Background
In the spring of 2014, my husband and I attended a course on childbirth and newborn care as expectant, first-time parents. The course was a free, four-session, weekly class conducted after normal business hours in a repurposed waiting room of the hospital where we would deliver. Each of the first three sessions was taught by a different labor and delivery nurse, and the final session was facilitated by the hospital's lactation consultant. While there were about 20 couples in attendance, the class setup and facilitation did little to encourage any sense of community. Information was delivered primarily via lecture, accompanied by PowerPoint handouts, and my husband and I often left feeling as though we had wasted our evening.
Anecdotal evidence from other parents I have talked with since suggest that elements of my experience, from unengaging facilitators to outdated materials and poor class setup, are not uncommon. My community health and adult education training lead me to believe that there must be a better way to design and deliver courses on childbirth and newborn care.
This fall, I have had a wonderful opportunity to further examine this issue in an instructional design course at Colorado State University. Throughout the semester, I conducted a needs analysis to better understand the problems and opportunities for innovation, reached out to would-be learners to more fully grasp their concerns and desires, and began developing a course that I believe will much more closely meet the needs of today's learners. This site offers a look at my journey through the instructional design process and my proposed course.
Anecdotal evidence from other parents I have talked with since suggest that elements of my experience, from unengaging facilitators to outdated materials and poor class setup, are not uncommon. My community health and adult education training lead me to believe that there must be a better way to design and deliver courses on childbirth and newborn care.
This fall, I have had a wonderful opportunity to further examine this issue in an instructional design course at Colorado State University. Throughout the semester, I conducted a needs analysis to better understand the problems and opportunities for innovation, reached out to would-be learners to more fully grasp their concerns and desires, and began developing a course that I believe will much more closely meet the needs of today's learners. This site offers a look at my journey through the instructional design process and my proposed course.