Implementing participatory design for developing a constructivist e-learning activity

Abstract

European Qualification Framework in Open and Distance Education highlights issues such as content and existing concepts reusability, orchestrating tools for learning, adaptability and learner - centrics themes in curricula. This paper reports on preliminary findings and the process of the design and development of an e-learning activity, based on characteristics of the constructivist approach: Instructional Design tools have been applied in a Focus Group research context using Learning Activity Management System. The basic idea has been to engage Hellenic Open University tutoring staff in the design of distance learning activities by making use of Communities of Practice (CoPs) practices, using their educational experience as a springboard to implement effective learning activities mediated by LAMS and facilitated by an Instructional Designer. The designed activity was actually implemented in a distance education setting, on undergraduate students of HOU in a senior undergraduate course on Artificial Intelligence at the School of Science and Technology, during the first semester of 2012-3.