Discover the parallels between sandwich-making and educational design. Explore the importance of processes, sequences, and streamlining in achieving efficiency and consistency. Uncover how these concepts can be applied to transform complex systems like education.
We define processes as a set of procedures or directions that can be used outside of the context it was created for to help people achieve a specific goal. Processes become critically important in complex organizational systems which have many moving parts, and often have users who may not fully understand how this particular piece fits within the broader context. It allows for clarity and structure leading to efficiency, consistency, and scalability.
There are two key aspects of designing processes. The first is the incorporation of the temporal element into design. Time becomes an important element in the hands of a designer. Second, is the incorporation of sequence: the need to do things in a particular order. These are steps that we go through to complete a task—whether it be something simple as boiling water to cook an egg to the complex process for completing the FAFSA application to receive financial aid.
Processes simplify and streamline actions, making them consistent to make things flow smoothly and consistently. Process designers can be both formally and informally trained. For instance, teachers can design lesson plans or activities, while human resource professionals create sequences of activities (such as forms that need to be filled out in a certain manner) to make an organization run smoothly.
Processes can be as simple as shopping for groceries: starting from making a list (sometimes even listing items in order of how they are laid out in the store), going to the store to pick up the items needed, which may include sub-processes for selecting between seemingly equivalent options, and finally checking out and paying for the groceries. As another example, one can consider a restaurant to consist of a series of functions and processes that can be represented as a hierarchical map – of all the functions needed to run the restaurant, from production, hiring, marketing, supply-chain and so on. Each of these processes can also be broken down further into sub-processes, such as prepping the ingredients, taking orders, delivering the food...
Education as a complex social enterprise is full of processes that systemize how work gets done to help the educational enterprise function smoothly. These include lesson plans, within and outside of school activities;to bell schedules; to the processes of applying for admission and graduation, and more.
Let’s look at testing in education - there are multiple processes that go into the creation, administration, and evaluation of tests. At an informal level teachers can assess student learning through informal quizzes or evaluations. At the other end are processes for students taking standardized tests and exams that are often conducted under strict rules to prevent cheating. In fact, one industry-changing innovation in standardized tests, computerized-adaptive tests (or CATs), has more to do with processes than any other design space. As a process, CATs focus on creating ‘better’ sequencing of test questions to reduce the testing time. Students receive test questions that better match their measured ability based on the question they just answered. This means they may not receive the same test questions in the same order as their neighboring students. Instead, the process adapts the test for the individual.