227 Remote Collaboration (4.14.2020)

In this Lab, we discussed challenges and solutions for fostering student-to-student learning — experiences, expectations, and navigating needs. Questions such as: How do you support social learning during remote instruction? What criteria are important in selecting collaborative learning activities (to you? to your students?)? How might you foster equitable digital study groups for final exams and projects? How might you use discussion forums to wrap up the semester? What other questions do you have?

Access this session’s activity sheet here and be sure to check out the substantial resources section!

Join our Canvas course and follow the instructions at canvas.wisc.edu/enroll/GPT8NL. Find info from past Labs at bit.ly/ATL-ejournal

Takeaways

1. Elicit connections. Recognize that asynchronous online interactions often lose some of the richness of face-to-face ones. Offset what is lost with opportunities that online forums offer! For example, prompt students to apply course content with cases or examples (hypothetical or real-life, from the internet) that promote deeper engagement with material and offer opportunities for alternative perspectives. Prompts to build on peers’ contributions work better in asynchronous forums because there’s time to think. Encourage variation in responses and unstifled interactions with prompts that ask for more than fact-based responses (e.g., definitions, author viewpoints).
2. Award points for participation. Forum (“discussion”) posts may not get students’ best effort, or be considered important, if students don’t see value (currency=points) in participating. Use simple rubrics to guide answers, and use the Speedgrader to easily provide feedback and points — and also to send reminders to those who did not yet participate.
3. Establish clear expectations for contributing to collaborative projects with group charters. Encourage students to help create their own guidelines for group work. Have students explicitly agree to the charter and use it as an accountability tool.
4. Give groups a space with Canvas Groups to facilitate “instructor-level” access to tools. When in a Canvas group, students can create their own discussion forums, create pages, share files, and start Collaborations (through Google or Office365 tools).
5. Offer variety in activities that allow multiple means of expression for students to show their understanding. Text-based forums are only one of many options to engage students collaboratively. Consider activities where groups curate resources, produce representations of course concept(s), review peers’ activities to improve work, or complete a simulation together (see below for more ideas). Encourage students to share through text, audio, video, and mixed media whenever possible.

The Remote Readiness Active Teaching Labs are a partnership between DoIT-Academic Technology and the Division of Continuing Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Each 90-minute session is offered from 10am-11:30am through Blackboard Collaborate Ultra and is facilitated by a team composed of staff from both DoIT-Academic Technology and the Division of Continuing Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Reminder: Your first stop for questions and support is to e-mail: instructionalcontinuity@provost.wisc.edu