, I mentored over 70+ learners UX design fundamentals through a mixture of lessons and prototyping activities during the live-streamed 6 hour workshop.
1
Content Testing
Over the next 3 months, I had several more remote meetings with the advisory team to refine the content and activities.
This culminated in a curated number of pilot workshops across Canada with the aim to test the content with volunteer participants.
My workshop was attended by 10 volunteer learners in Toronto. After the workshop, feedback handouts were given to participants to fill anonymously. The handouts asked for both content and instructor feedback. Including the one I instructed at, the team gained invaluable feedback and I edited the slides accordingly.
This culminated in a curated number of pilot workshops across Canada with the aim to test the content with volunteer participants.
My workshop was attended by 10 volunteer learners in Toronto. After the workshop, feedback handouts were given to participants to fill anonymously. The handouts asked for both content and instructor feedback. Including the one I instructed at, the team gained invaluable feedback and I edited the slides accordingly.
Main feedback and solutions
Feedback 1
Solution
- Instructors/Mentors found some slide content confusing as they had no prior context
- Creating instructor notes for each slide with referenced examples
Feedback 2
Solution
- Learners did not relate to a list of provided design challenges
- Letting them create and vote on their own problem statement instead, encouraging collaboration
Feedback 3
Solution
- There was not enough time to teach Lean and Agile Methods. These sections were too verbose and had lesser overall relevance.
- Removing the slides to simplify content and give more time for participants to create a responsive prototype
2
Takeaways
Despite my gusto to cover many important UX topics, this first-time workshop had its fair share of challenges.
- Timeboxing the workshop appropriately to teach all content
- Adapting to different learner aptitudes, knowing when to check for understanding before moving on
- Relevant examples and activities that were both culturally relevant and allowed sharing of perspectives
- Sourcing evergreen resources after for learners to refer to. As the design industry is ever-changing, the content might be outdated over time.
Providing solutions to these proved eye-opening. By not being married to my work, however extensive, my team could come up with solutions that would better serve both learners and instructors.
3
Launch Day
Finally, the eventful day arrived. 77 learners were ready to start learning!
On a chilly Autumn morning, the CLC team and other volunteers attended Google Toronto bright and early to help setup. Across Canada, other city chapter teams were doing the same. Being the flagship workshop, it was livestreamed on Youtube.
Joining 4 other mentors, we supported the lead instructor by assisting these learners throughout the 6 hour experience.
On a chilly Autumn morning, the CLC team and other volunteers attended Google Toronto bright and early to help setup. Across Canada, other city chapter teams were doing the same. Being the flagship workshop, it was livestreamed on Youtube.
Joining 4 other mentors, we supported the lead instructor by assisting these learners throughout the 6 hour experience.
Feedback
With over 1500 people across Canada participating in cities such as Toronto, Hamilton, Markham, Sudbury and Downtown Vancouver, there was a flurry of activity.
Feedback overall was very positive. For the workshop I mentored at, there were a few timeboxing issues towards the end, causing delays. The reason behind was that learners were excited to complete and share their low-fi prototypes, which turned out to be a great learning objective in itself.
After the workshop, we gathered direct verbal feedback and distributed handouts as well.
Feedback overall was very positive. For the workshop I mentored at, there were a few timeboxing issues towards the end, causing delays. The reason behind was that learners were excited to complete and share their low-fi prototypes, which turned out to be a great learning objective in itself.
After the workshop, we gathered direct verbal feedback and distributed handouts as well.
Many people also took to Twitter (X) to respond in real-time.
Shown are tweets with the hashtag #llcCodeDay
(Click for more images)
Shown are tweets with the hashtag #llcCodeDay
(Click for more images)
Check out the entire livestream on YouTube