Mission Design. Designer's Journey

Missions are structured as a series of stages. These stages can be initial or final, which serve as introduction and conclusion to the mission, without requiring the user to perform any action, or they can be action stages. Action stages (all intermediate stages) seek for the user to perform the necessary actions to complete the chain of achievements that will lead them to solve the challenge. These action stages can optionally have one or more evaluable and validatable results (learning evidence) and therefore offer the possibility of generating feedback for the learner. In addition, missions can present bifurcations in their sequence of stages defining alternative routes for solving the challenge. Such bifurcations can be based on automated or human validations of the results achieved in the stage or on the users’ own decisions.

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Designer’s Journey

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1. Onboarding

Everything starts with a welcome, at this point ideally you should create the learner’s guide or didactic guide. It’s important that you cover all those needs they may have, with the objective of generating confidence and security in that person. A guide with the necessary requirements to access -to remind them-, important dates -start, end and live sessions-, methodology -don’t be too technical, make it well understood, we need them to understand well-, how they will evaluate/validate their learning, how they will certify, etc. It’s important that you prepare a series of emails to accompany their onboarding experience from days before the start of the program. There you will be informing and preparing the topics that will be covered in the learning experience. In addition, ideally you should record a video with the onboarding, where part of the team appears, so that people can see who will be “on the other side”. That will generate confidence and security. If you can, you can organize a live session so they can convey all their doubts before starting, it’s important that they start with clear expectations and understanding the methodology.

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2. Mission Access

This is the introductory moment, the entry card, the image and description that the learner will see when accessing the mission. Look for an image that represents the program and a description that generates curiosity, that motivates and provokes action. Think… What will students achieve with this mission? That’s your goal with this small description, to hook them.

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3. Mission Description

Here begins the story you’ve created for learners, you introduce the context, present the characters, explain who the main character is, the one they experience in first person, the doubts or needs they have, how this opportunity -the mission- will help them overcome and learn, how they feel, the motivation they have to start, etc.

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4. Initial Node

This node is for learning, that is, here you should continue advancing with your story as if each stage were a mini chapter that develops the context and characters, while you begin to indicate to your protagonist what they should understand within this mission, you will give them references and examples so they can understand more easily. We are preparing them for the next node where there will already be action. This is the “theoretical” section, in which we include links and indicate to the learner where we recommend they expand knowledge. In no case do we recommend adding theory as is usually done, what we propose is to add only what helps them understand the topics that will be addressed, leaving them wanting to know more, emphasizing adding little content to expand in the development of each stage. What comes to be, “to open the appetite” and to anticipate and accustom the learner to the terms and topics that will be touched during the stages to come. This node is for learning, that is, here you should continue advancing with your story as if each stage were a mini chapter that develops the context and characters, while you begin to indicate to your protagonist what they should understand within this mission, you will give them references and examples so they can understand more easily. We are preparing them for the next node where there will already be action. This is the “theoretical” section, in which we include links and indicate to the learner where we recommend they expand knowledge. In no case do we recommend adding theory as is usually done, what we propose is to add only what helps them understand the topics that will be addressed, leaving them wanting to know more, emphasizing adding little content to expand in the development of each stage. What comes to be, “to open the appetite” and to anticipate and accustom the learner to the terms and topics that will be touched during the stages to come. We want them to feel secure, to trust and to feel eager to know more. Here you will focus on story + basic theoretical context.

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5. Action Nodes

This is the moment when you start to deepen each competency you want learners to develop. What we propose is that you advance with the development of your story while introducing the topic in each conversation by chat, dialogue, email, reflection of the main character, etc. Thanks to this combination of contents you will be adding theoretical explanations that help the learner have context and be able to expand it at their pleasure using their own sources. It will be within one of those communication channels where the instructions for the task that will be asked of the learner will appear clearly, in addition to resources that are important to achieve success in understanding and performance of the delivery. Ideally, within the story chapter itself there should be a space to explain the type of deliverable and evaluation, in addition to the possible learning rubric. In addition, there are specific spaces within the node to repeat both the instructions, the type of delivery, the evaluation or the clues that can be requested. Here we will focus on story advancement integrating: instructions + task + resources + evaluation/validation.

