Bringing people together and learning from a range of perspectives is one of the most enjoyable aspects of my job. In all my professional roles, working with others and bringing a range of expertise together has been key in achieving successful outcomes. This article is a reflection of a LEGO Serious Play (LSP) session which brought together a community of online learner practitioners and provided a starter for rich conversations, challenging of assumptions and greater understanding of our shared values of online education.
Rules of play
The exercise was based on a single question: what is joyful online learning? In the room there were colleagues from a range of teams including academics leading the teaching of programmes, learning designers, course operations and marketing. Already, it should be clear from that list that the range of perspectives and personal viewpoints that could answer that question are diverse. The session was facilitated by Sarah Briggs, who is trained in LSP methods and helped the group engage with the activity. The method has some key principles which includes one point that I think stands out: don’t infer from what others have built. This is a really interesting rule to avoid making assumptions, but also avoiding placing your own meaning onto someone else’s representation. It requires participants to listen, to ask questions and to engage rather than project their own prejudices or perspectives on the understanding, experiences and ideas of others.
Representing joyful online learning
“Technology is critical to achieving the joy of learning in the 21st century and beyond…”
(Omidire et al., 2021)
The photo above shows my LEGO model. It aims to bring together both the participants in online learning and the structures of educational design. Hidden underneath the raised base is a green plant piece (representing a tree of knowledge – in whatever philosophical interpretation is most appropriate to the subject) and a yellow transparent light piece (representing ideas and creativity), these underpin the educational experience offered by the university.
At the start of the journey are onboarding rails, guides that lead a student towards their studies. The blocks are not attached as they represent prior knowledge which, particularly for professional learners, may or may not be directly connected to where the student goes next, but are nonetheless part of what they bring to the experience. They access their learning and interactions with others through a computer, decorated with flags of success. The student then moves through a designed course, but adds pieces as they go, tailoring their experience by what they engage with and what inspires them (represented by the flowers).
On the journey they draw upon and influence other students, who bring different perspectives to the designed course (represented by the eyes looking in different directions). The end of the journey is a bridge that leads to where the student wants to go. They may not know the next step, but there is connection to it and they are running forward (successful, and with a knowing smile).
How does this define joyful online learning?
Online learning can be defined by a designed learning experience, academic subject matter, a series of processes and institutional structures. These all have to come together with a range of teams and professionals collaborating towards a common set of goals. However, to do this effectively requires surfacing perceptions of what the common goals are and how each group perceives the purpose and value of online learning. This is a form of organisational learning and parallels the bringing together of perspectives that often defines enjoyable educational experiences. Omidire et al. (2021), through a survey of students and lecturers in southern Africa, identified a number of aspects of teaching and learning that brought joy to the experience. These included individuals being valued for their diversity, the opportunity to share perspectives, connection to lived experiences and technology as a means to engage and interact. As a concept, joyful learning is therefore a celebration of the human experience of education, both in connecting people but also pragmatically, having direct relevance to an individual’s contexts and goals. The purpose of the LSP activity was to establish our own views of joyful online learning, with our own meanings and goals in mind.
My perspective shows the interplay between individuals involved in education, the student, other students and the scaffolding that is provided by educators and the institution. The form is somewhat linear, but it is not regular, and the guide rails stop early in the journey. I’ve placed my student at the end of the journey, but also included a representation of what they bring at the beginning. This viewpoint can be brought alongside others who may have focused on the physical space of where students learn online, the choices students have before they commit to a programme or study, the activities they will experience or the support structures in place. As a group of professionals working in education, these representations help us understand each other, what our focuses of work are in our roles, our motivations for what we do. That helps support better cross-team working and better alignment with the common goal of joyful online learning.
Is this a good use of time?
For the cynics out there, I understand you. My first encounter with LEGO Serious Play was in 2019 at the BETT educational technology expo. It wasn’t until I attended a talk that included examples from London Design & Engineering UTC did I start to understand the reasoning why LSP could hold such value to educational experiences and organisational learning. LEGO was being used not as a toy or literal technology, but as a form of representation using a combination of simple bricks, shapes and objects. LEGO was being used to physically and visually manifest personal, emotive and potentially abstract ideas. There are now thousands of examples of the use of Lego Serious Play for education and business. These include the use of LSP to enable discussion of complex projects, social issues and personal experiences, each challenging assumptions and enabling articulation of a wide range of ideas that words on paper fail to encapsulate. It wasn’t until I started experiencing LSP sessions as a participant did I realise the value of the structure and method to facilitate complex discussion. For further reading, see Nerantzi and James (2019) who offered a range of stories of how LEGO and creativity in education have been used to facilitate thinking and discussion, including staff development. A summary of the approach and applications in higher education are provided by Trowsdale (2024).
It is possible to have facilitated discussion without the use of LEGO. However, thinking about my example, it would be difficult to convey so many ideas, how they interlink and the hidden aspects purely verbally or on a two-dimensional diagram. LSP isn’t a single unifying approach to discussion, but it does offer a different form of discussion that prompts both reflection, reasoning and critical thinking. Why did I choose that piece?
What did I learn?
This activity was an opportunity to uncover a rich picture of online learning journeys, experiences and design that emerged from sharing and discussion with colleagues. As I lead teams in online learning, I have a better understanding of the motivations, values and perspectives of people who make a highly connected and complex partnership work. It also helped me articulate that in summary, joyful online learning for me is in putting all the pieces together.
References
Nerantzi, C. & James, A. (2019). LEGO® for University Learning: Inspiring academic practice in higher education.
Omidire, M. F., Aluko, F. R. & Mampane, M. R. (2021). Promoting the joy of teaching and learning in a diverse world, South African Journal of Higher Education, 35(5).
Trowsdale, D. (2024). LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®. Dan Trowsdale Website.
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