[Pre-U] IPW Toolkit 2021: Guides, Online Tools and Ready-to-use Printables!

Written by: Angeline Quek, Nadiah Razali, Nurulhuda A Halim and Victoria-Marie Jean Er

The innovation and how it came about

It is without a doubt that the past 2 years have presented fresh challenges for teachers as they handled safe management measures (SMM), pivoted quickly to Home-Based Learning, and did their best to engage students both in the classroom and online. It was with this in mind that our team was especially driven to consider how the resources we create can lessen the load for teachers and support their implementation of Blended Learning.

The IPW Toolkit was developed to support teachers attending the workshop on Implementing Interdisciplinary Project Work Effectively for New Coordinators in September 2021. In our planning, the team examined the 2020 IPW Implementation Profile submissions to guide our crafting of the workshop objectives and what needed prioritisation. What used to be a 4-hour in-person workshop had to be scaled down to an online version of no more than 3 hours. Besides supporting the new coordinators with essential information for planning the IPW curriculum, the team wanted to help the coordinators with practicable teaching approaches and strategies to support the facilitation of critical thinking and brainstorming strategies. Thus, the idea of creating a useful blended learning resource for IPW Coordinators was born!

Design considerations

Before designing the toolkit, the team spent some time considering the current context that the teachers were functioning in. The guiding question on our minds was, “as an IPW teacher in 2021, how can resources be designed for quality IPW lessons?”

Answering this question raised the following considerations:

1. Teachers’ Time – the toolkit must provide useful strategies and easy-to-use tools

2. Usability – the resources should provide flexibility for customisation but not require too much adaptation

3. Functionality – the toolkit should support both asynchronous and synchronous learning

How we innovated

With these considerations, the team developed a toolkit with these innovative features.

Built resources to save teachers’ time	Reduced decision fatigue by curating the 6 best facilitation strategies so that teachers do not have to wade through an entire stack of resources. Included tooltips for easy reference on the most appropriate strategies for the learning profile and skills to develop in students. Created aesthetically appealing printables for students.
Increased Usability	Simplified the language used so that it is easier to understand how to use the strategies, and what the students should do. Adapted the tools to the teaching and learning needs of the IPW classroom.
Ensured Functionality	Provided ideas for applying the strategies for both asynchronous and synchronous learning. Hyperlinked free online tools that can be used.

Examples from the IPW toolkit

	An example of the 6 strategies curated.
All facilitation guides are 1-page long and tagged with tooltips at the top-right hand corner.
	Printables resources for immediate use.

Our reflection

The challenges we faced:

• Some challenges the team faced included adapting the language and tools to the IPW classroom and designing the toolkit on Canva to make the user experience as pleasant as possible. It was an exciting challenge to explore the capabilities of Canva and apply design principles to ensure that the toolkit was attractive and functional.

Our learning points:

• Many teachers were delighted to learn about the IPW Toolkit and the printables. It was edifying to hear how our small efforts were well-received. We learnt that it is important to consider the needs of our users before, during and after the process of creating the resource to ensure it truly functions as a resource that helps teachers in their work. Along the way, we had fun with Canva and highly recommend it to all teams who are looking to create beautifully designed resources.