1 Workshop Design
Intention of a session
It is important to have a clear intention or goal for your session before delving into the logistics of planning the session. There are several crucial intentions for all Rock the Boat sessions to keep in mind: We have found that participants often attend sessions with the expectation that it will train them or offer universal solutions. Explicitly communicating the intention of the session to participants can help clarify expectations and avoid disappointment.
- This resource should always be used in a facilitated group setting.
- It is not intended to be used by individuals in isolation.
- Sessions should aim to generate dialogue, as well as concrete ideas, strategies and solutions drawn from participant expertise and experiences.
- This resource is not a didactic training manual designed to show the “right” or “wrong” way to handle these situations.
- Sessions should have structural and cultural changes as an ultimate goal.
- Sessions should not be solely focused on individual solutions or shifting the burden for solving these issues to individuals.
Types of sessions
Rock the Boat is designed to be flexible so that it is usable in a wide variety of contexts. For example, it could be easily tailored to be integrated into either a for-credit or a not-for-credit course, a professional development seminar, a new student or faculty orientation, a faculty retreat, or an accreditation program.
A single session should focus on a single scene in order to ensure a deeper discussion of the issues presented; however, multiple scenes could be used as part of a daylong session with breaks or a multi-day session. While the resource can support individual one-off sessions, we find that organizing a series of sessions with multiple scenes tends to elicit a much deeper and more fruitful discussion.
Likewise, we have successfully used the resource to support virtual, in-person, and hybrid sessions.
Group Size and Composition
The scenes are designed to be viewed in facilitated groups, either in-person or online using a videoconferencing platform such as Zoom. The resource can support sessions with as few as 3 or 4 participants or as many as over 100; however, sessions with larger groups should feature a small group facilitated discussion portion following watching the scene. We recommend groups of 6-8 participants per facilitator.
This resource was developed for graduate students, university staff and faculty. You can design sessions for a single type of participant (such as graduate students only) or you can run mixed groups. Sessions that feature a mixed group of participants with homogenous small group discussions have worked particularly well for us. Consider the goals of your session when organizing groups.
Extremely careful consideration needs to go into the organization of the session as a whole and the smaller breakout groups. We cannot know how particular comments or disclosures will impact how others view and behave towards us and this is especially important to consider in cases with extreme power differences, such as supervisory relationships. Clear instructions regarding this should be made explicit rather than leaving it up to whether participants “feel comfortable” with it. There may be unconscious and harmful impacts even in the best supervisory relationship or with the most well-intentioned supervisor.
A few essential considerations:
If participants are being randomly assigned to small groups, it should be made clear that supervisors are to remove themselves and move to a different group if they are placed with their student.
- Graduate students should never be placed in a small group with their supervisor or committee members.
- Consider the power dynamics between your participants and attempt to mitigate any potential harm.
- If possible, giving participants a choice between heterogenous or homogeneous small groups is ideal. At minimum, graduate students should have the option to participate in a small group without faculty (e.g., graduate student only or staff and graduate students).
- Consider giving participants the ability to specify their preference before the session, such as in a registration form.
- If allowing participants to choose their small groups, the expectation that graduate students not be in a group with their supervisor should still be made explicit.
Session Structure
We recommend allocating between 60 and 90 minutes per session. It is extremely difficult to have a rich, in-depth discussion in fewer than 60 minutes. Sessions exceeding 90 minutes should feature breaks to avoid excessive emotional fatigue in participants and facilitators need to be especially mindful of participants needing support.
Each scene is 7 to 10 minutes long. We recommend allocating around 20 to 30 minutes for small group, facilitated discussion after each one. It is also useful to have a 15–20-minute larger group discussion or debrief following the small group discussions if the session includes more than one small group and a few minutes for participants to complete feedback at the end of the session (rather than asking them to complete it after the session).
We’ve found that participants are occasionally disappointed by a lack of concrete answers or solutions to these issues. One of the goals in this part of the session is to draw participant’s attention to the amount of expertise and knowledge of these issues already exists in the participants. Emphasize that these issues are messy and universal solutions are often not adequate for resolving them successfully. Providing participants a copy of the final product produced during this part of the session can help emphasize the range of concrete strategies they’ve generated that can help address these issues or resolve conflicts.
We have found it very useful to pose several wrap up questions to participants using a tool, such as Google’s Jamboard, that allows participants to easily and anonymously answer questions, interact, and view each other’s replies without needing to create an account on a separate website. The anonymous nature of this tool is especially useful for mixed sessions to mitigate some of the power dynamics present. Facilitators can use the answers posted to generate discussion and reflection. We’ve had consistent success when posing the following three questions:
- Did today’s discussion change or affirm your perception of graduate student supervisory relationships? How and why?
- Are there strategies you could use or are already using to manage these relationships?
- Are there changes at a departmental or institutional level that could help avoid or address potential problems related to the issues in today’s scene?
If follow-up with participants is possible, adding the following prompt can also be useful: Are there any questions you’d like addressed or resources that you’d find helpful? We also recommend sharing a copy of the final product with your participants.
Scene Sequence
Of the four scenes, Disclosures and No Other Choice carry a heavier emotional load and are more likely to be triggering for some participants. If you choose to screen all four scenes as a series, we suggest beginning with a somewhat lighter scene, such as Zoom Fatigue, and then moving into Disclosures, followed by Contentious Authorship and closing with No Other Choice .
While every scene is designed to be viewable in isolation, there is a degree of continuity in characters and issues from Zoom Fatigue to Contentious Authorship. If showing both scenes in a series of sessions, we recommend showing Zoom Fatigue before Contentious Authorship.
