Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Technologies that Promote Social Learning in Online Courses (Part 3)

This is the third post in a series about technologies that promote social learning. The first post covered using discussion forums and the second post covered using wikis for social learning in online courses. So to recap, social learning is comprised of three situations -

* students helping one another learn
* students inspiring and motivating each other
* students teaching each other


Research on student success in online environments, clearly shows that students who learn socially increase their chances of success. We are the facilitators and course designers of the learning space that students find themselves in. To that end, how can we create online learning environments that encourage social learning? In this third and final post, I will talk about YET ANOTHER TECHNOLOGY for online course activities that promote social learning.

Social learning via ONLINE GROUP ASSIGNMENTS
While group assignments can be stimulating for students, group assignments actually can create the MOST stress for students. Many students think that their grade being tied to another student's grade is pure terror! When I first started using group assignments online, I thought I was making life easier on my students since they could split the workload with other students.

As my students shared their experiences and fears about working with other students in a less-controlled online environment, I began to rethink this type of assignment in my online courses. First, I setup helpful parameters and policies for group assignments. Second, I pick the right technologies for the students to use.

While I think group assignments are wonderful in general, I do believe that they have to be carefully structured to be effective tools for social learning. Over the years, I've run several classes with group assignments that involve the entire class, pre-selected or self-selected teams. When using group assignments online, here are some rules of thumb that I've developed which I feel have promoted social learning in my courses:

Do

  • Give student groups access to technologies such as IM chatrooms and Internet meeting spaces such as Google Hangouts.
  • Sit in on the first meetings of a team. I like to give students guidance on setting up technology for meetings, for sharing documents and tracking their progress online.
     
  • Help students facilitate the logistics of meeting such as setting up a Google Hangout for them or Skype session for them.

     
  • Encourage students to work difficulties out themselves before coming to you.

     
  • Setup technology spaces for students in the class LMS. I like to use IM chats in Moodle or discussion forums as workspaces and then assign certain students to them.

     
  • Give students resources on HOW to use the technologies. I like to use the GCFLearnfree.org and Alison.com for free videos and tutorials for students to use. (*Make sure to check the "Other Resources" section for links at the end of this post.)
     
Don't

  • Tie students to the same group all semester. I like students to have the experience of working with different students for assignments. This also gives students an opportunity to change partners if they have a negative experience.
  • Assign roles to students in the group; let students do this. I usually give students a handout containing suggested roles for the group and responsibilities that should be assigned.
     
  • Require group assignments in the first week of class. Student need to get to know each other.
     
  • Encourage but don't require that students to meet synchronously; for instance, if emailing works for a group then fine. I generally recommend that students use one or more technologies such as -

    --> Skype and Google Hangout (synchronous collaborating),
    --> Mindmeister and Padlet (asynchronous meeting),
    --> email (communicating) and
    --> Google Docs (sharing documents).
     

Other Articles Related to this One

Research on Student Success

Other Resources
(*Look at various technologies for setting up group assignments such as Google Docs, Skype, Google Hangouts, Padlet, Mindmeister)
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