Forward-oriented designing for learning as a means to achieve educational quality

The ongoing debate about Learning Design as a key field of educational research and practice is focused on understanding how intuitive processes The ongoing debate about Learning Design as a key field of educational research and practice is focused on understanding how intuitive processes undertaken by teachers and trainers can become visible (Learning Design as representation) and how can the pedagogical practices be re-shaped on the light of this representation (Learning Design as forward-oriented device). While there has been in the recent years a considerable attention devoted to develop sophisticated representational tools and means of Learning Design, the problem is whether these can be either adopted into the greenfield (that is, the daily practice of teaching and learning) and connected to educational quality (that is, effective teaching and learning according to negotiated educational values). I n this paper our attempt has been to explore how the process of design for learning can be connected with quality in a learning culture. The process of designing for learning within a blended, undergraduated university course is explored through a teacher-led inquiry, attempting to show the connections between designing for learning and the reflections from the academic staff and the students on the quality culture as meta-learning activity leading to competences to participate in such quality culture, or "quality literacy". These connections are an evidence that reinforces the importance of conceiving Learning Design as dynamic activity on the greenfield, that is, adopting learning design to explore methods of transforming existing situations into desired situations.