Content Creation Lab

Global Virtual Internship

GNG created the Content Creation Lab to counter youth isolation during the Pandemic. Global youth were reaching out, looking for a virtual “third space” (not school or home) where they could find purpose and a sense of belonging. The innovation has endured well beyond the Pandemic lock-down period; multiple youth reach out daily to inquire about opportunities to join this powerful youth community.

bookmark_border

Bookmark

play_arrow

Overview

Information on this page is provided by the innovator and has not been evaluated by HundrED.

Web presence

2020

Established

5.4K

Children

16

Countries

Target group

Students upper

Updated

April 2024

We dream of a more just and sustainable world shaped by GNG alums whose work promotes the inherent dignity and worth of every human being, worldwide. We envision schools as places where students engage deeply in universal design to collaboratively create globally-informed, rigorous and relevant courses for one another, prioritizing accessibility, inclusion and belonging in their designs.

About the innovation

Why did you create this innovation?

What does your innovation look like in practice?

The Content Creation Lab (CCL) is an internship program in which multinational youth collaboratively design virtual courses on social issues for their global peers. After training in universal design, accessibility and backwards mapping, teams of interns use Zoom, Slack, and other collaborative platforms found in the modern workplace to plan, draft, UX test and finalize their designs for asynchronous and synchronous virtual learning opportunities. Each team is led by youth leaders who receive leadership development training and support from GNG staff. Participant surveys reveal a strong sense of belonging and increased skills and the resulting courses reach thousands of their global peers through GNG’s distribution channels. Of note, when tested against courses designed by adults, the youth-designed courses outperform on outcome measures of increased empathy, global awareness, action orientation, and 21st Century skills.

How has it been spreading?

In the past two years our CCL cohorts have been funded by specific clients interested in youth-driven curriculum design. One client is working on a California state-funded k-12 environmental justice curricular units and contracted with us to have our global youth create the 7th grade unit. Another client contracted with us to run a cohort to design an Equity Leadership Program with interns from their global network of “opportunity youth” (those neither employed or in school). Via grant funding as well as client engagement, we hope to expand the number of cohorts we can run in a given year to have greater impact on more participating youth as well as increase the ultimate end-users of the courses they design through established distribution channels beyond GNG’s current global network.

If I want to try it, what should I do?

Those seeking a free, youth-designed course can find our offerings at https://gng.org/programs/courses/. Youth interested in the CCL internship can learn more at https://gng.org/programs/internship/ and contact us at https://gng.org/contact/. Those seeking to adapt our solution to their context can contact our CEO, Courtney Welsh (courtney@gng.org), to learn about our proven processes.

Implementation steps

Recruitment:

Our application process recruits youth with marginalized identities and lived experiences.This process includes an assessment of participation needs, including technology and any learning supports or accommodations. All applicants complete GNG’s signature, youth-created Overcoming Bias course. We review our applicant pool to insure the desired diversity and representation and conduct further outreach if necessary.

Selection:

We select diverse groups of youth to form 4 teams of 8 designers, each team including 2 youth team leaders who are alumni of our unique program. All designers receive stipends for their participation.

Training:

Our staff, including Youth Intern Coordinators who are program alumni, train the youth designers. Training topics for the 8 team leaders include group facilitation, inclusive team leadership, participatory decision-making, and youth-led project management. Training topics for all 32 designers include backwards curriculum mapping, inclusive team dynamics, Universal Design, and relevant content-related background knowledge.

Coaching:

Over 4-6 months, staff meet weekly with team leaders and monthly with all team members to establish milestones, and give feedback, coaching, and support. Adult staff do not join youth team meetings, enabling teams to develop leadership skills, collaborate independently, and create truly youth-driven content.

Content Production:

In youth-led teams, designers meet weekly to conduct research on the learning content they are designing for. They create a backwards curriculum map to define the big ideas, key questions, and learning activities of the course they are designing. Teams produce working drafts ready for staff and expert review and UX testing.

Review:

Teams first pilot and audit each other's content for accessibility and potential for engagement. They send drafts to expert reviewers and conduct UX interviews with other youth. They then incorporate feedback from these reviews to finalize their courses/curricula/learning products.

Distribution:

We distribute the virtual courses via our global network of partner organizations, learning platforms, and educator communities.

Implementation Support:

We provide just-in-time support to educators and individual youth who implement our virtual courses.

Research:

With support of an external researcher, we run (a) pre- and post-program surveys of youth designers, (b) focus groups with youth designers, (c) document analysis of designers’ work products and reflections, (d) pre- and post surveys with youth end-users of the final learning products.