A journey of which I didn’t know where it would end and what exactly the destination would be. Like with any trip, with your travel companions you have to decide what you want to explore. And that’s what we did with PBL group 13! A good trip comes with good memories. This trip has been a lot of fun, I have learned a lot and it has been a valuable experience!
Below I would like to describe the results of my participation in ONL192 by means of a number of factors from the literature that have been identified as being important in online collaboration.
Trust
The first weeks of ONL are the ‘getting started’ and ‘connection week’. Although I was aware from the beginning that it is nice to get to know each other as group members. It was when the Five Stages Model for online learning was discussed during topic 4 I became really aware of essential structure of the first few weeks of ONL. The getting started week was dominated by getting access and getting familiar with the structure of the ONL course site. My motivation started in the second week when we met online during the ‘connection week’. Because you got to know your group members, I started to feel more comfortable. I was really glad our facilitators supported us by giving structure through our delevepment process as group during this first weeks. This built up my self-confidence and gave me more control over ONL’s way of working. This first weeks created some kind of trust in the group and in the motivation to remain on board.
My advice for new ONL participants would be: Don’t wait with reading the background information of ONL, get started directly.
Shared goal & collective focus
In our PBL group, we shared the same goal’ and we agreed on what was important (Prenger, Poortman, & Handelzalts, 2017). Everyone in our group was prepared to learn and to invest time and attention in the ONL journey. Both individually as by collaboration activities.
Problem-based learning concept contributed to have a shared goal because the (collective) focus is on solving the problem outlined in the scenario. The scenario brought guidance in working towards that shared goal. And sometimes our facilitator took on the role of providing direction. Later, during the weeks progressed, this role was taken over by individual group members. From week 3 or 4 I really got a feeling of group identity (Tsiotakis & Jimoyiannis, 2016).
Concentrate on the common denominator in the group assignments. In your individual blog you can put your own focus.
Support & Facilitation
The role of the facilitator is very important. I had read about online community learning in the literature, but it’s really making a difference. In the beginning we were just waiting to see what was required of us. In the initial phase, we needed more control. Our facilitator brought the necessary structure and direction in the beginning. First we were carefully about giving your own opinion. As the weeks progressed we had nice discussions in which everyone gave his or her own opinion. Our facilitator made sure that everyone had a chance to respond.
Have confidence the structure of ONL will become clear to you. Don’t underestimate the role of your facilitator in this. And follow the first webinar in which the structure is explained. Otherwise, you’ll start with a backlog.
Collaboration and active participation
During topic 3 we had the discussing in our group about the difference between cooperation and collaboration. Our first topic was characterized as ‘cooperation’. We devided the labor between the participants in our group to solve the assigned portion of the problem individually (Hut, 2017). This passed soon into collaboration. This was partly due to the tools we chose later on. For example in topic 3 we used the online mind map tool Coggle. The tool forced us to create a group product together.
I think the design of ONL is chosen very well. Because of the relative small size of the PBL groups we had a high degree of interaction. Size really matters of a group (Arguello, Butler, Joyce, Kraut, Ling & Wang, 2006). Because our group was relatively small with 6 participants, I felt the responsibility to be online each time.
Learning environment with synchronous sessions has a major impact on the social aspect of learning. And thus also on your motivation.
Reflective dialogue
I was positively surprised when our facilitator indicated in week 2 that our group process, in relation to the groups she had experienced in recent years, was going fast. This remark triggered me to take a more conscious look at our group development. And to take a more reflective attitude.
It’s funny to see that my attitude towards teamwork in traditional education (face-to-face learning) is the same as in online learning. I like to engage in the learning process together, but also like to do a part of it individually. In our individual blogs I saw different effects and reflections between our group members.
That’s why I think the blog activity is a good way to apply your individual focus by each topic.
You will read literature on how online communities develop (such as the five-stage model). Be aware that you yourself are leading in this process through your participation. It provides good input for your reflective process.
Teach what you preach
What I experience as the most important benefit is that I have experienced the added value of full online learning and online collaboration myself. I can sincerely convey my enthusiasm for online collaborative learning because I have experienced it myself.
ONL has been a very adventurous trip! And like all great journeys, they keep their value because of the good memories they leave behind. I have learned a lot in a short time. Return on investment is definitely worth it!
