COMMUNICATING HEI INSIGHTS IN GRAPHIC DESIGN DISTANCE LEARNING: ONLINE FORUMS AND PEER LEARNING

This paper communicates insights observed and developed through the provision and use of online forums as environments for continuous peer feedback and peer learning. The rationale behind this approach to teaching online has been to simulate the design studio environment and enable students to observe their peers' successes and failures through the design cycle. The design needs of a global online university course are much broader than a nation-based university. Collaborative pedagogy is achieved, where peer feedback supports cohorts with differentiated needs, assists academic performance and consolidates tutor feedback to incrementally develop work. The online forums and peer learning methods employed within the online Graphic Design discipline allow for the understanding of subtle differences in skills and subsequent progress of those skills as an individual at every stage of the design cycle. Responses to activities can be observed across the peer network on a continuous basis. The added advantage of continuously observed content improves the students' visual skills, academic ability and their ability to comment on the development of their peers' progression. The forum takes on the form of a visual infographic of peer success and failure that students draw upon in order to assist them to develop and improve their own work. Distance learning environments designed in this way are inclusive, improve learner motivation, allow students to see failure as a tool for creative learning and encourage personal awareness capabilities and evaluation.