This presentation, of interest to individuals teaching online and at a distance as well as those working in instructional design, outlines the results of a multi-year, design-based doctoral research study. This study examines the use of a socially networked online learning environment as a virtual classroom offering openness through its capacity to create, annotate, rate and comment upon persistent artefacts. Additionally, the study examines how students engage a dynamic course archive containing artefacts from current and past learners. The archive is used to support learners in an online graduate level course by offering access to the day-to-day conversations of current and prior learners along with various artefacts created in these current and prior course sections. The study looks at the use, value and perceived barriers in the use of such an archive and it attempts to challenge our current understanding of what students benefit from in their learning processes.
Of Interest to: Online and distance education, Post-secondary education, Instructional designers, Researchers, Educational technologists
