About the open-source course materials
You can use these free and open-source course materials to run your own PNI Practicum course with a 4+ person cohort you put together yourself. At least one person in the cohort has to be comfortable facilitating group interactions, but the materials include instructions for running each of the sandbox meetings.
Common questions about the open-source course materials
What are the open-source course readings and assignments like?
Why should I take a paid course if the materials are free?
Our group has only three people in it. Can we still take one of these open-source courses?
The open-source PNI Practicum courses require a cohort of four people. This is so one person can facilitate while three people share stories. I do not suggest taking any of these courses with fewer than four people. Ask around to find one more person to join you.
I don't have a group; I'm just one person. How can I take an open-source PNI Practicum course?
- Ask around among your friends and colleagues. If you can find three more people to join you, you can go through a course.
- Mention that you are forming a course cohort on any social networks you belong to. Maybe someone else will want to join in.
- Join the Participatory Narrative Practitioner Network and see if anyone there wants to join you in forming a collaborative cohort.
What open-source license are the courses under?
All three courses are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
I'm a consultant. Can I offer a PNI Practicum course to my paying clients?
Commercial (for pay) use of the PNI Practicum materials in whole or in part is prohibited by the current license (CC BY-NC-ND). You can only give the course for free. My intent in choosing this license was to help small groups of people work through the course materials together.
If you are interested in using the PNI Practicum course materials as part of a business venture or consulting package, please contact me at cfkurtz@cfkurtz.com. We can negotiate a fee for a one-time limited-duration license that allows commercial use of the course materials.
We've chosen a course and downloaded the materials. What do we do next?
- Look at the course syllabus. Make sure everyone has time to do the readings and assignments required.
- Choose a time to meet.
- Decide who is going to lead the support meetings and facilitate the training meetings.
- Start your first session, following the instructions in the course syllabus. Use the sandbox and assignment instructions to help you plan and carry out each part of the course.
We're confused about who is supposed to lead the support meetings and facilitate the training meetings.
Anyone can take the lead in going through any of the open-source PNI Practicum courses together. That person (or those people) will need to spend more up-front time reading and preparing for each meeting so they are ready to help everyone else follow the course schedule and activities. You might want to give lead roles to those among you who:
- have the greatest enthusiasm to learn how to do PNI
- come into the course knowing the most about PNI or story work or facilitation
- have the most free time to put into preparation
Can we all take the lead on facilitation?
Sure. In that case, it might be a good idea to rotate the facilitation of each meeting, with everyone taking a turn reading and preparing.
Can our whole group collaborate on one project?
Only if it's a big enough project to give everyone a chance to practice doing all of the course assignments. If not, I suggest doing a few related projects, each with 2-3 collaborators, so everyone has a chance to practice doing PNI.
Could you run a special PNI Practicum course for us, with our team as its own cohort?
Maybe. It depends on what else I am doing at the time. Send me a note at cfkurtz@cfkurtz.com.
We can't pay for a whole course, but we have a group and a small budget. What do you suggest?
My coaching rate is US$150 per hour (for Zoom calls). Supplementing a self-running PNI Practicum course with some bespoke coaching is a good way to save money, especially if you have a cohort ready to go. Decide on your budget, then decide how you want to fit my support into your course.
- You can distribute your budget across the course, asking me to spend some time with you for (say) an hour each week or month, helping you in whatever way suits your needs at the time. (If you choose this option, it might be a good idea to end each of your meetings with a compilation of questions to ask during your next meeting with me.)
You can concentrate your budget at specific times you think you will need extra help. I've coached a lot of people who were doing their first PNI projects, and I've found that the times people most often want help are:
- When they have their project plans ready (including the questions they plan to ask) and want some advice and feedback to help them avoid common pitfalls.
- When they have their stories and are ready to take their first steps toward preparing catalytic material for use in sensemaking.
- When they have their sensemaking workshop plans ready and want feedback on them.
I've also noticed certain times when people often need troubleshooting help. For example:
- When they are pitching their project to leaders or funders.
- When they are having trouble getting people to participate in the project.
- When their story collection isn't going well—for example, people might be upset or apathetic, or they might tell surface-level or performative stories.
- When they are struggling with some of the technical aspects of gathering data and generating graphs and statistical results.
- When the project is over and they need to prove the value of the project to its funders and/or participants.
When you think about the projects you would like to do as you take a PNI Practicum course, in which of the above areas do you think you will need help? In which areas do you think you will be fine on your own? If you can answer that question now, we can plan some support sessions into your course at those important times. If you can't answer that question now, we can set up a budget you can dip into as the need arises. Depending on what else I am doing at the time, I may or may not be able to help you in an as-needed way; but it's not out of the question, and I should be able to assess my availability before you start your course.
If you are interested in this option, send me an email (at cfkurtz@cfkurtz.com) and we can talk about it.
We like what you have here, but we want a slightly different course. Could you build us a bespoke version?
Can you help us take a PNI Practicum course pro-bono?
Have a question I didn't answer? Send me an email at cfkurtz@cfkurtz.com.