Recipe: Nordic Rebels micromodules for engaging learning

Nordic Rebels is an award-winning* Finnish-Danish movement established in 2018 aiming at goosebumpifying learning. We rely on some of the famed Nordic values and strengths: openness and trust, storytelling and cuisine, design, and pedagogical competencies. 

We have created publicly available design videos focusing on multidisciplinary teamwork, design processes, and skills for the future. Whilst shooting the videos for the third season during summer 2019, we realized they could be used in a multitude of ways, and as a result we started toying around with the micromodule concept.

In essence, one micromodule corresponds to roughly three hours of students’ effort, meaning that nine micromodules counts as one credit in the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). 

Of course, this is only our estimate, and the main point here is that the material can be used in many different way but particularly to  offer students a balancing act for all the real-time teaching sessions happening via Zoom or similar products.

Below, we give an example of one micromodule focusing on compassion and courage in teamwork This micromodule can be utilized as a way to kickstart a team project during your course or alternatively as a session to reflect on the teamwork experience so far.

Method: Micromodule on compassion and courage in teamwork

This method gives a recipe on how to create a micromodule on compassion and courage in teamwork. See the General method below if you want to create your own micro module

1. Assign students into teams. A good team size is 3 or 4 people to allow everyone to contribute.
2. Ask the participants to watch Nordic Rebels Season 1 Episode 2
   • Long version: https://youtu.be/bDAvj3zuZpg (33 minutes)
   • Short version: https://youtu.be/lxMn-IfLlL4 (13 minutes)
3. Next, the participants should discuss the episode in their team and fill out our Team Contract
   • Team discussion on the episode and collectively creating a mind map, for example (30 to 45 minutes)
   • Using the discussion as a basis for filling out the Team Contract (30 to 45 minutes)
4. Finally, a reflection and debriefing session with the whole class (30 to 45 minutes)
   • Mind maps created by the teams can be uploaded to the course platform so they can be accessed by everyone 
   • Teacher facilitates the discussion focusing on the episode and reflecting on the Team Contract and its relevance
   • If you are running this micro module as part of a larger project, this is the opportunity to relate it to that.

Following this template, this micromodule should cover approximately 100 to 165 minutes. It can be made longer by including relevant readings, for example, or shortened by focusing on the episode only (leaving out the Team Contract activity and emphasizing team discussion instead). 

General Method

1. Go through the Nordic Rebels episodes and see which of them resonate with the course you are teaching, and choose one. (To help you go through the episodes quickly, we have created a teacher’s manual for each episode. This document is being updated on a regular basis.)
2. Start from the session’s learning outcomes and the key message, what would you like to leave the participants with. (In other words, learning outcomes for the session from your course you were thinking of transforming into a micromodule). Consider the individual or team-based activity that connects with the episode.
3. Consider any additional readings or material you might need to offer a comprehensive topic or to fit with your learning outcomes and activity.
4. As we mentioned above, one micromodule roughly corresponds to three hours of work, but based on our experiences these hours should be spread out to avoid attrition. One option would be to spread out the micromodule on three consecutive days: pre-material (Day 1), activity (Day 2), reflection (Day 3). 
5. Provide the students with a brief to the micromodule: what are the learning outcomes, what happens and when, where the participants can find the material, and how does the micromodule link to the overall learning outcomes of the course.
6. In terms of the activities, we recommend doing offline activities to balance the time spent in front of the computer. Having said that, reflections can also be done offline, the main thing here is to focus on ensuring the participants do not spend too much time in front of their devices (most likely they will do that after courses when binging on Netflix, for example). 
7. For activities and reflections, make sure to have concrete outputs. They can be letters, visualizations, audio recordings – producing something concrete in the end ensures the participants remember the experience better.

If you would like to know more about our approach to micromodules, you can read more about it in a recent blog post we wrote on our website.  We hope it gives you an idea for how you can start creating your own micromodules.