EdLabs
Education experiments, together.
Together we’ll design human ways to teach online.
Maybe you’re working in a university and need some outside ideas. Maybe you want to teach about your craft or passion as a side project. I’m here to help.
For the last 8 years I’ve worked with educators in academia, religion, leadership, cooking, and crafts to design learning experiences people actually finish enjoy. The internet’s knowledge needs to be tamed. And we need to add a human touch to online learning experiences we create.
Let’s do it together.
The Rules of EdLabs
1. Once-a-week meetings.
Any person or organization using Pathwright can schedule up to one meeting per week in an EdLab session. Even better, schedule as many in advance as you want. Book me for a year if you need!
2. You can bring a friend along.
EdLabs aren't just for individuals. If you'd like to bring a member of your team to learn and experiment together, do it.
3. Don’t expect tech help.
Our wonderful support team answers the nitty gritty about how Pathwright works technically. While you and I might bump into some of those questions, they're not our focus. Sometimes you'll hear me say, "You should talk to Laurie about that."
4. Experiments!
The main point of EdLabs is to try something brand new and reflect on it together. We might discuss new ways for leading discussion, test ways to engage learners through clever reminders, or try out new media types like audio based courses.
5. Also, it’s free.
Seriously. Free! But slots are limited--I’m only one man.
Here’s what my
“Christian Shockley has had a profound impact on my identity as a teacher and as an advocate for digital literacy and digital learning. He understands the power of learner engagement and has offered me so many simple, creative ways to incorporate pleasure, surprise & even joy into the online learning experience. My students have benefited from the insights Christian has shared with me. Even more importantly, his sense of humor, kindness, generosity, and deep humanity make him a highly valued colleague.” —Renee Hobbs
Experiments from EdLabs
Fig.1
Real-Time Online Discussion
Hypothesis: What if we lowered the threshold for real - time engagement through a live discussion instead of video?
Results: Eight strangers in a course showed up and posted 57 threaded replies in 45 minutes.
Fig.2
Benevolent Clickbait
Hypothesis: What if we wrote reminders focused on interesting content rather than completion of assignments?
Results: Student engagement rose week by week through humanly written reminders that had a surprise twist.
Fig.3
Paths Like Picture Books
Hypothesis: What if we applied the natural narrative flow of turning a page in a picture book to Path design?
Results: Even text based paths became more engaging by drawing on a learner's innate curiosity and visualizing how insight occurs.
Fig.4
Paths As Learning Basecamps
Hypothesis: What if we used the Path as a learning basecamp from which to send learners on exploratory learning sessions?
Results: Paths that were designed to be taken into real-world settings (like classroom safety evaluations and craft projects) that guided a learner's experience in the real-world (especially through their phone) instead of keeping them glued to a screen.
Fig.5
Paths As Sitcoms
Hypothesis: What if we applied the same common structure of sitcoms to lesson design?
Results: An easy to adopt approach to course design that incorporates narrative structure to create engaging lessons that add up to engaging courses.
Fig.6
Audio Guided Workbooks
Hypothesis: What if your favorite podcast became a reflective experience?
Results: Like ad breaks in a podcast episode, we designed audio experience with reflection questions. By combining these two media types, we created an inexpensive, interactive learning format.
Fig.7
Community-Based Paths
Hypothesis: What if we designed a Path focused on connecting people with each other rather than with content?
Results: This is an ongoing new experiment that's waiting for results. Early testing shows a lot of excitement and broad application across multiple organizations.
