This latest project is really 2 projects in one. First of all we are exploring the nature and value of social networking software together. There is considerable interest within the WAOE community and beyond in social networking.
Secondly, we were interested in the idea of collaborative course design as a form of professional development for WAOE members. We decided to use the Ning software platform to collaboratively attempt to design an online course for WAOE members.
This project is still continuing and indeed it has been one of the most participative informal learning projects to date. There are 20 people from a variety of countries including the USA, Australia and China busy participating in this project. Interaction levels are also high with discussion across most participants and only a few observing without input.
What is unclear at the moment is whether the successful levels of interaction compared with other projects is due to the social software being used or whether it is the collaborative task being undertaken.
In phase 1 of the informal learning projects initiative, we did try to collaboratively design a module of an online course. That activity was also succesful and indeed gave rise to the initiative being persued. It also generated our first collaborative publication.
The novelty of the software can not be overlooked. At the time of writing this Ning and social networking software is a popular phenomenon seemingly everywhere. There is also an attempt within WAOE to facilitate more networking amongst members starting with this activity and facility.
Even so, the value of collaborative course design also appears to be sufficiently broad and complex to attract the interest of informal learners within the WAOE online intercultural community. We can conceptualise this as problem-based collaborative informal learning.