The National Speed Awareness Course: an example of mostly great learning design.
In a previous article I laid out a few thoughts about some of the key principles I bring to bear in my day job working at Crosslands as their learning designer. I spoke a little about the process involved and the kind of stages I might typically go through when I work on a course. Now in my fifth year I am still using these.
Then more recently I put together some personal reflections on how learning design is fundamentally linked to the curation/creation of a hospitable environment where expert skilled instruction makes effective use of accessible resources.
In this post I wanted to expand this point using a painfully personal example…
The National Speed Awareness Course (NSAC)
Hands up: I recently attended an online course run by Hampshire Police when I received an automated speeding ticket. Apart from being a useful refresh on road safety it was also a fascinating moment to observe a learning provision outside of my own day-job, and to unpick it a little.
A cynical view on speeding tickets is that they are easy money for local cash-strapped authorities - I confess that I have thought this from time to time. Speed awareness courses feel like a positive alternative - a chance to keep your driving licence clean(er) and those insurance premiums intact while also becoming a better driver.
The group I was with were very friendly and compliant, but I have been reliably informed by a family member that other ones aren't so smooth! In this case I am going to comment on my own experience and I can't speak for every NSAC event.
Did this course exemplify 'skilled instruction and accessible resources within a hospitable environment'?
My initial observation is that there is significant buy-in from the participants with the 'get points or educated' framing. This deep structural design choice solves a lot of potential issues - people only attend (to learn stuff) if they want to.
Reinforced by the tangy £90 entry fee, even the most reluctant learner is invested to make the most of this three hour session. My personal reading of the zoom-room was that the participants ranged from the fresh-faced to cagey-compliant.
YOUR room
As a newly qualified teacher I remember one of the most important principles that I received was that the classroom was YOUR room. With teenagers there was always some kind of ownership tussle (often with amusing results¹). The thing I took away from that early wisdom was golden: establish your territory and invite them into it - without that basis you can’t expect to teach effectively.
At no point did I feel that the NPAC event was anything other than Yvette's (the instructor) room. It's worth pointing out some other implicit features that helped us to trust her:
we each had a pre-entry greeting where ID was checked and zoom surnames were removed
there was a clear warning about the use of respectful language
we were told to NOT upload screenshots of the group
These details were handled in a friendly yet firm manner which meant that everyone in the space was both safe and sitting up. We could see each other and were often encouraged to participate in discussion (no complacency).
These basic design choices set the tone of the entire three hour session. Yvette was good at talking to everyone and gave the impression that this was a good thing to do. By the end it felt it had been a reasonably effective experience lacking in cynicism.
Virtual spaces for real learning
Hospitable learning environments don't need to be literal spaces like the brick and mortar classrooms I fondly endured in the past. In this case it was a virtual space but still very real. Part of the definition of the space was the time keeping. We started promptly, and then broke for a 15 minute break half way through, ending at a time that was well flagged in advance. Simple things like this amplify trust and give a sense of confidence that the people running it know what they are doing.
I am not going to say much here about the specific course material apart from this: it was a well-trodden set of activities with clear videos, slides, discussion points and an accompanying worksheet. At no point did I feel it was lacking. It felt like something that had been done lots of times, works well enough and will continue to do the job.
Improving the provision?²
Targeted accountability would improve this course, but I suspect the additional cost would be significant. As it stands this is a general course with a friendly instructor who runs it well - possibly many times a week - to the point where they could probably do it in their sleep.
However I have some beef with this. Just because something works okay, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be honed to something much better!
In the latter stages you are expected to form some 'next steps' or personal application points for yourself. You are encouraged to think through ways of becoming more aware so it doesn't happen again. The application is left up to each participant to figure out with a bit of basic encouragement from the instructor.
In my mind, skilled instruction implies skilled feedback - if you are going to have an in-person session with this level of intimacy then I think you can probably be a lot more targeted. Although I had benefitted lots from the course as a whole the final application points were slightly fudged and became something vague like: “be more aware”.
Jack was skilled at inflicting pain
When I was learning to drive I failed the first time. Eventually I found a superb instructor called Jack who was painfully personal with his feedback - I passed quickly because he was good at picking up on what I needed for my own tendencies as a flawed driver. For this well-established course to go to the next level I think a three hour commitment ought to land somewhere similar.
I understand that this suggestion comes with all sorts of deep changes which would cost a huge amount in terms of time and money but part of me thinks... driving safely is one of the most important activities you can learn - so why not make the experience the best it can be?
¹ Perhaps my favourite story ever was when a 14 year old brought in a giant bag of frozen carrot slices and threw hundreds of these discs at a particularly ineffective teacher. By the time a senior manager intervened the floor covered in thawing orange debris. I salute that child for raiding his mum's chest freezer and then having the organisational gumption to bring it all the way to school.
² There is a grand tradition of online armchair critics speaking easy advice whose ranks I have no intention of joining.
