Organizational Ombuds Course

The goal of the learning environment is to provide every learner with an optimal learning experience. 

Why the Organizational Ombuds Course?
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Designed for Master of Dispute Resolution (MDR) and Master of Laws in Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) graduate students, the organizational ombuds course is a vocational career option for graduate students disinterested in private practice or small business ownership.

​The course prepares learners’ to operate an organizational ombuds office and provide client-facing services in a variety of workplaces. Currently, there are no other similar courses offered at the University of Southern California (University of Southern California, 2019).

Beginning in 2020, University of Southern California (USC) Gould School of Law will offer this course as an elective. 

The Learners
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Knowing the learners’ provides the foundation for designing sound, engaging and motivating instruction (Smith & Ragan, 2005). The analysis revealed that the learners will be of varied age groups, experiences, cultures, and educational backgrounds.

Learner Characteristic Summary:

• Age Range: 21-70 years-old with 40% projected at 21-25 years,  and 10% projected at 51-70 years.
• Gender: 80% Women.
• Diversity: 50% are international and represent over 10 countries. 
• Education: All learners will possess a first degree, some in law and others in other disciplines.
• Power and Inclusion: Potential hierarchy between learners with a first degree in law and learners without a legal background.
• Human Development: Piaget’s Formal Operational stage allows adult learners to think about and consider abstract concepts such as law or justice (Santrock, 2017). 
• Self Efficacy: Self-efficacy is defined as providing the groundwork for judging if one can complete a task (Pajares, 2009). Self-efficacy is projected to be high. 

The balancing of power is an important skill for the ombudsperson (International Ombuds Association, 2009). The learner will be exposed to learning tasks that address and overcome issues of class while promoting equity such as role-play to practice the balancing of power.​

The Learning Environment

We've all heard the story about the individual with the two nearly identical jobs at two separate companies. Even though both jobs are the same, the individual performs at astonishingly different levels.

What changed in this story?

The environment, sometimes known as the playground, the classroom, or the organization, will enhance or hinder performance (Lombardozzi, 2015; Oblinger & Lippincott, 2006).

​The Organizational Ombuds Course learning environment has been curated to enhance performance inside and outside the classroom.

The Environmental Characteristics:

• Adhere to Universal Design for Learning in the layout and design of the physical learning space (Towle & Halm, 2005).  
• Are designed using ADA guidelines to support all learners of all abilities.
• Provide collaboration and peer feedback in the synchronous, physical space.
• Enhance the physical synchronous learning time by providing blended classroom instruction. 
• Provide opportunities for adaptive learning such as providing many opportunities for learners to create and select role-play scenarios and group work projects to accommodate learner interest, knowledge level and capabilities (CAST, 2008).

USC Rossier School of Education Academic Pillars

The environment has been designed to support every learner master the skills to achieve success while in the course and beyond. The Rossier academic pillars have been integrated in the design as follows:

Leadership

Rossier defines leadership as applying accountable strategies that lead to high performance, removing barriers to learning, and improving learning through effective internal and external partnerships (Rossier School of Education, 2019).

Leadership is promoted by:

• Offering authentic experiences that supports learning goal outcomes such as exposure to ill-defined problems that allow for identification of policy, people, process or equity challenges that need to be addressed.
• Practicing identifying barriers to problem solving with internal and external partners, which is critical for business success.
• Using research based assessment and evaluation tools as an accountable leadership strategy that inform the learner how they will be assessed and measured. ​

Learning
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The Rossier School learning pillar is summarized as applying research-based theory in education that supports all learners, in all contexts, regardless of differences (2019). 

Learning is promoted by:

• ​Performing a detailed analysis that informed instructional goals and the audience to tailor design learning. 
• Incorporating research-based methods of instructional design to inform course organization such as Smith and Ragan (2005).
• Applying the principles from Lombardozzi’s (2015) environmental design methods, ​and over twenty resources and books have been examined to inform the instructional design. ​​

Diversity
The Rossier diversity pillar can be defined as a commitment to diversity in practice, vigilance in identifying and eliminating barriers to learning, and valuing the self and others by identifying equity gaps, and creating access and equity for those whom we serve (2019). 

Diversity is promoted by: 

• Providing a physical and virtual space that adheres to Universal Design for Learning (Towle & Halm, 2005).  
• Providing readings in multiple languages when possible
•  Preparing the learner to resolve and negotiate through power or equity obstacles in the workplace.
• Integrating frequent, low-stakes assessment and evaluation to determine areas where the learner may need additional support.

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Accountability 
The Rossier accountability pillar can be defined as data informed decision-making that leads to equitable outcomes, goals and strategies to improve practice, and modeling accountability through clear and transparent communication to those served (2019).  

​Accountability for the course is measured by: 

• Using research supported evaluation methods such as observations, Likert-Style questionnaires, self-report, peer and professor feedback. 
• Making determinations about competence, to identify learning gaps, and to expose areas where learners may need additional instruction (Smith & Ragan, 2005). 

• Using accountability measures that are fair and equitable
• Giving the the learners information on how and why they are being assessed, how success can be achieved, and how they can safely access additional support and guidance when needed. 

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References

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