Collaborative learning design: university teachers interactions to support quality teaching in blended courses

Teaching practices in higher education (HE) are not aligned with latest findings of educational research on quality teaching; partially, this is due to the fact that there is little reflection within the HE cultures about quality teaching, and quality procedures imposed through prescriptive models tend to fail. In this article the authors contend that a strategy to promote quality teaching could be based on collaborative learning design (CLD). Within the process of collaboration indeed, the values attached to the pedagogical practices and assumptions can be negotiated towards the improvement of quality. To illustrate this assumption, a process of CLD, based on the interactions within an academic staff to improve a blended course is presented. Such collaborative process triggered a number of discussions as part of negotiating the own quality perspective on teaching towards integrated, expanded quality teaching perspective that supports academics engagement with a quality culture.