OLE Theory

My theory of Online Literacy Education can be drilled down into three different ideas: 

• Multimodality & Play

• Community of Practice

• Reflective Practitioners 

To demonstrate these three ideas, I created an infographic that encapsulates my theory of online literacy education. 

Reflection on the Infographic

The text on the infographic is as follows: 

1. A “Learners & Doers” section that focuses on the higher order thinking about creating community in online courses with “Intentional Interaction, Offer Choices, Empower Learners, and Encourage Play.” 

2. A “What we can do in our courses:” manifesto section that notes “What we do in our classes is give students opportunities that help them learn and practice the skills they need to build communities of inquiry, regardless of modality.”

3. A “What this can look like:” section that includes “Foreground community through intentional interaction, use multiple ways to connect, use multiple modes of writing and interaction, scaffold & practice & play, use and analyze examples, and build reflection into the course.”  

Weaving together the three different sections, I intentionally designed this infographic to be a discussion-centered jumping off point for instructors to use when designing their courses (hopefully in a community of inquiry where they are interacting with other faculty members/instructors when planning and designing their courses). My hope is not to say “here is what you need to do in online courses,” but rather offer a heuristic that allows instructors to make decisions about their own pedagogy and praxis, rooted in best practices from OLI literature (this is a nod to Stewart’s (2017) piece on developing a heuristic centered on communities of inquiry). For example, offering choices and incorporating multiple forms/modalities of writing and interacting, I am building off McClure & Mahaffey’s (2020) work on composing with videos and Ledgerwood’s (2022) hyperdocs. Through mentioning intentional interaction, I am drawing from MacKinnon, Makos, Wilton, Brett, Malhtra, Avery, & Raman’s (2020) work on using discussion based interaction to scaffold community building–especially with the use of the word intentional interaction (not all discussion boards are the same!). I drew from Cleveland-Innes, Garrison, & Kinsel (2007) for notions of empowering learners in these new positions, meeting learners where they are and challenging them to take on new roles. Each interaction is an opportunity for folks to not only practice new roles or try on new possibilities within this new environment, but to challenge themselves in these new roles. If the community of inquiry is supportive and reflective, then students can take risks (and play!) in a supportive community of inquiry (and also learners/writers). This doesn’t happen automatically or magically, but takes intentionality from the instructor who is designing these opportunities. 

Finally, I include a small “references to check out” hyperlink at the bottom of the page that takes readers to a GoogleDrive folder with the different articles/scholarship I used when developing this infographic. This adheres to the understanding that OLI instructors should be informed by scholarship and research, and that OLI instruction may look different from synchronous in person (face to face) instruction. It’s different, but does not mean that it has to be less human.