Vivian Neal

Designing Generative Exchanges

A rich theme that has emerged over the past week is the design and facilitation of online discussion. Sarah and Cindy shared some of their research results and resources that helped answer Sarah?s question about how to ?attend to designing generative exchanges within the communities they construct.? http://scope.lidc.sfu.ca/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=61&parent=333 Sarah noted that, ?one of my findings was that instructors who explicitly taught learners how to collaborate online to construct meaning/understanding/knowledge were successful.? And points out that, ?Scope offers an excellent example of this kind of explicit teaching in the ?Ask good questions? information box on the left-hand side of our reply fields.? Cindy added that, ?even motivated learners need to be maintained in a good spirit through the dedication and intentional cultivation of an intellectual environment from the teachers.? http://scope.lidc.sfu.ca/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=61&parent=346.

Questions I have for all participant is?.how useful have others found the SCoPE guides at the side of the composition window - Read carefully, Write carefully, Ask good questions, Use emoticons? In your online discussions, what design and teaching strategies have you found that cultivate an intellectual environment and teach learners how to collaborate?

Finally, Bruce pointed out that, ??by adding intellectual productivity through the publishing of a paper ? collaboration will have occurred. When designing a forum into a course there needs to be a distinction between an intellectual conversation and a collaborative effort.? http://scope.lidc.sfu.ca/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=61&parent=354. I?ve been considering two ?product? ideas for this seminar using the SCoPE wiki and I?m open to suggestions. The first is that we collect best practices that have been shared throughout this seminar and the second is, near the end of the seminar, we each share the most important thing we learned. Thoughts?

Building relationships within teams can be one the most challenging and elusive parts of the ID (instructional design) and course development process. Sarah and Diane described how they like to get to know the SME (subject matter expert) and try to find out where they are at philosophically, while Barb suggested a ?short conversation over coffee?.
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Diane also pointed out the centrality of trust and that instructional design might be a bit scary for SME?s. When a SME has been lecturing for many years, the facilitative online instructor role might seem strange. The whole instructor/student relationship changes online and this is uncomfortable at the very least.

Marsha aptly described her challenge as a SME. Subtitling her post, ?finding the dance floor?, she shared this experience: ?I found the beginning very difficult - and finally realized it was because I was looking for ?a place to stand. I knew where I would stand and how I would deliver a course in f2f environment, but online learning was entirely new to me ? I needed to find that sense of place.? http://scope.lidc.sfu.ca/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=61&parent=310 I believe that one of the ID?s roles is to help the SME find and use the new dance floor ? but if the old dance floor was a stage for the sage as Bruce describes, where is the new dance floor? How does the ID communicate this to the SME? And what if the SME prefers the old dance floor?

Finally, it takes time to build trusting relationships. Lamenting the short time frames that are all too often allocated to course development, Alan stated, ?I am not even sure that the standard vision of and Instructional Designer working around a table with an established group of "SMEs", technical specialists, graphics designers happens so much in real life? http://scope.lidc.sfu.ca/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=61&parent=321 How do we build good relationships within these limited time frames?

Please share your experiences, successes, and things that you?ve learned for next time.

Welcome to this three week seminar on the dance of the instructional designer!

How do instructional designers balance the competing demands of relationship and team building, pedagogical principles and instructional design processes? How do you integrate the strengths and limitations of your SME (Subject Matter Expert)/instructor with the features and functions of the technologies? In my experience, this balance requires a customized dance to suit the unique characteristics of each project, team, program and course. Yet some projects feel like graceful ballets while others keep me tripping over my feet!

How do you balance these competing demands? Do you sometimes feel that you are compromising your pedagogical values to ensure that good relationships are maintained?

Please contribute your ideas about how you go about doing your instructional design work, and for those of you who aren?t instructional designers, your questions and observations are greatly encouraged as these will definately help to clarify and define the roles in the design process.