Foregrounding relational dimensions of curriculum and learning design in online and hybrid learning environments

This paper reflects on a collaborative intervention implemented by an Education lecturer and Writing Centre staff at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) before and during the COVID-19 lockdown. The migration to emergency remote teaching was destabilising and exposed and exacerbated existing student inequalities. This collaborative intervention involved formative feedback being provided by writing tutors to students in Honours modules as part of a strategy of embedding academic literacies development within the modules. We used a Design Based Research (DBR) approach combined with collaborative action research. Key elements of a response-able pedagogy (Bozalek & Zembylas, 2017) and Tronto’s political ethics of care (Tronto, 1993, 2013) were drawn on to explore our curriculum design principles. We argue that online and hybrid curriculum design needs to consider affective dimensions of learning such as trust and care. Building webs of support into curriculum and assessment design constitutes a necessary element of a just pedagogy.