For the third topic, learning in communities, networked collaborative learning, again the group work started with trying to define the different terms. What is a group, a set, a network, a community? Are all of us actually a part of all these different types of social constructs? And how do we use them every day in our learning processes. I realized when reflecting on my own learning journey that, as a neuroscientist, I’ve surely used very different kinds of collaborative learning. In science, we are usually very much goal-orientated, there is a project that has a tight deadline, there are hypotheses to be verified or falsified, there is a PhD thesis to be written. We rarely take the time to truly brainstorm and deeply tap into each others knowledge, however sometimes we think up crazy ideas and experiments in sort of a design thinking approach. I realized, that during my scientific career I have definitely learned in a social context, with my peers and by watching technicians perform experiments in the lab. However, with respect to learning, the research community was actually more of a network, because there was always the aspect of competition and needing to finish things fast and still correctly.

My experience in this course has been a very different one and so has the project work I’m doing at the moment at university. In this course, our PBL group came together as strangers, thrown into differnet topics where none of us are experts. We are working each week towards a specific common goal. We invest time, ressources and knowledge about technical issues, digital tools and literature, but every two weeks we also have something, a finished product, to show. We have grown into a social learning community very fast since the course started! We also draw from the network of experts and peers involved in the course and the speakers. It really is a massive online social learning experience.

I think, this also answers the questions in the scenario for this topic: How to help students to use social learning in the most effective way. We have subconsciously managed to achieve this in our PBL group and I’m truly thankful for this experience!

So here are my personal conclusions and solutions to motivate students to see group work not as a tedious task, but a helpful experience.

1. Make them aware of the different levels of social learning.
2. Help them to grow into a community with the common goal to succeed in the course.
3. Create an environment where everyone feels safe to take part in discussions.
4. Design the course in a way that leads them to a common finished product (video poster…) at the end.
5. Foster network formation amongst students even after the course is finished.

Groups, sets, networks, communities…why surfing on Instagram is not necessarily social learning.