> [!summary]+ Summary > This page describes the concepting of a small values proposition video to highlight the work of Instructional Designers and Multimedia Producers working together. I worked with the teams to reveal our (joint) values as part of communicating to faculty/clients in creating online courses. # Center for Teaching Excellence teams value proposition video While I was serving as Director of Strategic Digital Learning Initiatives at the George Washington University (GWU) Libraries and Academic Innovation (LAI) I oversaw a team within the Center for Teaching Excellence. My team consisted of multimedia producers who had a two-part mission. One part was to support the design and development of online courses. And the second part, was to help elevate faculty digital fluency the various programs and initiatives. In completing the first part, the team worked in close collaboration with a group of Instructional Designers who oversaw online course architecture and the overall learning design. The teams had a set of general values that they cared about, but also had a series of individual values that each contributor wanted to achieve. On top of this were the values of the partnering faculty. The partnership between the teams and the faculty/client typically had one consistently challenging part. This was the faculty/client understanding the **value** that the Instructional Designers and Multimedia Producers brought beyond their domain expertise. Recognizing this, I discussed with a director colleague an idea to create something of a values proposition video and use it as a way to introduce the teams to the faculty/client at kick-off sessions. We could share it within a kick-off session Blackboard site and we could even post it on our department website. We ended up sharing this idea with the teams and from there decided to explore creating a small communications piece. ## Mapping the video design On one afternoon, we got the teams together in a conference room and began to map out what the video may be. As we started we needed to agree on who we would target, what we would tell them, why we would tell them those things, and how we would *wow* them. As in previous work, I leveraged the Liedtka design thinking framework to set this up. (See [[2021-2022, Starting Adobe Series#A design thinking framework]].) At the same time, we dug into what was driving each person and what each person valued. Much of this was known and unsurprising. But some was revealing to myself and another director. ### The full whiteboard design As we discussed target audience communication, we expanded a bit beyond the primary audience of faculty/clients. We considered leadership, college program directors, and new staff who would be on-boarded in the future. Most important in the "what/why" column was that faculty become our collaborators/partners. (This is a common challenge regardless of industry.) And finally, we wanted to *wow* them through clarity of message, definition of team purposes, and clear operational knowledge of the process. ![[2023_cte-values-1.jpg|Center]] ### Zoom-in on the values As we talked the idea out, a series of values came forth from the Instructional Designers and Multimedia Producers. These were for the faculty/client and were as follows: 1. Help envision digital communications 2. Usage of modern technology 3. Power of media to support learning 4. Powerful educational media 5. Communication and storytelling 6. Knowledge sharing 7. Tangible results 8. Re-create online teaching through new perspectives grounded in research 9. Transformative online teaching through transforming teaching practice 10. Faculty digital empowerment (i.e. digital fluency) 11. Enhancing the student experience Additionally, the teams equally revealed that they wanted to be sure to communicate their role as thought partners, advisors, effective project managers, and creating efficiencies to allow faculty focus on teaching. **These I loved!** ![[2023_cte-values-2.jpg|Center]] The values however needed to be narrowed down. As mentioned, this was supposed to be something of a tight values proposition video. So clear, direct, and an easy to remember message were key features. We took a little time to narrow down to 2 values that each team cared about communicating the most. ### Final values and a planned linear flow My team decided that the values we cared most strongly about were that the team be seen as 1) experts in storytelling with emerging technologies and 2) desirous of empowering faculty with (digital) transformation. Our Instructional Design colleagues separately agreed that the values they cared most strongly about were 1) revealing the best formats for online instruction/learning and 2) that their practices were grounded in research. In the end, we aimed to communicate that by working in partnership, the faculty/client would have a product and practice to support: 1) better teaching, 2) a better student experience, and 3) contribute to lower student cost. We decided that the way we would tell this would be by **showing faculty/clients how by working with us we would help them tell the story of their content across various digital formats, in the process transforming their knowledge and skills, and all the while ensuring that everything done was grounded in research.** ## 🎯 Results This activity was mapped out and storyboarded beyond this initial concepting stage. However, it fell to the way side first by competing projects and then by department restructuring on how we operated. I always thought this was unfortunate because it would have made a good general communications and online piece. And knowing the faculty/clients as I did, it could have been a nice introduction that helped them know our teams had professional desires of their own in the joint work.