Re-designing an MA module to foster agency, engagement and production in online social software

Abstract

This article describes the process of re-designing a module on the MA in Media, Culture and Communication at the Institute of Education (IOE), University of London. This process took place as part of the Pedagogic Research to Embedded E-Learning (PREEL) project at the IOE and involved moving a module largely concerned with offline production of teaching resources into online engagement with Internet culture. Course participants were encouraged to think about issues around production in social software in ways which were relevant to their professional and personal activity online. The early stages of the re-design process were recorded in a course tutor blog and there were further attempts to reflect on the process using two evaluations, one in the middle of a pilot version of the course and the other at the end. The article concludes with a series of lessons learned which can be taken forward during the revalidation process.