PLP. 10 Dos and Don'ts For Group Work & Student Grouping. 10 Dos And Don’ts For Group Work & Student Grouping By Jennifer Rita Nichols Educators have learned much about the benefits of using projects for learning, and collaboration is easily recognized as an important skill for students to build. There are very few arguments against having students work together in class and on assignments.
However, the challenge facing many educators is not in wanting their students to work together, but in figuring out how to group students together in the most effective ways. We do not want to create groups that hinder the progress of any of our students! This simple guide can help you the next time you are creating groups for an assignment or task in your classroom! 1) Do consider distance and access to online collaboration tools. 2) Do group students according to ability.
Also, the ‘weaker’ group can benefit from the teacher’s support, and also can’t rely on the stronger students for answers and to lead the project. 4) Do consider common interests. 10 design principles for creating engaging online group work | DynaMind eLearning. We have been developing eWorkshops for many years. Our clients and their learners love them.
It is a delivery model that works wonders in a particular niche in the e-learning sector. We use this model when it is deemed important that people bring their own life or work experiences to the learning event. It is an excellent way to support collaborative learning – not just ‘sharing’ experiences, but rather the in-depth solving of problems. eWorkshops are best for subject areas where there aren’t many right and wrong answers,there are a lot of ‘grey zones’, andanswers depend on people’s own context. In fact the same reasons why you would have a face-to-face workshop instead of the typical stand-alone e-learning modules. The bulk (or all) of the work is done asynchronously to allow participants to step back and prepare their contributions. We construct the eWorkshops around a backbone of really interesting team tasks.
Here is what we keep in mind during this process: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. NovoEd, another Stanford MOOC startup, opens small-group learning services to public. In an online class of 80,000 students, breaking up into small groups is no easy task — as we saw from a suspended Coursera class earlier this year (that tried to use a Google doc to create groups), it can lead to confusion and technical glitches.
But a new startup called NovoEd wants to build on the massive open online course (MOOC) phenomenon with a service that puts collaboration and team learning at the center of the student experience. Starting Monday it will open up to the general public with seven courses and, going forward, it said it plans to partner with other universities. For the past year, the startup, which is backed by investors including Costanoa Ventures, Foundation Capital, Kapor Capital, Learn Capital, Maveron, and Ulu Ventures, has been used at Stanford University. Like Coursera and Udacity – two of the startups leading the MOOC movement – NovoEd was also launched by Stanford professors.
5 Tools and Strategies that Support Group Collaboration Online. Collaboration, where students work towards a common goal, interact and co-create is an essential component of online learning, yet the challenge for the course instructor is how? How can instructors create activities where students collaborate effectively in groups when separated by distance and time? In this post I review strategies for implementing collaborative activities, and review tools that can be effective in supporting students work within their virtual groups.
I’ll begin by highlighting why educators might want to consider investing time in creating collaborative activities in the first place. Why Collaborative Activities? From another viewpoint, a recently introduced learning theory by Siemens and Downes connectivism, supports the idea that collaboration is critical in our networked world. Create Transparency of Expectations and Purpose: Make the activity relevant for students by describing how and why working within a group will help them [the students], and be of benefit. Assessing Student Learning - five practical guides. Probably not, for the 'best' model depends much on the context. One view is that imposing one or other model may impede learning and prevent effective cooperation. On the other hand, some students may prefer to be guided by a clear model.
There are many approaches that are possible. Some groups, for example, might prefer to meet within a formal structure with agendas, resolutions and minutes; others may prefer a series of informal discussion groups. Well organised and supported group work may build confidence in first year students. An initial contract, where students commit themselves to the services and tasks they will complete for the group, may be effective in some situations although many staff find such approaches cumbersome.
In any case, explicit and transparent procedures should be made available and explained to students undertaking group work. Providing explicit guidelines Determining group membership Establishing the role(s) and responsibility of group members. Distance Learning Tips for Online Group Work Success. Distance learning group work is often a challenging task for many online learners. Reasons abound for the complexity associated with this type of online learning assignment; however, group projects are manageable even with all the stories you may have heard from others.
The key to success boils down to one basic principle – communication. This leads to building a bond or sense of community with other members in a group. Besides communication, successful completion of distance learning group assignments and projects requires a proactive mind-set on your part. Once an online learning group project is assigned and group members are identified, it is essential to contact other members immediately to begin building a community within the group. Group Communications: Establishing a Foundation for Success Establishing a reliable means of communicating with group members as a hub for sharing and collaboration is the foundation for success in distance learning group projects. Www.ifets.info/journals/10_4/22.pdf.