Teaching Online at Towson
Groups
The use of teams of students in a cooperative learning environment can enhance the development of critical thinking skills. Collaborative learning experiences engage the learners in an interactive approach to processing information. This results in greater retention of subject matter, improved motivation, and enhanced interpersonal relationships among the group members.
Guidelines for Effective Group Activities
The same principles that foster effective face-to-face learning also work in the online classroom. Here are some guidelines:
- Make sure group activities further the course objectives
- Explain the nature and value of the activity
- Give clear and explicit directions
- Keep the group size manageable (3-5 members)
- Form teacher-formed, heterogeneous groups
- Allow time for team building
- Use appropriate assessment techniques to determine student progress
- Monitor group processing and encourage groups to self-monitor
- Encourage positive team skills
- Structure activities to promote interdependence
- Promote individual accountability
- Establish a clear, non-competitive grading criteria
- Anticipate problems and be supportive
Since communication online is a time-intensive process, assist students by removing as many steps in the process as possible. For example, instead of assigning groups to determine individual roles and then choose roles, ask students only to choose roles from a predefined list.
Types of Group Activities
Group activities can range from informal small group discussions to a highly structured project. Depending on the size of groups, students can collaborate on assignments, create projects, conduct brainstorming sessions, discuss readings, work on case studies, critique each other's work, or just about any activity which may be enhanced by exchanging ideas among peers, collaboration or debate. By providing guidelines for evaluating their end product, you can help students establish a framework for judging their own work. This will help your students know how to proceed toward a successful assignment.
Establishing Student Responsibility in Teams
Assignments that require student collaboration can be highly effective learning tools. They can also be a sources of frustration for some students who feel that they must share their grade with others who aren't "pulling their weight."
Norma Holter, professor of Accounting at Towson University, created these guidelines for insuring student responsibility and accountability in teams.
During the assignment, if a student does not fulfill his responsibilities
to the team, the other team members sign a Notice of Disassociation warning
that describes the problem and with a deadline by which the student
must remedy the situation (usually one week from the Notice date).
If terms are not met by the specified deadline, the team members
can dismiss the student by presenting them with a Letter of Disassociation. In general, the threat of disassociation (in the form of the Notice) provides sufficient motivation to spur the negligent student into immediate and continued corrective action.
Click on the links below to access each template and adapt it as
needed
Related Resources
R. Palloff, and K. (1999.) Pratt. "Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace: Effective Strategies for the Online Classroom." Jossey-Bass.
(ISBN: 0-7879-4460-2)
D. E. Hanna, M. Glowacki-Dudka and S. Conceicao-Runlee. (2000.) "147 Practical Tips for Teaching Online Groups." Atwood Pub. (ISBN 1-891859-34-X)
S. Ko and S. Rossen. (2001.) "Teaching Online: A Practical Guide.
2nd Ed." Houghton Mifflin Company. (ISBN: 0618298487)
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