Understanding How Learning Design Co-authoring Unfolds in Online Platforms

Abstract

Online platforms for learning design (LD) co-authoring offer teachers opportunities to engage with pedagogical practice in a community. Supporting co-design at scale requires understanding its temporal unfolding, often relying solely on trace data. Yet, most studies of learning (co-)design focus on group-level analyses of the quality and composition of the finished LD product, rather than the heterogeneous unfolding of its process. This study analyses patterns of trace data from the widely used platform, Graasp, using the Knowledge Appropriation Model (KAM) to examine how such co-design processes evolve over time. Clustering 1,050 designs, we identify LD co-authoring profiles based on features reflecting KAM maturation phases as well as process predictability and stability indicators extracted using recurrence quantification analysis. These profiles are then analysed based on a critical phase transition in the teachers’ learning process: the LD’s classroom implementation. Our results highlight effort, regularity, and co-creation (multiple authors contributing content) as key to successful LD co-authoring that transitions to implementation. The study also underscores challenges in applying theoretical constructs to analyse trace data and limitations of such data in capturing complex, blended social practices.