Four Days of Design
For four days, I felt I was an online course designer. I was online, immersed in the topic, and focused on designing a course. With Jonassen, Anderson, and Bates & Poole at my side, and Wellman and Bloom as my guides, I was creating an online learning environment to support mentors do their work. During those unique four days I felt the content, community of practice and constructivist learning all merge together. My responsibility to my community – my fellow group members and personal interest in the topic were my motivations to solve problems, work through challenges and collaborate creatively.
Why only four days, despite the many hours spent on this project? Those four days were ones that I spent immersed in the material and tasks, constructing my understanding of process and product. Those four days I had focused, uninterrupted, dedicated time to spend reading, reflecting and reviewing the design proposal, related research, creating the design modules and writing the final submission. Through the many other hours spent on this project I felt like a player who briefly gets on the field, leaving me wanting more.
This group design project, through collaborative work on process and product, reflected the course outline we created for mentors. We worked through the process of coming together and being introduced to the topic. We learned about skills, barriers, and constructing the knowledge of course design together. We moved through a period of coaching and mentoring, where we supported each other to make the best decisions for the course design. Our community of practice came to common understandings of content, context and course outcomes. As a group, and as an individual, there was a transformation from ‘doing’ to ‘being’ on-line course designers.