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

Instructor Perspectives

Too often instructors have limited opportunities to design the spaces in which they teach. They get their teaching schedule, go check out the classroom, and aim to make the space they’ve been assigned work for their pedagogy and for student learning as shaped by their goals and class outcomes. At Miami, we have some fantastic classrooms for writing pedagogy—large spaces with easily movable and comfortable furniture designed for laptop learning, collaboration and maximum flexibility, and with the bells and whistles of the latest technology. We also have some so-so spaces that, with some creative re-arranging, can be made to work. And then, alas, we still have a few rooms that literally are from the nineteenth century, with furniture and chalkboards that are perhaps from the mid-twentieth century. Teaching composition in those spaces is a challenge, to say the least. So, often in regard to traditional, brick-and-mortar classroom assignments, teaching space is determined by the luck of the draw.

When we began to design for fully online learning, we wanted instructors to have the opportunity to be more proactive in the design process. Thus we aimed to work as a team of administrators and instructors, collaboratively developing the spaces for teaching and providing instructors the opportunity to participate in the classroom design spaces, including making decisions about what online sites to use and how to use them. We actively resisted imposing any singular, all-inclusive platform design because we wanted maximum flexibility.

In the instructor narratives in this section, Lance, Renea, and Ryan share their perspectives on how they approached the design of the classroom space—what worked, how it worked, and why.