About the Designer and Facilitator:
Mr. Qutadah Ubaidah Mohammed Sharbini is a learning journey designer and field leader in the development and social entrepreneurship sector from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He has experience in designing and leading initiatives to create projects that address real needs in various fields. He encountered the FIRSTorg-ADLX framework through his participation in a learning journey for training facilitators to design and facilitate an Active Deep Learner eXperience.
Introduction:
The participants in Mr. Qutadah’s learning journey faced a challenge in building productive entrepreneurial projects that contribute to solving actual issues from the learner’s real context—not only through transferring knowledge, but by focusing on need analysis, practice, and experience within the work environment.
Accordingly, Mr. Qutadah designed and facilitated a face-to-face learning journey in a developmental cooperative institution aimed at empowering youth in multiple sectors. The group consisted of 20 participants from diverse age and professional backgrounds. All needed to develop initiatives capable of making an impact. The journey was implemented using real tools and resources available on-site.
Overview of the Design:
Mr. Qutadah chose the FIRSTorg-ADLX framework because it provides an integrated model that enables participants to shift from the role of recipients to designers and leaders. It also integrates entrepreneurship tools with experiential learning strategies to ensure the development of applicable projects that address the real challenges faced by participants. Based on this, the learning outcomes were as follows:
Learning Outcomes:
Attitude:
- To strengthen the belief in learning through experience, work, and continuous practice.
- To appreciate participants’ capacity to produce solutions that improve their quality of life and communities.
- To increase internal motivation among participants to recognize their role in developing applicable solutions.
Skills:
- To apply entrepreneurship tools to design contextually relevant projects (e.g., need analysis, problem identification, value design, business models).
- To lead small learning groups in a participatory manner that supports thinking, idea generation, and decision-making.
Knowledge:
- To demonstrate deep understanding of the role of targeted entrepreneurial projects.
- To show awareness of the relationships between entrepreneurship, writing, and the socio-economic context.
Performance:
- To raise awareness of the social and economic context of the mission.
- To acquire the ability to formulate precise, relevant entrepreneurial problems.
- To improve teamwork and dialogue leadership skills.
- To enhance design thinking capacity in challenge analysis.
- To develop decision-making skills based on evidence.
Learning Journey Summary:
The journey included one face-to-face session lasting two hours. During it, both learning activities and eXperience activities were facilitated, while considering energy progression and variety in participation styles.
Learning Activity Using RAR Model
Main Activity: Analyzing an entrepreneurial case and converting it into an actionable project design
Readiness Increase:
The facilitator raised the participants’ emotional readiness and motivated them to listen. He then shared a scenario simulating a real challenge faced by one of the participating groups. He distributed worksheets for participants to answer an open question: “What do you think is the core problem?” along with a set of guiding questions to help them move beyond surface symptoms to the root issue. He also provided entrepreneurial tools (e.g., problem map, challenge card, field scene analysis). Participants were then divided into small groups and invited to analyze and reformulate the challenge using the shared tools.
Activity Facilitation:
Participants engaged in their groups to complete the task. They conducted thorough analysis and reformulated the problem clearly so that it can be solved easily. The facilitator intervened occasionally for redirection, guidance, assessment, and motivation.
Reviewing Actively:
The active review included three levels:
- Descriptive: Participants explained what they did during the activity.
- Analytical: Each team discussed why they chose a specific formulation of the problem and how analysis influenced the generation of entrepreneurial solutions.
- Applied: Each participant wrote a short paragraph on how to apply this analysis to a real project they were working on.
Applying the FIRSTorg-ADLX Framework Domains
Focusing on Learner Behaviors:
This domain was activated by allowing participants to express their vision of their roles in their respective work contexts at the start. Open-ended questions helped them share personal experiences. Part of the time was dedicated to exploring the gap between what the participant knows and what the community needs. Probing and assessing were carried out by tracking how problems were formulated and intervening to realign the analysis when needed. Trust in the learner was expressed by assigning leadership roles to participants within their groups.
Interacting within Positive Group Dynamics:
Short, stimulating group activities like “Challenge Card” and “Field Scene Analysis” were used to enhance dialogue. The facilitator encouraged role-switching among participants and employed positive facilitation techniques such as reporting language, preparation, and rhythm management.
Reviewing Activities within RAR:
The RAR model was used in all three stages to design and facilitate learning activities, as detailed above.
Sequencing within Learner eXperience:
Activities were sequenced to ensure logical concept flow: background presentation, mental warm-up, real-world analysis, prototyping the challenge, linking and summarizing, and finally writing a field application plan. Examples increased in complexity as the session progressed.
Transforming Learning into Performance:
Participants were asked to design a facilitation plan applicable to their mission environments, linking theoretical concepts (like value proposition or problem analysis) to practical tools. Real scenarios were presented to test their skills. Participants were encouraged to write personal commitments to apply what they learned in the following week. The “Performance Pack” was introduced as a ready-to-use tool with their communities.
Conclusion and Reflection
Impact on the Facilitator:
Applying the FIRSTorg-ADLX framework brought clarity to transitioning between learning stages and linking them to what happened during the session. It also provided a structured managerial process that made the session more coherent. It helped the designer and facilitator create an Active Deep Learner eXperience where learners engaged and discovered independently.
Impact on the Learners:
Participants showed clear enthusiasm. Notable comments included:
- “For the first time, I feel like I’m thinking with the mission, not just about it.”
- “The analysis method opened a new perspective on challenges.”
- “The activity made me feel ready to work directly with the mission.”
Impact on the Community or Institution:
Participant engagement increased during the session. Their ability to frame challenges and convert them into opportunities improved, and the quality of the entrepreneurial ideas they produced was elevated. Group discussions became deeper, and they showed greater readiness to go into the field and work with the mission in a systematic, planned, and aware manner.