In an online learning environment, community activities are important to promote learning among students. As learners collaborate, instructors find that there are higher levels of participation, productivity, and achievement when compared to those who choose not to participate (Oosterhof, Conrad and Ely, 2008). As an instructor it is important that we understand the purpose behind these collaborative projects and developing a plan to help their community building activities be more effective for student learning.
The framework of the discussion or collaborative project is very important. If students are not given the proper support and level of interaction it may cause the community building to fail or be less effective than it could have been. As you go through your resources, focus on Chapter 13, Interaction and Collaboration Online. Consider your own personal experiences when using collaborative activities and online discussions and how they may relate to the best practices described in the chapter. Then, reflect on the following questions.
- Using your personal experience with online discussion, did the instructor implement the best practices described in the chapter?
- What are the characteristics of effective community-building activities?
- Which elements are important to take into consideration when creating groups for projects?
- In which ways will the instructor assess the project or discussion?
By Thursday:
Provide an example of a community building activity that you may have personally experienced or created as an instructor. In your example, provide a scenario that may occur if the best practices described in this chapter are not used. Provided at least 2-3 examples in your response. Be sure to use your resources to support your thinking.
Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings. As you read their responses, note those to which you would like to respond with advice, questions, comments, and/or encouragement.
Respond to two or more of your colleagues’ postings in any of the following ways:
- Build on something your colleague said.
- Explain why and how you see things differently.
- Ask a probing or clarifying question.
- Share an insight from having read your colleague's posting.
- Offer and support an opinion.
- Validate an idea with your own experience.
- Expand on your colleague's posting.
- Ask for evidence that supports the posting.
Return to this Discussion in a few days to read the responses to your initial posting. Reflect on what you learned in this activity and/or insights you gained this week.
Reference:
Oosterhof, A., Conrad, R., & Ely, D. P. (2008). Interaction and Collaboration Online. Assessing learners online (pp. 202-213). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall.
Discussion Rubric: Visit http://inside.waldenu.edu/c/Student_Faculty/StudentFaculty_15198.htm to view a rubric for the Discussion.
Using your personal experience with online discussion, did the instructor implement the best practices described in the chapter?
ReplyDeleteFrom my experience yes all the discussions posts have been active and beneficial for me. Although my experience is limited.
What are the characteristics of effective community-building activities?
Being present, encouraging participation, making all new comers feel very comfortable, handling challenges or inappropriate post immediately.
Which elements are important to take into consideration when creating groups for projects?
How the groups are set up, monitoring the groups to ensure all are participating, having a solid measurement in place so learners can demonstrate personal learning as well as group learning
In which ways will the instructor assess the project or discussion?
For discussion post I think rubric is best. It provides an opportunity to clarify expectation again and add in some quantifiers if needed
D
Melisa,
ReplyDeleteThere is one community building activity that I had in a previous course that always had me engaged. This was a very simple activity, it actually was a way of choosing the group each learner was going to post to. The instructor created groups by the learner answering questions. This activity was engaging and as our chapter described it "broke the ice" (Oosterhof, Conrad, & Ely, 2008, p. 204). We joined a group where we already had "common ground". I felt much more at ease and then I also was intrigued to see what my fellow learners chose for the question. I hope to use this strategy one day with future learners!
Reference
Oosterhof, A., Conrad, R., & Ely, D. P. (2008). Interaction and Collaboration Online. Assessing learners online (pp. 202-213). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall.
Danielle,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your ideas and experiences. I agree that how groups are set up and monitored is very important for the success of that team project.
Oosterhof, Conrad, and Ely (2008) state that, "Assessment of knowledge and skills acquired via collaborative interaction depends on the quality of the alliance that occurs (pp. 207)."
Thank you for sharing.
Reference
Oosterhof, A., Conrad, R., & Ely, D. P. (2008). Interaction and Collaboration Online. Assessing learners online (pp. 205-207). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall.
Amy,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your personal experience. This is a great idea for the instructor to incorporate. If the students are more comfortable with each other they may be more likely to contribute more in the discussion.
What other ideas can we incorpate to increase the effectiveness of collaborative activities?
Thank you,
Melisa
Reflection:
ReplyDeletePersonally, this assignment did not work to my advantage. I was not clear on exactly how to set up the Discussion Question blog and the two individuals who were supposed to review my post did not. Fortunately, for me two other classmates stepped in to contribute.
The thread was not as lively as I wanted it to be. First, I experienced technical issues with my blog post. When I posted my comments and came back the next day they are no longer there. My colleague mentioned it was sent to him as an e-mail instead. The only thing I can think of that happened was when I hit submit, the webpage did not finish processing or the wrong “ID” was selected which caused it to send an email from my Google account instead of my Blogger ID.
I think if I had checked back more often to notice there was an issue with comments, I could have communicated on the Walden discussion board and it could have been livelier. Additionally, the two individuals who posted on my page contributed great ideas regarding their experiences. I feel my directions were clear, but the participation level may have been low due to the other factors mentioned above (my comments did not post and I did not check back often enough to write something that would have kept the discussion going).
In the future, I will be sure to establish very clear guidelines on what I am expecting my learners to do. I will also follow up more often to ensure the leaners are contributing and not experiencing any issues. This will help the discussion continue.