Designer Communities: Developing a Knowledge Base of Strategies, Tools, and Experience

Abstract

This chapter highlights the importance of developing and sustaining a knowledge base among designers to enable the collective sharing of strategies and tools for communication within project teams. This chapter identifies and discusses the need to capture collective wisdom of designers who work in close proximity within the same university. It examines a case study of a project that illustrates changes in the design context in relation to types of projects (CD-ROM, Web-based, learning management systems) and discusses these trends through the eyes of two designers. It also discusses the trend away from large standalone projects to networked “learning objects.” It examines these trends in relation to a number of strategies that support the learning design community and its work.