Digital Commons Network^™

New Model, New Strategies: Instructional Design For Building Online Wisdom Communities, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena, Ludmila Ortegano-Layne, Kayleigh Carabajal, Casey Frechette, Ken Lindemann, Barbara Jennings

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

We discuss the development of an instructional design model, WisCom (Wisdom Communities), based on socio-constructivist and socio-cultural learning philosophies and distance education principles for the development of online wisdom communities, and the application and evaluation of the model in an online graduate course in the U.S. The WisCom model aims to facilitate transformational learning by fostering the development of a wisdom community, knowledge innovation and mentoring and learner support in an online learning environment, based on a “Cycle of Inquiry” module design, and a “Spiral of Inquiry” program design. Extending beyond current instructional design practice, WisCom provides both a new …