Key+Strategies+-+Seminar+Group+2

= **Part 3: //The use of collaborative frameworks in blended learning contexts from around the globe.//** =

__**//Group Members://**__ ("Seminar" groups)

 * 1) ====**[|James Michael Prior]**====
 * 2) ====**[|Andrew Leonard Chapman]**====
 * 3) ====**[|Mark Trevor Simpson]**====
 * 4) ====**[|Alan Grant]**====

**//__Learning Intention:__//**

 * ==== Critically evaluate a variety of approaches to collaboration in a blended learning environment, and make a recommendation for best practice in supporting CSCL. (LI 3) ====
 * ==== Actively participate in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) experience. (LI 5) ====

**//__Process:__//**

 * ====Each member of your team should be an expert in one of the 3 frameworks (from Part 2 activity).====
 * ====Your next task is to combine your knowledge of each framework and make suggestions as to the key strategies for ‘best practice ’in supporting collaboration in an online environment. i.e. what needs to be in place for both the learner and the teacher to ensure an effective collaborative environment?====
 * ====You will need to justify your choice. e.g. Online collaboration is best when it is a project based learning concept because….====
 * ====As these are the key strategies you cannot have more than 8 strategies so you will have to choose your strategies carefully.====
 * ====Once you have identified your 8 key strategies, you need to work with your group members and order these strategies from most important (number 1) to least important (number 8).====
 * ====We encourage you to look at what other teams are doing and to ‘piggy back’ on some of their ideas if you want to.====
 * ====As you are working though this process, we encourage you to “talk’ to your team members. You can do that here in the wiki, via the Stream chat or Adobe Connect.====
 * ====At the end of this section, you should have gathered some strategies for sustaining an effective online environment and be able to utilize them in your own context.====

**Our team's “top 8” strategies for ‘best practice; in supporting collaboration in an online environment and supporting reasons are:**
References:
 * 1) Learner centred instruction - students need to feel as though they have control over their learning, and that the teacher is a facilitator rather than a front of class controller (Coomey & Stephenson, 2001; Gunawardena & Zittle, 1996). In order for constructivist learning to occur, students have to have more that just a stake in the outcome, it has to be 'their' learning that they create (or co-create) themselves, not something that is done to them. The learning must also be grounded in the students' realities.
 * 2) Social presence must be facilitated by the teacher / tutor(s) to build a sense of community of 'real people' working together on a task (Gunawardena & Zittle, 1996; Nichols, 2008; Rovai, 2002). The process needs to include activities which promote social presence within the class group, and the facilitators need to be available online to address learner concerns (within a reasonable timframe). //This helps to ensure that the social interaction that is taking place is in fact focused on the learning goals and tasks intended.//
 * 3) There must be an emphasis on interaction by the participants with each other, the tasks or content, and with the facilitating teacher / tutor(s); and these need to be structured into the online activites to ensure that they occur (Coomey & Stephenson, 2001; Gunawardena & Zittle, 1996). Without this interaction higher level thinking and constructivism will not occur. (Bonk & Cunningham, 1998; Garrison, 2007)
 * 4) Collaborative activities need to be designed into the programme - collaboration won't just happen (Coomey & Stephenson, 2001; Garrison, 2007). Teachers must assist course participants to do more than simply engage with a problem or question: they have to be able to explore and integrate ideas, construct knowledge, experiment, create and test hypotheses (Bonk & Cunningham, 1998; Garrison, 2007).
 * 5) Collaborative environments should aim for a distribution of "the responsibility and workload of constructing knowledge throughout the community of learners" (Blocher, 2005, p. 271) as this promotes a community of practice on the one hand while also making the achievement of goals by the whole group more likely due to a sense of shared success. It also gives individuals a stake in understanding and supporting the work of others in a truly collaborative sense.
 * 6) Teachers need to support a variety of cognitive strategies. Initially students must be helped to adapt their existing learning strategies to an online environment (McCombs & Vakili, 2005). Teachers need to see learning as cumulative and goal oriented, providing linkages to previous learning; questioning and problem solving activities; guidance and the provision of regular feedback (Bonk & Cunningham, 1998; Mayes & de Freitas, 2004). //While this is an important aim for the teacher, it does not always have to be done BY the teacher - as it can be even more effective for the teacher to step back and facilitate such connections and coaching between peers.//
 * 7) Learning objectives for the course need to be clear. This allows the students to take control of their own learning process and for teachers to be able to move to a facilitation / support role (Gagne, Briggs, & Wager, 1992; Mayes & de Freitas, 2004). Learners need to be encouraged to develop their own paths - individually and collaboratively - in order to reach those learning goals (Rovai, 2002).
 * 8) The learning tasks and goals must be relevant to the students' lives and practice. Students are more likely to collaborate if they perceive value and application for the tasks that they are working on. //This supports intrinstic motivation as much as it relies on it, and in primary and secondary contexts where subject content is broad-based this relevance needs to be developed from personal connections between the learner and the community (including the teacher): i.e. in tertiary the student chooses the specific focus of study so developing a personal connection is often more an expectation for the student to meet than the teacher, whereas at secondary level the student is forced to study a range of subjects including some they are not personally interested in so the onus is on the teacher to provide an environment containing opportunities for the individual student to find personal meaning in learning tasks and aims.//

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