The increasing emphasis on Higher Education standards has created a shift in the mode Universities deliver professional development. Universities have answered the call of professional development by redesigning curricula and structuring tutorstextquoteright training programs. Open and Distance Learning Standards in Higher Education promote educational content reusability and modularity so as to adapt in various subject domains.  Communities of Practice (CoPs) have constantly posed challenges to Higher Education Institutions (HEI), in particular those engaged in open and distance learning. These communities develop their practice through problem solving, requesting information, seeking experience, coordination and synergy, discussing developments, documenting project mapping knowledge and identifying gaps. This paper presents design framework, methodological aspects and preliminary data analysis of research conducted in (3) Thematic Units of Hellenic Open University with the volunteer participation of (9) Tutors, in forming Communities of Instructional Design  in Open and Distance Learning settings.

International Standards in High and Open and Distance Education are used for developing Open Educational Resources (OERs). Current issues in e-learning community are the specification of learning chunks and the definition of describing designs for different units of learning (activities, units, courses) in a generic though expandable format. Developing educational content, courseware and pedagogical tools to support Subject Matter Experts in their educational practice is a challenging task for the Instructional Design Field. This papertextquoterights aim is to introduce a user oriented design methodology for Open and Distance Learning (ODL) activities orchestrating pedagogical tools so as to develop e-learning activities in Hellenic Open University (HOU) by the use of Boundary Objects (BOs).

European Qualification Framework in Open and Distance Education highlights issues such as content and existing concepts reusability, orchestrating tools for learning, adaptability and learner –centrics themes in curricula. This paper reports on preliminary findings and the process of the design and development of an e-learning activity, based on characteristics of the constructivist approach: Instructional Design tools have been applied in a Focus Group research context using Learning Activity Management System. The basic idea has been to engage Hellenic Open University tutoring staff in the design of distance learning activities by making use of Communities of Practice (CoPs) practices, using their educational experience as a springboard to implement effective learning activities mediated by LAMS and facilitated by an Instructional Designer. The designed activity was actually implemented in a distance education setting, on undergraduate students of HOU in a senior undergraduate course on Artificial Intelligence at the School of Science and Technology, during the first semester of 2012-3.