E-LEARNING COURSE “THE AGILE MINDSET”

by Stephanie Winterstein

RATIONALE
Agility is popular and a response to the continuing digital transformation. It seems that each person
involved has a different understanding of agility, depending on the perspective from which they
perceive the change. We often confuse agility with a new form of project management from software
development or the application of agile practices such as daily stand-ups or time-boxing in everyday
work. Almost every area is "agilized" and even entire organizations are reorganized to create an agile
culture. What many don't know is that agility is a set of values and principles that gives teams a
framework for agile working. However, a simple understanding of agile values and principles does not
change employee behavior. Rather, deeply rooted beliefs determine our thoughts and actions. Here we
speak of our mindset - the way we think. Only when the majority of employees have internalized the
agile values and principles in their mindsets can an organization be truly agile.

GOAL OF INSTRUCTION
The goal of the e-learning course is to show the learner the advantages and necessity of agile working
and to give him concrete ways to replace obsolete beliefs with a new agile mindset.

DESCRIPTION / BACKGROUND OF LEARNER

The course is designed for all learners who

• have either already gained experience in agile work, but are not yet successful in it;
• do not have any previous knowledge, but are interested in what agility means in the company
and why it is so important;
• want to act as a change manager within the company and drive digital transformation.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of the course the learner is able to

• explain the agile values and principles and their correlation to a mindset;
• distinguish between agile doing and agile being;
• apply mindset change tools to initiative the personal transformation process.

PERFORMANCE BASED ASSESSMENT

After finishing the learning units the learner is asked to join an assessment. In this assessment the
knowledge is tested via multiple choice questions, card sorting, right/wrong queries etc. The learner
receives points for each correct or partly correct answer. If the learner achieves more than 66% correct
answers, he or she passes the course and earns a certificate of attendance.
CONTENT

1. Being agile is modern!

a. VUCA World
b. Agile organizations
2. Difference between being agile and doing agile
a. Agile values
b. Agile principles
3. Agile mindset
a. Agile our mind
b. How agile is your working environment?
4. Mindset change tools
a. Applying a growth mindset
b. Use The WORK
c. Practice mindfulness by using SCRUM
5. Assessment / test

INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY
An agile mindset is not a competence that is easy to learn. Rather, it is the result of practical
experience and application. This cannot be reflected in an eLearning. However, change always starts
where awareness is created. Exactly this is the instructional strategy of the eLearning course.

The success of an eLearning course strongly depends on the engagement of the learners. By preparing
well-founded content on the VUCA world, agile organizations and agile values and principles, the
learner understands the importance of agility and become self-motivated to change from doing agile to
being agile. The instructions are guiding them through the units and present in the end three practical
instruments with the help of which the learner gets a tool in hand to take the first steps towards a
mindset change.

According to the UDL principles, the content representation is key as well. It is important that the
content is interactive and varied, so that every type of learner can find their way into it. In this course
the contents are prepared interactively using an authoring tool. Numerous illustrations, images and
videos supplement the short text passages. The look and feel are modern and use uniform color palette
and fonts. All content is optimized for mobile devices, so that the learner can also learn on the move.

In the end the learners have the possibility to demonstrate their understanding by completing an
assessment. I decided for a test, the traditional choice for expression. Here is still room for
improvement, e.g. giving students a choice of how they will complete assignments allows each learner
to demonstrate his knowledge in a way that is relevant to him or her.