“A Leaf a Gourd a Shell . . .”: Toward a “Carrier Bag” Approach to Online Course Design

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 4:20 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Self-Studies Within Higher Education: Faculty Development, Online Teaching, and Instructional Delivery (Table 3)

Abstract

This narrative self-study emerged from the desire to integrate my values within the context of my work. Specifically, I aimed to reconcile my commitment to climate ethics with my professional practice as an instructional designer and online faculty developer. Drawing upon a lens of feminist posthuman care, I explored the material entanglements of the online platforms of Canvas and Zoom. Data included digital artifacts, interviews with digital objects (Adams & Thompson, 2016) and digital collages. Through diffractive analysis, the metaphor of a “carrier bag” (Le Guin, 1989/2019) surfaced, revealing stories of complexity, complicity, and repair. Findings demonstrate how a ‘carrier bag’ approach to online course design can serve to re-conceptualize digital spaces as sites of instructional engagement with climate-related discussions.

Author

• Beth Giebus-Chavez, University of New Mexico