This document discusses collaboration events hosted by the Open University Learning Design Initiative (OULDI) project to foster shared understanding and co-creation of learning designs. It introduces the project leaders and officers and describes workshops and "cloudfests" that bring practitioners together both virtually through tools like Cloudworks, and in person, to reflect on designs and share ideas. Tools like Cloudworks and CompendiumLD provide representations and visualizations of designs to support collaboration and new perspectives.

1. Collaboration: Structured events for + OULDI people
fostering shared meaning and co-creation • Professor Gráinne Conole (Project
Leader)
• Dr Simon Cross (Project Manager,
visualisation, surveys)
• Rebecca Galley (Project Officer, events,
workshops, evaluation)
OU Learning Design
• Paul Mundin (Project Officer, curriculum
mapping) Initiative (OULDI)
• Dr Juliette Culver (Lead Cloudworks
developer)
Cloudfests and Design • Andrew Brasher (CompendiumLD
developer)
summits
• Dr Paul Clark (Project Consultant,
visualisation)
• Dr Nick Freear (Cloudworks developer,
Design Challenge internationalisation, accessibility)
+ Overview
+ Recent publications
A series of workshops and events exploring mechanisms The project aim is to develop and
Conole, G. (2009), ‘Capturing and representing practice’,
for enabling teachers/ designers to develop and co-create in A. Tait, M. Vidal, U. Bernath and A. Szucs (eds),
learning designs. These range from specialised ‘real’ Distance and E-learning in Transition: Learning
implement a methodology for
design events augmented by virtual support activities, Innovation, Technology and Social Challenges, John Wiley learning design composed of
communities and resources, through to more reflective and Sons: London.
events such as the Cloudfests which support practitioner
tools, practice and other
Conole, G., Brasher, A., Cross, S., Weller, M., Clark, P. and
reflection, feedback and elicitation from other researchers
White, J. (2008), Visualising learning design to foster and
innovation that both builds upon,
in the field. support good practice and creativity, Educational Media and contributes to, existing
International, Volume 54, Issue 3, 177-194.
academic and practitioner
Conole, G. and Culver, J. (in press), The design of research.
Cloudworks: applying social networking practice to foster
the exchange of learning and teaching ideas and designs,
Computers and Education, Available online: http:// + Facets of OULDI work
www.sciencedirect.com/
• Evidence base
Conole, G., Culver, J. (2009) Cloudworks: Social
networking for learning design, Australian Journal of • Connection
Educational Technology, Volume 25, Issue 5, 763-782.
• Representation
Further information about the initiative • Collaboration
Website: http://ouldi.open.ac.uk
Gráinne Conole (Project Leader)
Blurring real & virtual Blog: http://e4innovation.com

2. Connection: Harnessing web 2.0 Representation: Tools, guidance
Evidence base: Understanding
practices to foster debate and and schema to support
the design process
sharing representation and design
+ Methodology +Cloudworks
• Interviewing teachers
www.cloudworks.ac.uk
• Baseline mapping of • Open, drawing on web
Curriculum design 2.0 practices
• Surveys and • Clouds as core objects –
questionnaires social, cumulative,
• Evaluating workshops and intelligent
conferences • Cross-boundary, both filtering/ Seeing curriculum differently
• Web statistics and Google analytics personalisable and serendipitous
• Observation and reflective logs • Offering different views of design
• Dynamic and evolving through use • Process rather than content-focused
• Evidence from policy documents, blogs, Twitter, alongside real events as well as virtual
email etc • Alternatives to text-based descriptions
ones
• Recognising design at different levels – from activity to
• Focus always on sharing, finding and whole course
discussing educational ideas and designs
• Visual – tables & diagrams, descriptive & metaphorical
+ CompendiumLD
www.compendiumld.open.ac.uk
CompendiumLD is a software tool for designing
learning activities using a flexible interface. It is being
developed as a tool to support lecturers, teachers
and others involved in education to help articulate
their ideas and map out a design or learning
sequence.
CompendiumLD is a
+ Learning Design: a definition specialised form of the
concept mapping
A methodology for enabling teachers/designers to make software Compendium,
more informed decisions in how they go about developed by the
designing, which is pedagogically informed and makes Knowledge Media
effective use of appropriate resources and technologies Institute (KMi) at the OU.