LJ/SLJ Building Sustainable Coding Programs | PROGRAM PLANNING GUIDE guiding questions, brainstorming space, and key considerations to take you through your weekly assignments Use this planning guide as a tool to help you as your program evolves. Remember that sections can be continuously revised, so play around with what works for you, your program, and your planning style. Use what you need! And if you’re revising a program/project you’ve run before, or have already done some planning, you can still use this guide - just include what you’ve learned in the past and revisions you’re planning for this time around, or what you’ve been working on so far. NOTE: In order to make edits to this document, you will have to add to to your Drive (must have a google account). To do this, go to File>Make a Copy. Voila! If you don’t have Google Drive, simply download as a PDF. Step 1: Establish your program goals AUDIENCE Identify what audience you’d like to reach with this specific program. Who is your user and what do you want their experience to be? What community need will your coding program fill? TOPIC What broad topic/theme/technology are you planning to focus on with this project? Even if you’re not sure yet, brainstorm some ideas and feel free to annotate/explain them. You can always come back to revise as your plan unfolds. CRAFT A MISSION STATEMENT Play around with this one: if you had to draft a mission statement here and now, what would it say? Thinking deeply about our reasons for launching a program before we begin to plan can help crystallize our intentions and lead to a more focused, organized, and effective program at the outset. Consider your program as part of an ecosystem: what will your offering be? Step 2: Identify the resources - both human and material - you need to make it happen BUDGET What’s your anticipated budget for this project? What sources are you using for funding? Are there outside funding options you’re hoping to access? List them out here, noting if they’re secured or not. COLLEAGUES/STAFF What kind of help will your project require of library staff and your colleagues? Do you have a team in place for executing your program? List them out here - again, even they haven’t been finalized yet. COMMUNITY What community resources will you need to help you execute your program? Who will your partners be? Will you use mentors from the community to deliver content for your program? Are you reaching out to local businesses to help with funding or supplies? List out any potential partnerships here. APPROVALS Do you already have all necessary approvals for your project? If not, what is the approval process you’ll be going through? From whom do you need approval? Be sure to also outline any potential barriers to approval and anticipate questions you’ll be asked. This is a great place to formulate your responses as you set your intentions and do some critical thinking about the reasons why your coding program is vital to your library and community. SUPPLIES/MATERIALS What physical supplies and materials will you need to roll out your coding project? Whether you need large-scale pieces or smallscale ones, list them all out here, from soup to nuts! Step 3: Consider how you will measure your program’s effectiveness/success PERSONAL MEASURES How will you personally measure the success of your project? First, identify what outcomes you are hoping to see and what practical, measurable goals you are hoping to achieve. (For instance, your goal might be attendance based - if you are planning an Hour of Code for senior citizens in your community, one of your goals might be to reach a certain number of registrants for your event. But another goal might be to have at least 50% of your attendees learn a particular skill during the event. The goals should be authentically connected to the specific program you’re running.) Next, establish how you will collect the information you need to assess if you reached your goals. (For example: personal observation, written feedback, etc.) AUDIENCE FEEDBACK How will you collect information from your patrons/students/community on the effectiveness of your program? Will you distribute paper or digital feedback forms? Will you conduct person-to-person debriefs? Share some ideas for how you’ll ensure you’re hearing everything you need to from your audience. Step 4: Gather feedback from patrons/students and colleagues ASK YOUR AUDIENCE Identify one quick and easy way to test out a component of your project plan for your target audience. For example: can you create a draft of your program announcement with details of your offering and share it with two or three patrons/students? This process is iterative, so don’t be afraid of imperfection! The goal is to quickly get feedback to help you make your ideas stronger. Record those conversations here. Step 5: Assess the weaknesses and strengths of your program piece (Optional) PERSONAL MEASURES Assess your work. First, how did you feel about the test piece of your project; is it something you can revise and use for in your finalized plan? What revisions might you want to make? Brainstorm those now for next week! GET TO KNOW THE ECOSYSTEM Spend some time this week getting to know what programs are available in your community, and other communities around the country. What might you learn from them? Take some notes on what they do well that you might use as a model, and what you envision doing differently. Then, go back to your plans and refine your ideas. Step 6: Revise your plan REVISE Return to Part I of this guide and revise your program plan where you need to. Highlight the additions as you go. Use this space to explain the main revisions your plan is undergoing and why you’ve made those changes. FINALIZE Write up a finalized program plan! Step 7: Prepare to Launch See [FINAL PLAN TEMPLATE] OUTREACH What are your first steps in launching your new coding project? Now that you’ve completed a program plan, how are you going to get it off the ground? Brainstorm what outreach you need to do to officially execute your coding program. ESTABLISH LAUNCH TIMELINE What are the key dates for launching your coding program? Include your anticipated dates for any necessary approvals, and an anticipated start date. REVISIT MISSION STATEMENT Go back to where it all started and make sure that your mission statement is still aligned with your core goals and ideals. Consider everything you’ve taken from this course over the last few weeks and all the ways your project idea has grown and evolved and revise from there. What’s your new and improved mission statement?