Heather mentioned that course designers at her institution have been looking for a better way than email to communicate. I realized that we haven't said too much about the Special Interest Group (SIG) option here in SCoPE. We're happy to offer a space for groups to collaborate. For example, currently a group from Queensland University of Technology is setting up a Community of Practice for their faculty and others. They plan to open it to the public and invite wider participation.
Sometimes groups discussions need privacy, and there are various ways to accomplish that in SCoPE. For example in our SFU SIG there is a private forum for program directors. Outsiders don't even know it's there. It may be interesting to have an Instructional Design Commons that is a combination of private groups, public resources and open discussions. That way various institutions can take care of their day-to-day business in a private forum, but also be part of a larger group of designers. Would anyone be interested in trying this out?
I'd like to hear more about this Sylvia. How does it work? Who would be able to use it? Etc.
Good questions, Marsha! Well we have only loosely outlined the SIG option her in SCoPE. Ideally we would like SIGs to be open to the public, and of course the topic should be related to education. We don't host credit courses, mainly because that usually involves some sort of formal agreement concerning privacy, grades, archiving data, etc. But we're happy to support collaborative workspaces for projects related to educational research and practice.
Do you have a project in mind?
Do you have a project in mind?