Platform research & development
The Premise of NextGen Learning
It’s been a while since I last wrote a blog and a lot has changed: my university career has come to an end, Kansas City finally won its second Super Bowl, and the Canada School of Public Service is undergoing its largest digital change since 2014. Akin to what KC accomplished with its new 4–3 defence in 2019, the organization is revamping its entire digital ecosystem and the future of public service learning is looking bright. Our systems are moving into the cloud, our new applications (Moodle 3.6 and CraftCMS) that enable quicker delivery of learning content are in their beta phases and our NextGen Learning team is searching for the replacement of the organization’s learning management system (LMS).
Why the term NextGen?
There are 3 projects I know of that are using the prefix of Next Generation (NextGen). They are HR to Pay, Travel and Learning, and are led by the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) and Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), and the Canada School of Public Service (CSPS) respectively. Each initiative uses a human-centred approach to re-imagine the way we offer our pay, travel and learning experiences. The NextGen approach aims to avoid solutions that fall short of the goal line of public servant expectations. When an organization puts NextGen in front of its initiative, it is committing to the improvement of the daily work of public servants by listening to its users and genuinely involving them early and often throughout the process. For us, this means that learners, faculty and administrators have been part of our initiative since the very beginning. It also means that they will be part of the evaluations where we test and select which learning platform fits best with our future.
What is NextGen Learning?
For those unfamiliar with NextGen Learning (also known as the Next Generation Digital Learning Environment), it is the continuation of the CSPS’s commitment to offering the highest quality of learning experiences. To sustain this commitment, up to 200 learners, faculty and administrators will test up to the top 3 platforms to help us select our next learning platform. Their input will provide meaningful insight into the evolution of our digital learning ecosystem already informed by:
- learner, faculty and administrator feedback;
- our very first Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) with the Privy Council Office (PCO);
- field studies;
- service blueprints;
- learning analytics; and,
- the thousands of comments we received from our learners since GCcampus went live.
In essence, this represents the culmination of years of work that the Learning Platforms team put into ensuring that the next LMS would meet, if not exceed the expectations of our learners, as well as capitalize on the improvements of today’s technology such as machine learning, responsive design, social learning and application programming interfaces (APIs).
Partnering with PSPC and using an agile procurement process has helped us put our users at the center. This was done by building openness, accessibility, official languages, mobile learning and curation into our playbook from the start. These pillars will ensure that our learning content is easier to find and readily available at the moment of need.
Want to get involved?
To deliver on our promise of offering the highest quality of learning experiences, we are inviting federal public servants to test up to the top 3 bidders this spring and help us determine the best fit. If you are interested in being part of this initiative or would like to know more, you may consult our Request For Proposal, e-mail us at csps.userexperience-experienceutilisateur.efpc@canada.ca or feel free to send me a direct message on Twitter.
This is the first in a series of blogs about NextGen Learning at CSPS. Please stay tuned for updates as our initiative progresses and more information can be made available.
Disclaimer: Though I use we and our throughout the post, the views in this blog represent my own.
