Narrative and Instructional Design

For this project, I wanted to contribute to the field of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), specifically the Women in Technology (WIT) community at NYU. My personal preference for approaching a new instructional design project is to follow a hybrid of the ADDIE and SAM models, however, due to time and access, I instead worked directly with the co-chair WIT who was able to provide me with the results of a recent member survey about their learning interests to guide my design process. Most of the members surveyed expressed interest in developing their professional skills and while there are many topics that can fall into that category, I went with public speaking because it was a popular session topic for members in the past and something that I have expertise in. Additionally, because the mission of WIT is to empower women in tech, my intention with this design is to use that as a persistent theme with all of the learning activities and assignments.

Learning Goal: WIT members will understand effective public speaking and improve their skills when delivering speeches.

Learning Objectives

  • WIT members will be able to list and classify the characteristics of and strategies for effective public speaking.
  • After watching examples of speeches, WIT members will be able to recognize and summarize the characteristics of effective public speaking.
  • After watching examples of speeches, WIT members will be able to deconstruct their various elements and provide feedback using the characteristics of effective public speaking as a rubric.
  • When given a prompt, WIT members will be able to create a speech that integrates characteristics of effective public speaking and deliver that speech using the strategies they’ve learned.
  • After delivering a speech, WIT members will be able to reflect on their own public speaking, summarize how they included the public speaking best practices, and judge their progress.

Learning Activities

For the purpose of this class project, I’m only including a small sample of learning activities to help demonstrate the narrative elements of this learning design.

Watch and Evaluate Speeches

Learning Objective: After watching examples of speeches, WIT members will be able to recognize and summarize the characteristics of effective public speaking.

  1. WIT members will watch clips of speeches delivered by women and take notes on elements of the speeches they found to be compelling.
  2. Members will then participate in small group discussions on the clips they just saw.
  3. After discussing in small groups, a facilitator will lead them through the clips again and create opportunities for members to share their notes in real-time.
  4. WIT members will select three speeches to watch and evaluate independently. They’ll also write a brief reflection on each video outlining the characteristics of effective public speaking they observed (or didn’t) and their impact on the speech overall.

The list of example speeches WIT members may watch as part of these activities include:

Create and Deliver a Speech

Learning Objective: When given a prompt, WIT members will be able to create a speech that integrates characteristics of effective public speaking and deliver that speech using the strategies they’ve learned.

  1. WIT members will write and deliver a 2-3 minute speech based on an available list of topics.
    • An important woman in STEM history
    • A mentor who’s had an impact on your life
    • Someone you admire
  2. WIT members will write and deliver a 7-10 minute speech based on an available list of topics.
    • Share your favorite piece of STEM knowledge
    • Teach us how to do something
  3. WIT members will write and deliver a 14-16 minute speech based on an available list of topics.
    • Inspire us to pursue a career in STEM
    • Inspire us to study STEM in school
    • Motivate us to succeed in a STEM field
    • Empower women