Group projects in the online learning environment

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En provenance du cours de UNSW Australia (The University of New South Wales)

Learning to Teach Online

158 notes

UNSW Australia (The University of New South Wales)

Learning to Teach Online

158 notes

Are you an educator? Have you ever wanted to understand more about how to design your class to make better use of educational technology – whether fully online or in blended contexts? Would you like to learn from those who have extensive practical experience with online technologies? The Learning to Teach Online (LTTO) MOOC will help you develop a working understanding of successful online teaching strategies that you can apply in your own practice. The course is based upon the multi award winning open educational resource developed by Dr Simon McIntyre and Karin Watson. Integrating online technologies into your teaching can be a challenging prospect, and it can be difficult to know how to approach it effectively for the benefit of both students and yourself. No one knows your own content and teaching strengths better than you, and the “one size fits all” formula doesn’t always suit everyone. No matter what type of technology you are interested in exploring or your level of experience, this course will help you draw on your teaching strengths and find the approach that is right for you, your students and your educational context. This course will guide you through your journey of understanding how online technologies can enhance your course design. You will have the opportunity to develop your understanding of effective online teaching practices and their relationship to the use of different technologies. You will also be encouraged to progressively design and reflect upon your own online learning activity, assessment or resource for use in your own class if you choose to undertake the course assignments.

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Question and Answers

Simon and Negin answered the top questions asked of them in previously run versions of this course via video. Although from previous courses, the questions raised and the discussions that follow, are very relevant, and they may answer some questions that you have about the course. In the videos Simon and Negin, did reference learners' names and the week in the course, but this is not important in this version of the course. These Q&A videos have been collated according to their relevance to the Modules of the course.

Boundaries when supporting online discussions4:40

Group projects in the online learning environment6:29

What technology do you use for video conferences with students?3:52

Rencontrer les enseignants

Associate Professor Simon McIntyre
Associate Dean Education
UNSW Sydney | Art & Design
Dr Negin Mirriahi
Academic Developer, Learning and Teaching Unit (formerly)
Adjunct Lecturer, School of Education

So the next question is from Julia, and

Julia's asking how do you really engage students in a group assignment or

group activity in an online learning environment?

>> I guess part of the problem sometimes is that because

if it's a fully online course particularly,

you don't necessarily have the students turning up every week in that same place.

And I think one of the things she mentioned is a lot of students just

tend to disappear and don't come back again or

only come back at the end when it's too late.

>> Yeah. And there was a lot of nice discussion

happening in that thread as well, people are giving their ideas such as making it

accessed activity and I know someone else also mentioned that even though it is

assessed sometimes students still don't engage even or if you have a group of

students who might be one really keen and feel that don't even care about the marks.

So how do you really work in that kind of environment where you want students to be

collaborative which is great and there are technologies to facilitate that,

but how do you actually get your students to do the work collaboratively?

>> Well, just to start with,

we do have module seven which is engaging in motivating students.

>> Yeah. >> So if you haven't had a look at that,

there are a lot of different ideas in there around both group and individual.

>> And there's a good case-study video too, isn't there.

>> There is, which is called online team work and collaboration, and

that's is also sitting in module seven.

But I also recommend going to the video downloads page and

also watching the video there but downloading the PDF that comes

with it because we've actually put a lot of these tips in writing there and

that's by clicking the little icon that looks like a page.

>> Yeah. >> On the side of that.

So one thing, I do a lot of this in my fully online classes because we really

work around the whole idea of a learning community.

So, there are a few things that I do up front.

First of all, I make sure the students know that I can see them.

I can see what they're actually doing.

>> So how do you do that?

>> I tell them right at the start of the class that

everything you do in this space is recorded.

And we also design our assignments to be iterative.

So it's not just about coming in at the end with a due date and

here's the product.

We keep track of the progress, and the process they go through.

So we set progressive milestones through the project

where we expect to see what everyone's actually doing.

And we also, I asked the students to work in the online space that we provide.

>> So you can keep track of whether they're all engaging in the discussion

forum or the online wiki or whatever tool it might be.

>> Yes.

But I don't discourage them from using other technologies like Skype or whatever.

>> Okay. >> But if they do do that,

I ask them to post a synopsis of what happened.

>> So they're accountable for it.

>> In there as well, yeah.

So there's that.

I also tell my students they don't get the same mark if they don't put

the same effort in.

>> Mm. >> But I also use the sort of power of

the peer group, to define what everyone's goals within that or

roles I should say, not goals, what people's roles are within the group.

And I get them to design their own progressive timeline and a backup plan.

So what do they as a group decide they want

to do if someone fails to contribute by one of those milestones?

So that way there's a few fail safes, that we can actually build in,

and it's just that taking the pulse regularly to be able to see.

>> Yeah, and I would say because you're able to observe the activity that's

happening in the collaborative tools that you've provided for them,

you can actually jump in, if there is a group that, for

example, one person's posted and no one's responded.

It's been a few days.

>> Yeah. >> Or even a week.

You can actually be intervening quite early on to see what's happening.

You can jump in.

>> Yeah. >> You can see that maybe not everybody's

collaborating, and you can communicate with the students instead of waiting

until the assessment is due or waiting until somebody informs you about

the group not working so it can be done a lot earlier which is nice.

>> And I think teacher presence in that situation is really, really vital.

So if the students are aware that you're in that space.

And you're actually, I also give comments along the way too.

>> Mm-hm. >> So I'm participating, I'm there.

I kind of care what's happening.

And then they will be aware of it and bring it with them.

But, inevitably, in one class there is always going to be one or

two students who for whatever reason, don't pull through for the group.

So part of that I've found is being the problem that something comes up, and

then students, don't let everyone know what's happening and then disappear for

three weeks and then come back.

So I encourage students, as soon as they know anything's going to disrupt it,

communicate it, and that really helps, because often the team will be flexible.

And in cases where the student just wont come, we move on without him.

We have a point where we close that off and that student has basically missed out.

>> And I guess having an opportunity for students to give feedback to one another,

will peer assess each others contributions to the group as well helps with that so

you have less of that social loafing and you got more students actually being more

accountable to the group because they know that a certain percentage of their

assignment mark might actually be because of their students giving feedback or

assessing each others contributions which might help as well.

>> And maybe the last thing I'd say, you may have more, is that just make

sure you explain to the student what constitutes good online teamwork.

I think often as educators we take for

granted that students will just know how to work together.

>> Well, a lot of students don't like group work either so

you also have to factor that in and also make them understand why

group work is important, whether it might be for their future career.

A lot of us in our careers don't actually work independently,

we work with others whether it'd be face to face or online.

So part of it is also preparing them for their future career and

the types of abilities and skills that their employer might be looking for

might be this ability to be able to collaborate with one another,

work on projects with one another which is why you've designed some of

the assignments to be collaborative in that nature.

So having them really understand why you've chosen a particular test to

collaborative rather than individual, might help them understand and

therefore be more engaged with it.

>> Yeah.

>> And you just don't magically know how to work in a group, so

provide support for that too.

>> Yeah, may be new for them.

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