Construction of a community organizer training program
As a learning science consultant working with Meetup.com, I’ve had the opportunity to work with hundreds of community organizers over the past several years. One of the key things I’ve observed is that the most successful organizers aren’t just passionate about their communities – they also possess a core set of leadership skills that allow them to effectively guide and empower their members. Yet, in working with Meetup Management, I developed various training programs and database analysis to identify the 3 essential leadership competencies that the training we deployed focused on.
The three key skills of community leadership, was sight, service, and sustenance. Organizers needed training on how their vision and insight into their community could be communicated. Leaders of communities must be of serving opportunities for both member growth and community growth. And finally, they must provide a unique set of valuable experiences that enrich the community and provide services that if they wish to can provide income to support the community. Below is the follow portfolio of work done on behalf of Meetup.com
Compelling Event: High-Churn Rate and Low Engagement.
The brief section provides a concise summary of the learning design project, including the objectives, target audience, and key deliverables. It sets the stage for the rest of the portfolio by outlining the scope and purpose of the project.
Learning Design Project OverviewTarget: In working with meetup executives, technical management and organizers, it was found the most fundamental issue is maintaining high levels of active user engagement across our thousands of diverse Meetup groups.
Objectives: Developing strategies to re-engage lapsed users and attract new members to replace attrition is an ongoing priority. Keeping members consistently participating and organizing events requires that we deeply understand the evolving interests and needs of our user base. This is complicated by the natural ebb and flow of group dynamics, as new members join and long-time organizers move on.
Deliverables: Developing training and content related to community leadership is the challenge of moderating the vast amount of user-generated content and discussions happening across Meetup’s platform. With groups covering myriad topics, we must walk a fine line between allowing organic community interaction and ensuring conversations remain constructive and aligned with each group’s purpose. Implementing effective training and content moderation policies and tools is critical to preserving Meetup’s reputation.
This section delves into the theoretical foundations and principles of learning science that inform the design. It includes:
- Theories and Models: Explanation of the learning theories and models applied (e.g., LPP, ZPD, ELC).
- Research and Evidence: Summary of relevant research and evidence that supports the chosen approach.
- Learner Analysis: Insights into the characteristics, needs, and preferences of the target audience.
Theoretical foundations and principles of learning science that inform the designResearch and Evidence: In working with Meetup, my learning science approach was to look at how organizers learn through three lenses from science of skill development. Every client has different needs and Meetup was one where the emphasis was on churn-rate of paying customers aka community organizers and low engagement of the their community members.
Theories and Models: Because of the high level of social interactions, leadership issues, and the importance of growth, I focused on three key aspects of learning science. Legitimate Peripheral Participation, Zone of Proximal Development, and Experiential Learning Cycles as value drivers.
LPP – Helping newcomers learn to participate and create cohesion.
ZPD – Providing the right level skills and social development for organizer leaders.
ELC – Creating full cycle learning experiences for members to gain new abilities.
Learner Analysis: Organizers of communities are by there very nature individuals who chose to create a community and lead it. Therefore, care must be taken to allow each organizer to shape the curriculum to the needs of their community.
Here, the focus is on the practical steps taken to design and develop the learning materials. This includes:
- Instructional Design: Detailed description of the instructional strategies and methods used.
- Content Development: Process of creating and organizing the content.
- Technology Integration: Tools and platforms used to deliver the learning experience.
- Prototyping and Testing: Iterative process of creating prototypes and testing them with users.
Iterative Learning Materials Development CycleInstructional Design: I used a Backward Triple Spiral Design. This is a modification of McTighe and Wiggins work that focuses on first what are the aspired skills one wants in the field. And second, how would we assess that the performance of these skills and abilities were attained. Only then, can the instructional development move to content.
Technology Integration: The essence of meetup is using meetup online to get people to be meeting in-person. So utilizing the meetup platform and adding additional services such as file archives and pre-training collaboration used outside services linked to the platform.
Content Development This project had three cycle-phases, discovery-planning, executing-delivery, and monitoring-close. The challenge was Meetup went through multiple rounds of funding and four changes of ownership from private corporation, to subsidiary, to venture capital, and then to private equity. These phases repeated and took multiple twists and turns.
