Nicholas Bowskill

Hi Roxanne,
Thank you very much for the links. They're really interesting and I'm going to spend some time looking through them. I glanced at the wrappers ideas and I agree they could work well as you say. What about the idea of asking the same thing before 'the lecture' or session as well? I think the underlying idea of the strategy is self-elicitation isn't it? Even when they go into a new subject it can be useful to externalise a guess as to what it might be about etc. And as you say once online it could be something to refer back to.

It makes me also think that rather than the activity being in service of the tutor it could be about sharing those views. That could work nicely online. You could have them all post online at the start. The collection could even be revealed only once every has posted. That could then be a forum/phase of its own in which the views of others was the basis of a discussion where you could all ask for clarification or give an explanation of your own answer etc.
The tutor could then support that process.

Anyway there's lots of ideas on and offline isn't there? Thanks again for what looks like a fascinating resource and I might get back with some more questions after reading through them, if you don't mind.

Cheers Roxanne.

Nick

Hi Roxanne,
I know what you mean. It can be a problem. Not so much in our courses because they're about collaborative learning so people come on them expecting to be involved in group work etc. Even so there's sometimes a reality check when they start doing this kind of thing. And life sometimes gets in the way causing some people to be around online less. The other thing is to make it an issue for the course participants to discuss and address. Do they think everyone has done their bit of the task? And to support their view whatever it is.

I think its important to avoid the labels like shurkers and slackers and to try and understand and negotiate the rules of play and the reasons as part of the collaborative process. There can be very good reasons why people stand back. I'm sure its the case here too.

In my face to face work I've made it into a shared enquiry into an issue. I've developed a structure that's quite robust and the technology helps us all focus on the screen where we interact together. There are no shurkers at all in this case. The structure and the required interaction picks up everyone and drives the collective activity. I guess, in the context of this discussion, it means the structure is the motivator.

How do you handle the ones that are less involved Roxanne? Have you found any strategies to motivate them?

Nick

Yes I completely agree with the points raised about time and online teaching. I think to do it properly you really have to settle and think about what lies behind different messages. That can mean thinking about the emotional state - the feelings - behind messages as well as the content. It can also mean thinking about the implications of any reply too.

In part this is the strength of online learning - that everyone is able to give it time and thought but it can be a struggle sometimes for everyone can't it? Group learning can help to share the responsibility for support and learning. That can help take the pressure off although the responsibility still rests with the tutors.

I think collaborative approaches are more motivating for everyone - tutors and participants - but time is a big issue that management may not fully appreciate sometimes. Plus the same applies to experiential professional/faculty development for this kind of learning!

Nick

Hi Roxanne/Firat/Everyone,
I'd be really interested to hear more about the metacognition course if you were willing to share that. Reflection is a process for that and I can see how it relates to motivation through self-awareness. I guess in my mind I'm thinking about the way that awareness of the self is activated. How did they describe metacognition and did they suggest any resources or methods to develop it, as part of the course? Was it more than diaries and journals for example?

Nick

Hi Roxanne,
Yes I do. Any kind of online group work involves perspective-taking. Divide the class into groups of 4 or 5 to do a group task. Then make sure they all share their group product in a separate forum at the end. You might also cause them to check each other's group-products and give feedback so they actually look at it.

There's all kinds of different online group activities and they nearly all involve perspective-taking. You could even invite people to post a review of external sites in the same forum as the basis for sharing different views. Then each person could be required to produce their own design specifying how it related to the site they visited. That would cause them to relate one to the other.

Nick