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6. Final Node

The grand closing of the mission, it’s time to close the story, the characters and recall learnings. This moment is essential to make the learner aware of the journey they have made, their growth, their achievements, their failures and doubts, everything that has led them to validate the mission’s competencies. We want them to feel proud of themselves, to want to continue advancing and growing autonomously. We will give them a report that reviews the journey through each stage, from where they started, what was asked of them, what they have achieved and possible correct answers for solving the same challenges -if it fits-. Emphasizing the competencies they have unlocked.

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The Mission Dictionary (for designers)

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1. The Stages

Everything starts with a welcome, at this point ideally you should create the learner’s guide or didactic guide. It’s important that you cover all those needs they may have, with the objective of generating confidence and security in that person. A mission is composed of several stages, whether the initial node, the action one or the final one, each stage has a challenge that the learner must overcome, a situation within a context that will give them the sensation of progressing little by little. Dividing the mission by these stages will facilitate the possibility of developing -from less to more- each of the competencies you want to work on with them.

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2. Problem Solving

We base our methodology on strategic problem solving that helps the learner feel they are building and advancing. We don’t recommend that you give them step by step to deliver the activity as you imagine it, perhaps the ideal is to create activities that stimulate critical thinking and the ability to research different ways to solve a problem/challenge. There will be times when this problem has only one solution, that will be the moment not to give all the baseline information and only provide what is necessary for the learner to be able to pull the thread. Imagine that in each action node you give the learner some LEGO pieces to solve a challenge. They must find the missing ones and, with all of them, reach their solution. Following your instructions, advice, resources and the rubric -in case of adding it-.

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3. Autonomous Learning

As its name indicates, they must learn without us holding their hand excessively. We want to develop their critical thinking, their growth mindset and their ability to get themselves out of trouble. We focus on the competencies they will need in a company and that will make them active, proactive and constantly evolving people. So, as we mentioned in the previous point, we will give them some references and instructions, but there will be no theory as we know it until now. We will give them references but not the whole book. We will recommend the best places where to find valuable information, that helps them learn, and we will encourage them to find their own way to solve the problem. We believe there is never only one way to reach a goal, but if there is only one, we want them to find it with fair and necessary guidance.

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4. Evaluation

You will see that you have several options to evaluate, use the one that achieves the most impact on the learner’s learning. You will see that we don’t have tests, we don’t really like them, we love creating active learning environments where the student manages to develop a competency, we believe in creating real learning situations to stimulate their motivation and engagement, that’s why we create valid activities to know what they have learned and how. You can choose between submitting a file or document, validation through a command line, advancing through a self-validation button or adding text.

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5. Feedback

The idea is to offer feedback on learners’ submissions. This feedback is very valuable so they know how they’re doing, how they could have solved it differently, how they could improve and, above all, so they feel accompanied and cared for, so they know we value their effort and appreciate the solutions they have reached. It’s a crucial point to emotionally care for our learners, we are working in an asynchronous environment -perhaps with some synchronous moments-, reinforcing these moments is vital to maintain their confidence and security in the learning process.

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6. Support

As you may have noticed, for us support is not just the moment when a learner asks and a mentor responds. It’s not just that live session that serves to learn and resolve doubts, or that close and growth feedback that helps to continue with strength. For us, attention starts the moment the learner decides to enroll in a mission. In the first emails we begin to introduce them to the story we have created for them, we make them feel attended to, understood and cared for, we try to make them break barriers so that when they access the mission, they feel confident and secure in the process they are accessing. When we present the story and characters, we try to make the emotions they feel the same ones that learners may be feeling, trying to make them feel identified and we can transform them through the story’s own characters. That is already support. When we configure the AI that will resolve their doubts at each stage, we are attending to the possible questions or problems they may encounter. We even think about what we want them to know and what not, to stimulate their uncertainty and provoke them to research on their own. That is also support. When we create rubrics for tasks we do it trying to facilitate their development process, trying to fill uncertainty gaps and, at the same time, strategically leaving others blank, to offer a sense of control and decision over their learning process. Giving a sense of freedom with a safety net for possible falls, is also accompanying. When we offer dialogue spaces in Discord for learners to raise their doubts and share possible solutions, we stimulate collaborative learning. Just like in a real work team, helping each other generates new solutions and shared “aha” moments. Mentors are attentive to these conversations to observe and decide at what moment there is a blockage and an expert’s response is necessary. That is also accompanying. We also organize thematic live sessions so learners have real and visual contact with their peers and with the team. It’s there where we can expand content and resolve doubts. We accompany. Perhaps support is understood only as that moment when we are present, but we like to think that we are caring from the moment someone decides they want to learn.