About the Course
What Works: Fast Field Scanning with AI
What Works: Fast Field Scanning with AI is designed to help public professionals accelerate the process of finding and implementing urgently-needed evidence-based solutions to public problems. The course teaches several important skills for public professionals, including:
- Researching, evaluating, and identifying what works
- Getting smarter and faster from data using both documents and people
- Implementing new, innovative practices in your jurisdiction
Course contents are screen reader-friendly and all videos include English closed captions.
At-your-own pace
Certificate of completion that may be applied to your state learning requirements
The course is in plain, non-technical language and available in English
No technical background required
The course is an hour and 45 minutes divided into 24 short videos
Clear learning goals in each video
Learn novel AI skills
Course curriculum
1. Finding what works
In this introduction, we explain why it is urgent and important to have a set of agile methods for finding and evaluating what works and why it is vital to ensure that what works in one community can also work for yours. This introduction provides a general overview of the three key stages of fast-field scanning: discover, evaluate, and implement, and introduces you to the topics we will cover in each module.
2. Discovery: Formulating your question
Uses root cause analysis and the 5 whys exercise to frame and scope a specific problem that is within your authority to act upon. Helps you identify and engage people who are most impacted to fully describe the problem from multiple perspectives. Shows you how to form a purposeful query using resources like search engines, the library, and GenAI to discover new solutions.
3. Discovery: Finding solutions from documents and data
In this set of videos, we leverage your problem definition to help you scavenge for solutions from documentary and data sources, including news searches and catalogs of evidence-based interventions. We show you how to get faster and more targeted in plowing through academic research. We teach you how to use commonly available GenAI tools to search for and synthesize voluminous documentary sources, helping you to review them faster to find solutions.
4. Discovery: Finding solutions from people
One of the fastest ways to find what works is by talking to knowledgeable people with experience. But how do you form a strategy for deciding whom to talk to and when? And how can you get faster at connecting with academics, civil servants, and others with on-the-ground know-how? We will show you how to supplement your desk research by accessing practitioner and academic networks, scanning social media and the emerging ‘fediverse,’ and how to use GenAI to identify knowledgeable individuals and organizations.
5. Evaluate: Did it work?
Finding solutions is half the battle. You next need to know if those interventions actually solved a problem. Learn about the concept of evidence hierarchy and explore how sources such as evidence clearinghouses and systematic reviews help you to identify the best quality evidence of what works or doesn’t. We will show you how to use GenAI and bring in diverse human perspectives to enhance your search for evidence.
6. Evaluate: Participatory evaluation of what worked
Getting others involved in the process of evaluating what works can help to ensure an intervention is effective. In this module, we focus on participatory evaluation with an emphasis on the perspectives of those most affected by the problem. We show you how GenAI can be used to make the process of public listening more efficient.
7. Implement: Will what worked “there” work “here”
Learn to identify supporting factors that contribute to making a solution successful in your community. Explores the use of “Policy Synth,” a free AI toolkit to search for and evaluate solutions using a combination of artificial and collective intelligence.
8. Implement: Crafting your plan of attack
Finally, make a compelling case for your recommended solution and develop your plan for systematically searching for solutions.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.