Design Guidelines for Collaboration and Participation with Examples from the LN4LD: Learning Network for Learning Design

This chapter presents some design guidelines to foster (active) participation in learning networks. ‘Lessons learned’ over a period of about five years are phrased as recommendations for future learning network implementations. We describe three generations of facilities designed to promote learning on the topic of educational modelling languages and IMS-Learning Design, going from a conventional website through a community site offering facilities for collaboration towards a blended learning network for the effective exchange of information. Having described some more general guidelines, the chapter focuses on the positive influence of introducing incentive mechanisms and face-to-face meetings on participation in the LN4LD (Learning Network for Learning Design). These successful interventions in real world experimentation are explained from theories about self-organization, social exchange and social affordances. Repeated measurements show the levels of both passive (accessing and reading information) and active participation (posting, replying and rating) to significantly increase as a result of both interventions. Both the use of incentive mechanisms and face-to-face meetings can therefore be considered as valuable ‘add-ons’ in the learning design of learning networks (LD4LN).