jibc-new logo for top left header
 

Colleen Shaw, Slavka Andrejevic, Chelsey Chrisitan, Karla Weller, Tasnim Nathoo

Revitalizing Family Justice Training: A dynamic approach to course refresh that considers accessibility, Indigenous lens, inclusion, and diverse perspectives while bridging policy, practice and legislation

Twitter
LinkedIn

Program refresh series where each course poses a set of unique content challenges and how the new design has significantly improved student learning experience with fresh content that’s inclusive & accessible.  
 
Family Justice suite of courses (FAMJ courses) cover a range of issues that families going through separation and divorce experience and provide family dispute resolution practitioners with the knowledge and skills required to address those issues with their clients and help them resolve conflict arising from them. Topics such as family violence, how separation and divorce affect adults and children, how to assist people with deciding on child and spousal support, ethical considerations for working with families, court processes and documents, how a person’s world view, their gender, ethnic and/or socio- economic background may affect how they engage in dispute resolution etc.  
 
Now that we have completely revamped FAMJ-1016 Court Processes and Court Documents; FAMJ-1018 Diversity, Dispute Resolutions and Access to Justice, FAMJ-1019 Substance Use Issues in Family Justice; FAMJ-1025 Early Resolution Process, and FAMJ-1026 Mental Health Considerations in Family Justice; we are shifting our focus on the Foundations to Family Justice and Role of Family Justice Counsellor courses (both working titles) and planning the next steps for starting the blueprint for a course centered around family violence. 

Screenshot from a family justice course

AUTHORING TOOL(S) USED

Rise, Blackboard, Kaltura

WHY WAS THIS PROJECT NEEDED?
Family Justice (FAMJ) courses are provided online to newly hired family justice counsellors (family mediators), members of public with aspirations to pursue career in family dispute resolution filed as well as the established family dispute resolution practitioners who want to enhance their skills.

The content bridges theory and practice in real time. We developed a very unique content that came out of practice wisdom in the field as there is almost nothing in the academic literature that uses dispute resolution practitioners’ lens. Based on the feedback received so far, these courses are changing the way people do their work in small and big ways. And, they’re leading to some really good discussions in all areas of family justice; from newly hired family justice counsellors taking these courses as a part of their training for the role, to experienced family justice counsellors, children’s needs assessment report writers, policy analysts and management.

HOW DOES THIS DEMONSTRATE INNOVATION?

All the courses have videos and multimedia with experienced family justice counsellors discussing these topics drawing on the in-depth knowledge of dispute resolution practice and vast experience working with families. This approach has been very well received as there is little content talking about things like, for example, substance use or mental health in the context of family justice and from the perspective of a family justice dispute resolution practitioner.
 
The process in which each course was curated is very innovative, starting with environmental scan of academic and grey literature and the learning from focus groups and consultations with family justice counsellors in the field as well as consultations with additional subject matter experts such as Office of Indigenization, other conflict resolution professionals, and the instructors and policy analysts at the Family Justice Services Division.
 
It’s a fair size project facilitated with a lot of thought and care. It’s ambitious and look at how far we’ve come!

PROBLEMS OR CHALLENGES FACED?

All the courses have videos and multimedia with experienced family justice counsellors discussing these topics drawing on the in-depth knowledge of dispute resolution practice and vast experience working with families. This approach has been very well received as there is little content talking about things like, for example, substance use or mental health in the context of family justice and from the perspective of a family justice dispute resolution practitioner.
 
The process in which each course was curated is very innovative, starting with environmental scan of academic and grey literature and the learning from focus groups and consultations with family justice counsellors in the field as well as consultations with additional subject matter experts such as Office of Indigenization, other conflict resolution professionals, and the instructors and policy analysts at the Family Justice Services Division.
 
It’s a fair size project facilitated with a lot of thought and care. It’s ambitious and look at how far we’ve come!

LESSONS LEARNED

This has been an amazing journey because most of us didn’t really have a sense of how this whole process could work. There’s been a lot of co-learning. For example, the course writer and CTLI developers and graphic designers attended family justice centres to learn about the services, who the service providers are (family justice counsellors) and about the organization (Family Justice Service Division). We were learning a lot about instructional designs and were (and still are) awed by technology like Rise