A succession of eyes: building an E-learning city

This paper describes the theoretical underpinning and form of Dwellings, an online learning environment based on the dynamics of cities. Dwellings was built to help to discover whether the features that enable a city area to thrive might also be beneficial in e-learning. It employs a wide assortment of social navigation features that allow learners to influence and be influenced by others. The results of a brief study of its use are described, suggesting that the environment goes some way to achieving one of its main goals, to improve group cohesion. It enables security of the sort found in thriving city areas, a safety born from what, in ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities,’ Jane Jacobs describes as a “succession of eyes.”