At Participate, we aim to ensure people can learn when, where and how they want. We believe that investing in learning means investing in safer, healthier and more equitable communities.
As former educators, instructional designers and education researchers, our team is familiar with the traditional ineffective learning models most professionals experience and, frankly, we want better for our field. We want to live in a world in which everyone has access to the collaborative learning experiences and resources needed to build creative, inclusive and engaging educational environments.
We aim to be bold in the way we design online interactions, opportunities for collaboration and learning beyond a computer screen. Because when we put intention and meaning into our work, we create experiences that redefine learning.
We aim to lift everyone in our organization to their highest potential by seeking out equitable opportunities that empower team members. Being kind expands far beyond our employees, though. We want every partner to feel as though they're part of the Participate family. We seek out partners who embody this value and have kind and sustainable business practices so that the world we live in is a little kinder too.
Our teams regularly provide feedback to one another and explore new ways to serve our partners. Our Partnerships and Customer success teams share product feedback with our Product and Development teams, who iterate features and provide an improved user experience. Learn more about our organization's collaboration here.
Our goal as an organization is to provide meaningful learning experiences. Everything we do is aligned to ensuring that professionals have access to the quality learning they deserve.
Learning that is done in service to or to enhance an ongoing career, doesn’t (or shouldn’t) have a definitive end. Building competence around new and evolving instructional practices, content areas or assessment options is an ongoing process, and learning needs change as competence develops. Here’s our approach to community learning.
Our work is rooted in the understanding that learning is a social activity. No matter the context, humans learn best and are quicker to find meaning in new concepts through collaboration and interaction with peers.
Communities of Practice (CoPs) are collaborative spaces that engage learners in experiences around shared topics or goals. CoPs provide flexible, personalized and blended learning pathways of growth so that learners can utilize preferred learning methods such as online courses, group discussions or curated resource collections. CoPs are also supported by facilitators and peer mentors who work directly with community members to encourage collaboration, moderate discussions, offer guidance and provide productive feedback on course work and implementation of new practices.
Communities are built when a group of individuals connect around a shared interest, goal or purpose. These domains can be anything, such as climate change, project-based learning or even a love of hockey. To build a purposeful community, the domain must extend beyond just liking the same thing or having similar tastes—there is a shared purpose or aspiration amongst the community.
Within a community, people gather around the common purpose to work collaboratively and build knowledge through sharing resources and ideas. Relationships cultivate within communities, and members collectively develop expectations for contributing to the community. The more engaged community members are, the stronger a community can become.
Communities are intentional, active and continuous. All members are challenged to participate in some form of collaboration as a result of being part of the community. As members build knowledge, they take on different roles and engage with the community in different capacities. Each community member is encouraged to follow their personalized pathway of learning—this is their practice.
We approach learning experience design with the following principles:
Throughout human history, we always have learned with and from each other. Social learning not only builds connections between us, it pushes us to think and understand differently and more deeply.
Change and growth occur when we apply what we learn in our daily practice, try out new strategies and reflect on their impact.
Our mission is to ensure that people can learn when, where and how they want. By creating flexible structures with a variety of content and types of experiences, learners can navigate and explore in ways that work for them.
When we extend learning beyond a single event and sustain experiences and engagement over time, learners have space and structure to revisit and play with ideas as they deepen and build mastery.
Viewable, downloadable, shareable and printable certificates utilizing the Open Badge Infrastructure (OBI) 2.0 specifications. Digital certificates display learner name, issuer name, date of issue, expiration date (if applicable) and number of professional development hours earned. Submission of learning products for peer or expert review is not required to earn a digital certificate.
Utilize the same attributes and specifications of digital certificates but require the submission of learning products, and expert or peer review of those products, to be earned. Micro-credentials effectively track development of competency and accompany series of professional development courses designed to progressively support competency.
More resources on micro-credentials:
While we wait to meet face-to-face, connect with us in some of our online communities.
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