Back
Co-design Activities Instructional Design

Making Forest Conservation Learning More Accessible

Forest conservation and restoration isn’t something a lot of people jump into—perhaps because it sounds too technical or requires a certain level of expertise. But what if we make it easier to understand? What if we turn big, complicated ideas into simple, bite-sized lessons that anyone passionate about nature can learn from?

 

That’s exactly what we had in mind when we designed the eCourses.

 

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how we made it happen:

Task

How might we support local community groups in influencing local policies?

  • Design

    A user-driven approach to designing 10 self-paced courses for policy advocates across different experience levels. We engaged organizations within the Green Livelihoods Alliance through a survey, gathering insights on key topics and thematic areas to ensure relevance and impact.

  • Client

    Tropenbos International and Forest Foundation Philippines

Understanding our Learners

Through discussions with subject-matter experts and potential course takers, we mapped out key topics that would be most relevant to the learners. These conversations revealed the diversity of our audience—some were complete beginners, while others had varying degrees of expertise. This led us to develop three distinct learning pathways: novice, intermediate, and advanced, ensuring that each learner could engage at the right level.

Writing the Content

Staying true to our design principles—clear, inclusive, human, and inspiring—we transformed academic and technical language into accessible, engaging lessons. Lengthy laws were distilled into key insights without losing their depth, and environmental jargon was explained in simple, relatable terms. Our goal was not just to inform but to invite participation, making even the most complex topics digestible for all.

Bringing the Courses to Life

With the content ready, we moved on to designing the courses. We took what was once just a bunch of documents and turned it into an interactive experience.

Adding a Friendly Face

Self-paced courses can often feel solitary. So, we asked: What if learners had a companion to guide and support them throughout their journey? Enter Mela, our course guide! Mela adds a human and playful touch, offering encouragement, guidance, and a sense of connection throughout the course.

Testing and Feedback
We embraced an iterative process—submitting our first round of course content for review, gathering feedback, and making improvements. This led to multiple rounds of refining our content and videos, allowing us to share our work early, fail early, and adjust accordingly.

Sharing our eCourses to more communities

After the rigorous (but fun!) process of creating the eCourses, they are now ready to be shared –hopefully scaling the impact and involvement of people in forest conservation.

At Habi, we believe that when learning is accessible, more people can step up, take part, and make a real impact in their chosen fields. Ready to explore and learn through our eCourses? Click here https://bit.ly/FFPPolicyAdvocacyeCourse to get started!

We can co-design learning experiences for your organization! Email us at kumusta@habieducationlab.org.
Back