Partnership in Design - Designing Learning Task

Collaboratively
Author 1                                               In the cases of full and concise papers for review, omit these
lines
Department or Centre
Institution

Author 2                                               In the cases of full and concise papers for review, omit these
lines
Department or Centre
Institution

The process of producing learning choices for students through the design of learning tasks
does not arise singularly from an individual without any reflections within the person or
interactions with the individual’s environment that includes students, colleagues,
management and institutional culture. This paper describes production of learning tasks as
part of the provision of learning choices to students from the designers’ point of view. It
involves a collaborative process between a learning technologist and an academic staff in
designing learning tasks for English language students in a large course in a virtual learning
environment (VLE). Using Wenger’s (1998) model of practice, the designing, and
implementation of learning tasks could be understood as a practice that involves negotiated
meanings through participation and reification which are dynamic and on-going. Due to the
dynamic nature of the practice, data collection methods utilized in this case study are a
combination of convention techniques i.e. interviews and journals, and innovative
approaches such as chat archives, e-mails and recorded conversations. This allows the
capture of the meaning-making process that emerged through the interactions between the
two actors that occurred in both formal and social settings. This concise paper describes
the practice as a four-stage cyclical collaborative process, namely service, proposal,
negotiation and implementation. It also reports the activities that occur, the artefacts
produced for negotiation, the relationships established and the situated understanding of
the designers.

Keywords: collaboration, learning task, design, learning technologist, practice.

Introduction

In the implementation of e-learning in the form of a virtual learning environment (VLE) like Blackboard
and Moodle, academic staff who are designing learning tasks for such an environment may not be
equipped with the knowledge and expertise to integrate technological and pedagogical aspects in
designing learning tasks for students to have a meaningful learning experience (Armitage & O’Leary,
2003). Some have mentioned that strategic academic staff development is necessary to bridge this gap
and enable the academics to acquire the necessary expertise to implement change and embed
technology in their teaching practices (Oliver & Dempster, 2003; Smith & Oliver, 2000).

The role of support staff such as learning technologists, learning designers, educational technologists,
educational developers, and instructional designers is primarily pedagogical, that is to enable the
academics to integrate technology in the teaching of their students though their practices are diverse
and wide-ranging in scope (Seeto & Herrington, 2006; Earle, 2004; Davidson, 2003; Oliver, 2002; Surry
& Robinson, 2001). Therefore, this group of new professionals (Beetham, Jones & Gornall, 2001) would
play an essential role in supporting the academic staff to design learning in the VLE (Seeto & Herrington,
2006; Armitage & O’Leary, 2003).

Nevertheless, due to the fact that the roles of the learning technologists are still developing, not much
has been documented concerning the collaborative work between learning technologists and academics
even though it is considered an important area of study for staff development through informal learning
(Oliver, 2002, Gornall, 1999). This concise paper documents the collaborative efforts of the two parties
in designing learning tasks as a practice which generates a common pattern of processes where
activities occur, artefacts are designed, negotiated and produced, roles and relations being established
and changed, interpretations formed and situated learning develops (Wenger, 1998).
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References

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     A case study. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 1(2), 209–222.
Chen, C. J. (2006). The design, development and evaluation of a virtual reality based learning
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http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet22/chen.html
Kearsley, G. (2004). Explorations in learning & instruction: The theory into practice database.
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O'Shea, T. & Self, J.A. (1983). Learning and teaching with computers. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
Inc.
Underwood, J. (1997). Breaking the cycle of ignorance: Information technology and the professional
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