Thirteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

Throughout my experience as a learning designer, I have often worked with content experts who envisioned their role as ‘providers’ of course material to be uploaded on to the official learning management system by a learning designer working in isolation. I have tried to break this one-way approach to the design of online courses by introducing a participatory design process of online courses, using tools developed by Professor Conole (2014) and the Open University, within the 7Cs of learning design framework. This interdisciplinary process has been perceived positively in terms of students’ learning experiences, however, time consuming and demanding for subject experts, who continue to see their participation in conversations on pedagogical approaches, teaching and assessment strategies as extra workload, not part of their teaching task. Examples of questions for discussion are: What tactics and strategies can a learning designer adopt to foster a collaborative design process of online courses with content experts, who do not see teaching as their primary duty? How to develop a participatory approach in course design including students from the early stages of the design along with context experts? How to promote student-centred feedback in online courses attended by a high number of students with lack of human resources to supervise the process? How to be open to diverse modalities when limited by a closed learning management system? Attendees will consider questions and review strategies to design online courses in collaboration with content experts (e.g. teachers and researchers) and potential strategies to respond to challenges faced.