Discussing the Issues
The Kansas City team’s structured discussions employed the use of sticky notes and the real-time iClicker polling technology during small and large group discussions. The sticky notes helped document individual topics which could be organized into themes. The iClickers helped to engage participants about the issues through real-time polling.
Multiple rounds of discussion took place during the engagement. Below is a step-by-step description of a single round of discussion.
Step 1: Display of Question
Using the iClicker polling technology, the Kansas City team displayed a discussion question to all participants. These questions were embedded in a slideshow and concerned trust, fairness, and access issues related to the municipal court. The questions were also similar to items asked on the court user survey.
Step 2: Discussion
Participants discussed their responses to the question in small groups. Participants also wrote their responses on sticky notes. Small group facilitators and notetakers also summarized the discussion points in their notes. The Kansas City team developed facilitation guidelines and notetaking sheets for these small group discussions.
Step 3: Theme Team Synthesis
A “theme team” gathered the input and responses to the discussion question recorded on sticky notes. The theme team organized the sticky note content into categories and synthesized them into wider themes, which prompted additional discussion.
Step 4: Real-Time Polling
The “theme team” also incorporated the wider themes into new iClicker questions that were displayed to all participants in a large group setting. These new questions can be posed at the end of the round (after discussion of one question), or at the end of the session (after discussion of all questions). Participants used the iClicker polling devices to select and vote for particular themes. For example, participants could vote for what they thought the court does that is most helpful. Alternatively, they could vote for the themes that most represented a personal viewpoint or viewpoint of their community.