In the Discovery-Planning phase I asked to review the data that would expose the rate of churn and engagement of community events. In the artifacts tab you can download and review that report.
Prototyping and Testing: In the executing-delivery phase I collaborated with Meetup Management to deploy training for the meetup organizers. And had agile sessions to adjust training material and activities based on session feedback
In the monitoring-close phase, I developed several evaluation reports to qualitatively check on the overall health of the organizer community. Using conversation analysis and impromptu polling to get authentic sense of Net-promoter scores.
This section evaluates the effectiveness of the learning design and its impact on the learners. It includes:
Instructional design and its impact on the learners- Assessment Methods: Description of the assessment tools and techniques used to measure learning outcomes.
- Data Collection and Analysis: Methods for collecting and analyzing data to evaluate the impact.
- Results and Findings: Summary of the evaluation results and key findings.
- Impact on Learners: Discussion of how the learning design has affected the learners’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
Learning Impact: To capture and monitor impact, a WK Kellogg foundational logic map was created and updated during the length of this multi-modal engagement. Every logic model contains resource-inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts.
Assessment Tools: To assess progress, assumptions, indicators, tracking and scanning of external factors must be maintained. This logic board has been assessable to all participants, stakeholders and trainers. Transparency is critical to any kind of improvement initiative.
Meetup Community Organizer Training Logic BoardData Analysis: Meetup shared 3 years of anonymized user data to track and analyze group growth patters. Additionally, I worked with management over a year to develop community organizer training and content. And finally, I processed over two dozen in-depth interviews with community organizers to understand their challenges. Identifying both strengths and weaknesses in the platform. This provided a true 360 evaluation of the platform and all of its stakeholders.
Evaluation: The results were handed to both management and shared with the organizers. I have shared some examples of the work in the Artifacts tab. Meetup provides a critical piece of social infrastructure. Everyone from community non-profits to global brands leverages
Meetup.
Impact: The challenge beyond the technical difficulties is understanding that the Organizers are ‘Experience App Developers’, and that Meetup is an online Market for these experience app developers.
Yet it is the experience of leading these communities is something that makes a huge difference in the lives of thousands of members and event creators.
Reflecting on the project, this section highlights the key lessons learned throughout the process. It includes:
- Challenges and Solutions: Description of the challenges faced and how they were addressed.
- Successes and Best Practices: Identification of what worked well and best practices for future projects.
- Recommendations for Improvement: Suggestions for improving the design and development process in future projects.
Key lessons learned throughout the processChallenges: In working with multiple management changes, hundreds of organizers, and thousands of meetup members, there are some critical challenges that this process exposed.
Ownership and Management changes are disruptive. But levels of service should always be improved. The challenge is setting priorities and communication to those objectives to all stakeholders.
Best Practices: Too often technology shapes value, rather than core values shaping the technology infrastructure. Technical debt, or short-cuts to value amassed from one management team to the next by avoiding investment in technology maintenance. This technical debt hampered supported change initiatives surfaced from the learning initiatives.
Recommendations: Too often learning is designed top-down rather than bottom up. This lack of balance of information sharing and learning means that the field is an untapped funds of knowledge. Those working with customers and clients know and understand the challenges better than anyone else. Learning to be truly transformational must work both top to bottom and bottom to top.
The final section showcases the tangible artifacts and elements that make up the portfolio. This includes:
- Sample Materials: Examples of instructional materials, such as lesson plans, multimedia content, and assessments.
- Design Documents: Documentation of the design process, including storyboards, wireframes, and design specifications.
- Evaluation Reports: Reports summarizing the evaluation findings and impact assessments.
- Learner Feedback: Testimonials and feedback from learners who participated in the project.
Tangible artifacts and elements that make up the portfolio
Links:
Micro-course for Monetizing Meetup for Organizers
Tools: Articulate, FileZilla, Hey.Gen.ai, Final Cut…
Social Capital Entrepreneur – Data Report
Tools: R Studio, Word, Gimp Photo…
2023 Progress Report
Tools: Powerpoint, Gemini.ai, Miro …
By following this structured approach, the portfolio of learning design provides a comprehensive and reflective presentation of the project, demonstrating the expertise and the impact of my work.
All clients get this level of detail if requested and necessary.
