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

Starting Assumptions and Assets

Pedagogical Assumptions

Our team came to the project with several pedagogical assumptions about the nature of the composition course:

• That the primary focus of a composition course should be the students’ own writing
• That learning happens not only through information, but also through interaction—that is, that students learn best by interacting, discussing, collaborating, working in groups, and sharing information and ideas among themselves
• That interaction among students has to be purposeful and meaningful (e were suspicious of "fake" or forced interaction— whereby students are required to respond to each other in certain formulaic or regularly scheduled ways)
• That we needed to have some synchronous opportunities, but that we couldn’t schedule them in a fixed way

Pedagogical Assets

We also came to the project with some pedagogical assets in hand: (1) We already had a well-developed curriculum for teaching the English 111 course that included significant integration of digital writing technologies (see English 111), and (2) all members of the team had extensive experience integrating digital technologies into teaching and learning, including two members of the team (Jim and Heidi) who had taught fully online courses (although prior to the development of robust video and synchronous chat capabilities).

And, importantly, we also had monetary assets in hand. Both Jim and Jason leveraged the budget of the Composition Program to provide members of the team financial compensation for their time developing and researching the English 111 online curriculum. As anyone knows who has taught online, it  takes a lot of time and effort to adapt curriculum for online teaching. This funding, particularly the compensation for the graduate students involved, helped as we developed other assets to be used in the class.