Heating up online learning: Insights from a collaboration employing arts based research/pedagogy for an adult education, online, community outreach undergraduate course

Abstract

This article examines a three-stage collaboration in the design and implementation of a community outreach online course for an adult education program at a Canadian university. The collaboration used a participatory arts-based pedagogy approach that is designed to evoke thought rather than prescribe meanings. This manuscript has been structured to parallel a script format with Act I reporting how a group of university drama students employed the 'playbuilding' research/pedagogical methodology to devise a series of tableaus and video vignettes that examined concepts of community development that would be used in the design of an online community outreach and adult literacy elective course. Act II argues for and provides the devised script as evidence (data) of student learning. Act III discussed how an adult education instructor designed the new course, incorporating the vignettes as a central component and what was observed from delivering the online course over several iterations. Embedded in the discussion were: the processes involved in both instructional environments; and an examination of the impact of the dramatic pedagogical approach in the digital environment, particularly in relation to transformation, meaning making, and community outreach. The insights, however, are not coded in an etic analytical style. Rather, the authors used an emic approach with themes embedded within the narrative structure. Given its collaborative nature, the co-authors employ a polyvocal format through which their individual voices are made explicit.