Gilly Salmon’s Five stage model offers an opportunity for teachers to reflect on how they (as teachers) need to support students in their development to be able to assimilate digital teaching and develop their ability to collaborate in the best possible way. The model is presented as a staircase with the steps:

Access and motivation
Online socialization
Information exchange
Knowledge construction
Development

My role in this as a teacher is mainly as an instructor and facilitator. I realize the importance of, as a teacher, daring to let go of control a little in the beginning and adapt the course structure to PBL and peer to peer knowledge development. It is also important not to complicate the tasks too much in the beginning. Students’ development takes time and should get it by letting each step take its time. If you skip a step, the students do not develop well enough to be able to solve more complex issues later in a constructive way through collaboration, says Salmon. Their learning is hampered.

When I look at my own practice as a teacher, I realize that I have included some of the pieces from the model, but that I have hardly built up the students’ ability to develop collaborative learning so carefully or patiently. There are some challenges in applying the model. If you envisage an educational program where the students will study together for maybe 2-3 years, it is well suited to build the five steps during the first semester’s courses. It requires agreement on how in a teaching team, ie perhaps 3-4 teachers must be active and aware of their role in a progression of student-centered learning. Similar arrangements exist for progression in different areas, but then for students’ abilities to be able to perform something certain independently. In the national learning objectives there are e.g. “Demonstrate the ability to independently identify, formulate and solve problems and to carry out tasks within given time frames” (Higher Education Act), but no goal points out the ability to cooperate as important for a future working life. However, I understand that there is an awareness in most educations that this is actually an important piece of the puzzle for the students to develop so that they can actually solve things in a good way together with others at the goal of their journey through the education system. It also increases their employability.

In independent courses, of 7.5 or 15 ECTS in length, it can be more difficult to apply the five steps and let each step take the time needed. It requires a great deal of stance on how to build up the course pedagogically in relation to other alternatives. A form of initial analysis of the target group is also needed. If it is about beginners at university level, it is of greater importance, perhaps, than if it is about professionals who want to take a continuing education course. At the same time, I have very positive experiences of the latter in connection with a continuing education course in ”boarding school” where we build the pedagogy on group work and a network formation that lives on long after the end of the course. There, it would feel very strange not to take advantage of and consciously work with group dynamics. Independent distance courses at a higher level, on the other hand, are often chosen by students who prefer to study on their own, and flexibly, because it is difficult to keep up with their studies other than in the evening. The right pedagogy for the right target group I guess…