Kairotic Design: Building Flexible Networks for Online Composition

• Intro
• Design Process
• Instructor Perspectives
• Student Perspectives
• Implications
• References

• Intro
  • Premises
  • English111
  • Methods
• Design Process
  • Starting Assumptions and Assets
  • Dissonances
  • Space Decisions
  • Kairotic Design
• Instructor Perspectives
  • Making Space Work (Lance)
  • Making Space for Collaboration (Renea)
  • Party Time at Burke's Place (Ryan)
• Student Perspectives
  • Initial Nervousness and Uncertainty
  • Interacting Online
  • Agency in the Timing of Learning Activities
  • Challenges
• Implications
  • Principles of Online Course Design
  • Rethinking Traditional Writing Instruction
• References

Design Process

Our "Online English 111 Project" began in Spring 2012 when the director of composition (at the time, Jim Porter) assembled a team to develop, offer, and study a fully online version of English 111, Composition and Rhetoric (see English 111). The assembled team consisted of eight members: three faculty (Heidi McKee, Jason Palmeri, and Jim Porter); four graduate students in rhetoric/composition (Lance Cummings, Renea Frey, Ryan Ireland, and Caitlin Martin); and an instructional designer from IT specializing in online course design.

Our plan was to offer three sections of English 111 in summer 2012 (to be taught by Lance, Renea, and Ryan). The team began meeting and planning in February 2012, to prepare for teaching and researching the online course that would begin that June. The English 111 online course—three sections that enrolled a total of thirty-nine students—was offered in a six-week session in Summer 2012.

What follows in this section of our webtext are four sub-sections: (1) A description of the assets and assumptions we brought to the project; (2) an analysis of some of the dissonances we faced with content-transfer models for course planning; (3) a discussion of some of the decisions we made regarding synchronous class sessions and our network approach to platforms and interfaces; and (4) a reflection on our kairotic approach to course design, what we call kairotic design, and what that means generally for the design of online composition courses.