Drop-Everything-And-Read-wRite-Research: Designing for Learning Presence in a Metaverse

Abstract

This paper is a design case narrative seeking to capture, theorize and reflect on the process of redesigning a research course in which participants took part in a virtual research writing group or the Drop-Everything-And-Read-wRite-Research (D.E.A.R.) sessions within a metaverse and with learning presence in mind. Learning presence has been investigated through indications of self-regulation and co-regulation in the areas of forethought, planning and monitoring (Hayes et al., 2015). From the point of view of the co-faculty-in-charge-and-learning-designer, the design case narrative revealed a cyclical design thinking process for the course redesign process. It unfolded the D.E.A.R.’s ideation as a spin-off from the shared experiences of faculty members undertaking their dissertation writing during the pandemic, while its prototype was based on a synchronous writing group. Within a metaverse there are examples of learning presence worth sustaining to improve student research writing experiences. The paper recommends a case study to be undertaken in the future, to further investigate learning presence and its manifestations in research writing groups, capitalizing on the potential possibilities of the shared D.E.A.R. metaverse to harness learning alliance and community building among researchers in higher education. Further enhancements of the prototype are suggested to inform institutional support mechanisms for research student success.  Methodologically, the design thinking cycle revealed a story pattern through which a design case narrative can be told as a form of scholarship of teaching and learning in the context of online education.  The study likewise paves the way for further studies in support of a scholarship of online teaching and learning or SO²TL as research looking closely into instructional design models given that much of ‘online teaching’ happens through intentional design of learning content and the learning environment.