Setting the Stage for Collaboration
In this weeks resources they discuss how collaboration can lead to improved learning outcome and a deeper understanding of the content (Horton, 2006). It can not be assumed that students will be enthusiastic about working in a group or even understand how to effectively work with others.. It is essential that the instructor sets the stage for effective collaboration.
The success or failure of a collaborative assignment can depend upon the decisions an instructor makes before giving the assignment to the students. In Assessing Learners Online, Oosterhof, Conrad and Ely (2008) discussion many strategies that can be used to effectively introduce and promote collaboration.
By Wednesday Post your response to the situation.
Situation:
You are teaching an online course. Starting in week 2 students will work in a collaborative group to develop their final project. Using this weeks resources and additional research discuss how you would prepare the students to be successful in this collaborative activity. Be sure to include the following:
- How will you introduce the activity to the students?
- How will groups be created? will you create them ahead of time or allow studnets to form groups?
- How will group interaction guidelines be established and exlained to students?
- How will group roles be determined? Will these remain the same throughout the project?
- How will group participation be encouraged and assessed?
By Sunday
Respond to at least 2 of your classmates by
- Build on something your colleague said.
- Ask a probing or clarifying question.
- Share an insight from having read your colleague's posting.
- Offer and support an opinion.
- Validate an idea with your own experience.
- Expand on your colleague's posting.
- Ask for evidence that supports the posting.
Discussion scoring rubric
• How will you introduce the activity to the students?
ReplyDeleteI would introduce the students to the activity through a high level explanation of the project. Then give them time to gain an understanding of the criteria that is to be used for grading through he development of a rubric. This would be given to them in week one as to give them time to peruse the information and mentally prepare themselves for the assignment.
• How will groups be created?
Depending on the format, online, synchronous, asynchronous, the groups would be formed through a round robin. For online expanding the users perceptions and interaction would be tantamount though geographic concerns may be addressed given the distribution of the student base. As an instructor, using a get to know you post in the first week would help in assessing the skill sets of the students and there by distributing the skilled, proficient and not so proficient into evenly distributed groups. This would be done to help prevent any sort of bias or advantage over any other team or group. This would be done to hopefully increase personal development, create more personal feedback and help to acknowledge individual differences between students (Educational Broadcasting Corporation, 2004).
• Will you create them ahead of time or allow students to form groups?
The groups would be created based upon the experiences and background form their week one get to know you postings. This would be done to circumvent clicks or advantages in then F2F environment, and to keep all things equal in the distance-learning arena.
• How will group interaction guidelines be established and explained to students?
Group interaction would be identified in the rubric. The expectations for the group as well as the individual contributions would be assigned and assessed on the merit of individual contributions to the common good, and also on the work submitted to the group project.
• How will group roles be determined? Will these remain the same throughout the project?
The roles would be distributed each week to maximize the learning of each role given the subject matter. Using the ADDIE design model, each student will have a role in each given section and submit that work individually, and then the group would submit the work as a total project. This will hold accountability and a shared dispersion of the work throughout the project. If a student drops or is unable to preform the work as prescribed, then the individuals are graded on their own contributions, and the group would not be affected by the missing pieces of the individual. Grading this away alleviates any person(s) from carrying the group and the rest benefiting from the one(s) doing their job.
• How will group participation be encouraged and assessed?
Group participation will be graded based on the work submitted by the individuals on their individual tasks, and also as a group as a whole to edit, rewrite or rework any one given area that is seems weak or needs shoring up. This will help in getting peer feedback, distributing information and knowledge, as well as help the individuals learn different perspectives and gain knowledge form that interaction (Oosterhof, Conrad, & Ely, 2008).
Educational Broadcasting Corporation (2004). What are cooperative and collaborative learning? Retrieved February 19, 2013, from http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/coopcollab/index.html
Oosterhof, A., Conrad, R. M., & Ely, D. P. (2008). Assessing learners online. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
PS. This is J.Gum
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