Facilitating Learning Online - APR2015-OER

The purpose of this mini-session is to explore ways to select the best collaborative tool to support and engage learners online.

Reminder!

Read the Overview, Readings and Resources before you begin planning. Connect with your team early.

Your tasks:

Lead the participants through this process (with clear instructions and timelines). In the time allotted, and on a schedule that you determine, participants need to: 

• follow your instructions as to how you suggest they analyze the pedagogical or other issues that will affect the choice of a tool
• learn how to use the tool to test the options that they would use in a learning activity
• discuss issues surrounding the selection of different tools
• prepare a short summary of the group's conclusions
• give feedback on this mini-session activity

Assessing learning:

Your mini-session's intended learning outcomes list some suggestions for assessment criteria. Although you are not asked to formally assess the participant’s learning, you’ll be asked to complete a final reflective survey (FLIF - Feel, Like Improve, Feedback) and share your thoughts about the learning that occurred.

Ideas for facilitating this activity

One way to approach this tool exploration is to ask participants to approach the same topic, using different tools... then see what happens!

Here's an example:

Design an activity that has 2-3 issues or topics to explore. Try to select tools that might highlight the differences in asynchronous or synchronous use.

For example:

Issue or Topic: List 5 important things for Teams to consider before they begin a team project, then draft a sample team charter (1-2 paragraphs)

Tools: Identify 3-5 different collaboration tools - be sure to have a mix of synchronous and asynchronous tools. Choose tools that are readily available to all students. For instance: discussion forum, wiki, Blackboard Collaborate, Skype, Google Hangout (and other authoring tools).

Issue or Topic: Explore the affordances of a tool. How could the tool be used to make a learning activity more flexible and allow a greater number of students to participate? Can the tool be used synchronously or asynchronously? How will the information be presented.

Tools: Divide the class into 3-5 teams and assign a different tool to each team. Teams should be given clear instructions to to help them use the tool.

Finally, craft a sharing and reflection activity that gets at the intended learning outcomes for this mini-session.

Examples:

• Conduct a Collaborate session where the class shares and discusses the strengths & challenges of various online collaboration tools
• Develop an online survey (Fluid Survey?) to gather the ideas. Share results with the class.
• Use a collaborative document tool like Google Docs or a online whiteboard like Padlet.
• Create a table in a wiki and invite participants to construct a matrix of strengths & challenges of various online collaboration tools or kinds of learning activities best suited for synchronous or asynchronous online engagement.