Many of our colleagues introduced some form of collaborative elements in their courses. They often shared their challenges during the department meetings. The common challenges are students did not do prior reading to prepare themselves adequately for the topic and are not actively participating in group discussion and assignments. Other challenges cited in the literature we should take note of are imbalance in quality of individual contribution and commitments, problems with negotiation skills, conflict and problem in reaching consensus, misunderstandings, imbalance between individual mark and group marks and lack of instructor support. On reflection, we failed to prepare the students adequately for collaborative learning.
I have gained more knowledge on collaborative learning after attending the webinar, reading the articles, and discussing with my PBL group on the given scenario. Thus, I want to apply the knowledge gained to my teaching. I am in the midst of implementing a new course for our graduate students and would consider several strategies as highlighted by Brindley and colleagues. These strategies are: (1) allocate some time before the course start to introduce the concept of collaborative learning on an online platform to students, emphasizing its importance and invite IT expert to teach them how to use Microsoft Teams. Collaborative learning involves two or more students working and learning together on a given task, (2) allocate time for students to introduce themselves to each other focusing on their personalities- introvert and extrovert, their learning styles and experience doing collaborative on line learning, their motivation in enrolling for the course as well as develop a support system amongst themselves, (3) Allow students to form their own study group and time to develop a sense of collaboration and independence before commencing the task, (4) determine students motivation and readiness to work as a group, (5) Provide clear instructions and expectations-objectives, timeline, encourage participation and open communication and strategies for negotiations and conflict resolution, (6) Design problem or task that are meaningful and relevance to real life situation, ensure equal distribution of work amongst members, and allow sufficient time to complete the task, (7) Develop a coherent assessment system – assess individual as well as peer and group contributions, and (8) Provide a proactive monitoring feedback and intervening in the collaborative process to ensure effective group work.
We will be using Microsoft Team as the online platform; divide students into groups, teach them to use the whit space, doing group presentations, taking notes, collaborative engagement using chat and submitting assignments.
References
Brindley, J., Blaschke, L. M. & Walti, C. (2008). Creating effective collaborative learning groups in an online environment. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 10 (3).
Capdeferro, N. & Romero, M. (2012). Are online learners frustrated with collaborative learning experience?. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 13(2), 26-44.
