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= = =EDU11108 Curriculum Design and Development for Blended and Online Learning = =Welcome to the Professional Communities Activity Wiki from Julia and Colin  =  Click here to access the Elluminate session for this evening, Thursday 25th November, 8pm to 9pm: @https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=28769&password=M.27778DB8B1BED208129C16A552C9DE **Introduction **

This activity offers you the opportunity to join and engage with an **online or online-supported professional community that concerns itself, at least in part, with the use of technology to support teaching and learning.** This community may be subject discipline-related or not, but it must be facilitated through either mailing lists, online discussion groups, social networking sites or similar. You will record key characteristics to the Professional Communities page within this wiki, a page we'll refer to as the **PC Directory.** You'll find a link to the **PC Directory** on the navigation bar on the left of this screen. In week 12 you will then share your experience with your peers in a tutor-led Elluminate session.


 * Rationale **

In previous modules, participation in our online discussions has been focused primarily around tackling theoretical concepts, pedagogical considerations and other key issues in seminar style debates and exchanges. The approach to this discussion activity is somewhat different, and is focused around what you can learn from and contribute to various online and online-supported professional communities. You are already part of one such community, which is our CDDBOL module group, but there are many other communities out there that can support your continued development as a blended and online educator.


 * Your Task **

This activity is split up into two main tasks, not including your direct involvement in the professional community of your choice.

//Task 1:// First of all, join an online community and start participating in their professional conversations. Then, by week 9, you are expected to post to the **PC Directory** the URL of the professional community you have joined. You should include a descriptive, succinct paragraph or two about the community which should address the following points: > of general or subject-related challenges, issues and trends such as in curriculum > design and development for blended and online learning, for example.  Please note that there is no expectation that this be a positive experience! You may very well find that the professional community you join fails to provide the support you had originally anticipated. Furthermore, while you will need to engage with the community regularly your role may be an active or a passive one (eg on a discussion board).
 * origin/history of the community
 * reason(s) for joining
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">key features/activities including urls of further resources/support groups
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">main remit
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">target audience
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">selection of topics recently discussed or addressed
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">usefulness/benefit to you in terms of support and keeping abreast

By the end of this task as a group you will have created an annotated bibliography of professional communities. Once completed, the module team will edit and format the document for wider use and dissemination on the programme.

//Task 2:// Following the written contribution to the PC Directory you are asked to share with peers your experience in a final (synchronous) Elluminate session in week 12. You will be given a set of questions to help you prepare for the Elluminate session in week 10 which will be led by Julia and Colin. In the Elluminate session you are expected to show evidence of critical engagement in your own online community and demonstrate a fundamental knowledge of another community introduced by a peer. This will involve also taking a look at (without joining unless you want to) the communities that others have joined. <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**The Professional Community** <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">//Your professional community should engage with **themes relating to blended and/or online education issues.**// Some of these communities will be associations and groups in the general area of technology-enhanced teaching and learning, or you may join a community related to your own subject speciality in which blended and online design topics in HE/FE are discussed. The community might be supported by a website, mailing list, a blog, a micro-blog (Twitter), a social networking site or regular face to face meetings. You may find an educational special interest group within Second Life, hosted by JISC or even your own institution or Higher Education Academy (or equivalent outside the UK) subject centre, for example. <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; text-align: left;"> You may already be a member of a relevant online community and that is fine, as long as you come back here and tell us all about it by week 9 and participate in the Elluminate session in week 12. If you are stuck for finding a relevant professional community let us know in the Problems Forum on WebCT and we will help locate one for you.


 * Key Dates**

Week 6-8: <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Week 9: > > <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Sun, 7th November. <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Week 10: <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"> Week 12:
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Starting on the 11th October, browse this wiki for information and instructions and then look around and join a professional community. Consult the **PC Examples** page for ideas.
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Professional community URL(s) and initial message posted to PC Directory by
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Professional communities descriptive paragraph(s) taking shape
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Visit further communities of your peers
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Finalise your entry in the PC Directory
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Elluminate session on **Wednesday, Nov 24th 7.00-8.00 pm** or **Thursday, Nov 25th 8.00-9.00pm**. You can sign up for whichever time suits you better on the **Presentation Groups page.**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Why another space?** Good question! We would have preferred that WebCT be the holding space for most formal assignments, but WebCT does not offer a collaborative working area. Wikispaces was the one wiki that we were confident everyone on the module had already used and as such we hoped to avoid causing an additional and unnecessary burden to participants.

Julia and Colin will take back-up copies of written wiki work on a regular basis.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Getting started**
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Go to the page PC Examples and review the communities listed there
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Join a professional community
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Go to the page PC Directory. Click on the edit button to begin putting your own content (your name, URL of community if you have one already) on the page. Remember to save your entry!
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Talk to one another in the discussions area right here if you would like -no committment, though. This is entirely up to you.
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Post any problems to the Problems Forum in WebCT.