How to Promote Collaborative Learning
in ONL172
The ONL 172 course in relation to Brindley, Walti and Blaschke’s strategies to communicate the value of collaborative learning and to increase motivation to participate.
CC-BY 2.0 Jerry Griffis
MEANING MAKING
& RELEVANCE
MOTIVATION FOR PARTICIPATION EMBEDDED IN COURSE DESIGN
APPROPRIATENESS OF TASK
FOR GROUP WORK
TIMING OF GROUP FORMATION
CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS
READINESS OF LEARNERS FOR GROUP WORK
MONITORING AND FEEDBACK
RESPECT FOR THE AUTONOMY OF LEARNERS
TRANSPARENCY OF EXPECTATIONS
SUFFICIENT TIME FOR THE TASK
Detailed information on course activities was provided at opennetworkedlearning.wordpress.com before the course started
The aims of each topic are presented in terms of the expected outcome, however, at the beginning it is not clear "what we are supposed to learn from the course"
The course instructors emphasize that participation in PBL-groups provide the greatest learning opportunities
It is a bit challenging to know the structure and possibilities of the collaboration inside the group, f. ex. when we could have the meetings so that we all could attend
The course description does not state clearly what to do. Rather a scenario is presented to the students and they need to decide how to solve it, and the format of the final outcome
The main focus seems to be on sharing ideas and thoughts (which is hard to write instructions on how to do it!)
Maybe this is the reason why the students can feel that they lack feedback on whether they followed the instructions right
Some of us thought that the flow of topics per week was not very clear, while others thought the course structure was quite rigid for being a MOOC!
The instructions on how to deal with the different scenarios are very broad and general. This allows us to be free in choosing which specific topics we want to learn more about
All scenarios seem very relevant, based on real-life situations
More cross-PBL group feedback on the final outcome of each Topic will make these works more meaningful
(in a similar way as we do with blog-posts, utilising the potential of peer-review but this time across PBL group borders)
The way the course is structured “exposes” us to a lot of new tools, that we can then decide to use or not in the future. Most of these tools are relevant and they also allow us to better understand what can and can’t be done online. One of the team members has already tried one of the tools, Menti, from the ONL 172 course to spark a discussion with the students about his course (the students could give feedback about the course using Menti and then they could discuss this in class)
The necessary step to familiarising with and introducing some of these tools in our daily activity at our organisations may be quite large in some cases, but it is definitely good to know what is available, and hopefully in the future, there will be opportunities
All the proposed scenarios are appropriate for group work. The discussions within the PBL group provide a richer final product (compared to doing the exercise individually) because different viewpoints are presented and we make use of the different competencies in the group.
The actual “implementation” of the final solution is a bit trickier than the discussion process since most of the free versions of the tools we are using don’t allow for multiple-user edition!
Perhaps, a set of tools allowing us to work collaboratively also when creating the final outcome could be provided by the course management
At the same time it might be hard to keep the discussions within relevant limits!
When collaborative group-work is necessary, differences in time-zone should be considered!
Participation in group work is required to get a certificate for the course in the end, therefore individual success is dependent upon group success
Since the main learning process during the course happens in the group discussions, the motivation to participate in those is there, as long as there is a motivation to learn!
This requires flexible timing!
That motivation to learn may not always be there unfortunately (especially for undergrad students)
Motivation levels vary depending on the student's expectations from the course
Different obstacles can get in the way! (busy schedule at work, illness, personal reasons...)
The group formation takes place before the course start-up
At the time of group formation the facilitators don't know the students, and the students in principle don’t know each other, the groups are formed in a “random fashion”.
This is not necessarily bad, but maybe a conscious selection or matching process during group formation could lead to better (more homogeneous) groups in general
The group is not well-established when the work starts. The group members get more and more acquainted with each other as the course progresses, which might lead to a well-established group when we get the final assignment
This process requires extra work from the facilitators as well as appropriate communication / interaction tools to strengthen the bonds within the group
The group members do not choose their PBL groups
The members of the PBL groups jointly decide on (their own) how to solve the various tasks (autonomy), but my assumption is that the decision-making processes can vary between the groups, which probably leads to varying degrees of ownership
This is a point which may be difficult to investigate and fully know for the course leaders in advance. There is of course an advantage in mixing different members who are from different places and different backgrounds, but the general respect for each other should be as in any other education instance, when the students know each other and meet face to face
Facilitators are present during (most) PBL group meetings
The facilitators have provided inputs to the group discussions, mostly regarding directions & tools, but not so much on the actual group-work process
More specific feedback on the final outcome of each topic would be appreciated
The broad & general nature of the instructions on how to deal with each topic makes it difficult to give feedback on whether those instructions were correctly followed!
Two weeks seems enough to work on the topics
It can be stressful to schedule on-line meetings so that all members can attend
The time schedule for the course (on a weekly base) is clear and given from the beginning... however that assumes that you can adjust and as we've already said: different obstacles can easily get in the way!
The course structure is somewhat sequential, allowing the students to learn in the way
No specific prerequisites are necessary to sign up for the ONL course
Digital / teamwork skills may be very different among participants
The skill level necessary to solve the tasks must be kept at a reasonable level
A first task assessing the skills of the group members could be useful for the facilitators to know what to expect / how much they can push the group
A more elaborated group-forming process, balancing the mix of skills in the groups may result in better group work
TOPIC 3 - LEARNING IN COMMUNITIES - PBL GROUP 9