Transcript Action Research Project

Promoting cooperation
and collaboration
in a web-based
learning environment
Fay Sudweeks
School of Information Technology
Murdoch University, Perth, Australia
[email protected]
Questions

Can we do more to encourage cooperative and
collaborative learning among students studying
online?

How can we connect students who are studying in
different modes and in different locations?
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E-Learning

Why e-learning?
– Rising costs of education
– Reduced funding for universities (particularly in
Australia)
– Demand from students wanting to study off-campus
(whether “internal” or “external” students)

Benefits of elearning
– Attracting new “offshore” markets
– Ability to develop “packaged” programs
– Reducing inequalities, e.g. access for the disabled, the
elderly
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E-Learning

Problems in e-learning:
– Learning environment, itself, regarded as “glue”
connecting separate educational elements.
– Little thought given to specific pedagogical strategies
– Lack of appropriate social and collaborative activities
• Little support for students to build interdependent relationships

(Unintended) consequences of e-learning:
– Feelings of social isolation in students
– Paradox: communication technologies can separate
rather than connect students with one another.
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Cooperation vs Collaboration

Cooperative learning:
• “a protocol in which the task is, in advance, split
into subtasks that the partners solve independently”
(Dillenbourg and Schneider, 1995)

Collaborative learning:
• “where two or more subjects build synchronously
and interactively a joint solution to some problem”
(Dillenbourg and Schneider, 1995)
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Effective cooperation/collaboration

Critical elements
– learning tasks
– learning resources
– learning supports

Attributes
–
–
–
–
communication
interdependence
leadership
accountability
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E-learning framework
Content,
information and
resources with
which learners
interact
Activities, problems,
interactions used to
engage the learners
Learning
tasks
Learning
resources
Learning
supports
Scaffolds, structures,
encouragement,
motivation,
assistance,
connections
After Oliver, 2001, p. 407
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Case Study

Organisational Informatics
– Part II undergraduate unit
– Enrolment
• 156 students
– Multimodal and multi-located students
• Modes: part-time, full-time, external
• Locations: Murdoch, Rockingham, International
– Topics
• computer-mediated communication, group process, computersupported collaborative work, virtual communities, etc.
– WebCT learning management system
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Case Study

Organisational Informatics
– Assessment:
• online tutorial presentation
• online tutorial participation
• weekly reflective journals
• research essay
• examination
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E-learning framework
Content,
information and
resources with
which learners
interact
Activities, problems,
interactions used to
engage the learners
Learning
tasks
Learning
resources
Learning
supports
Scaffolds, structures,
encouragement,
motivation,
assistance,
connections
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Web-based Learning Environment
Activities,
problems,
interactions
Content,
information,
resources
Scaffolds,
structure,
motivation
Web-Based Learning Environment
Learning tasks
Group
Bulletin
Boards
Whiteboard
Learning Resources
Private
Email
Reflective
Journals
Tutorial
Transcripts
Research
Essay
Team
Project
Readings
Lecture
Notes
Web
Portal
Learning Supports
Tutors Email
And Photo
Team Work
Guidelines
Presenter
Guidelines
Calendar
Team Project

Students assigned randomly to project teams
– 156 students in 10 tutorial groups
– 4 teams in each tutorial group = 39 project teams

Development of a proposal for a major event
– e.g. weddings, funerals, safaris, conferences, product
launches, 21st birthday parties, concerts, movie
premiers, store opening

Aim
– Effective team work, i.e. communication,
interdependence, leadership and accountability
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Project Objectives

Practical skills
– stimulate creativity and skills in project development
– develop knowledge of distributed collaboration (practising what we
are preaching)
– experience different modes of communication among virtual team
members
– evaluate effectiveness of different modes of mediated
communication
– develop skills in presenting information to distant clients

Requirements for effective team work
– communication, interdependence, leadership, accountability

Learning can be fun!
– different (fun) style of assessment
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Communication

Team members (4) restricted to text-based
mediated communication
– E.g. email, private forums (bulletin boards), chat
rooms, IRC, ICQ, instant messaging, SMS

Advantages
– “level playing field” for multi-mode/multi-located
students
– practical application of unit’s theoretical focus

Communication diary
– recorded frequency, length, topic and reflection of each
communication event.
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Communication Diary
A worksheet for each communication type and each group records frequency, time, topic and reflection
.
Communication Diary
The overview worksheet automatically updates frequency and time length of each communication event.
Interdependence

Interdependent roles:
–
–
–
–

Client
Consultant
Researcher
Presenter
Advantages of roles:
– Facilitated structure of interdependent subtasks
(cooperation) and interactivity in problem solving
(collaboration)
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Interdependence

Client
– Proposes initial ideas for the event, which need to be
creative and innovative.
– Provides requirements of what components are to be
included.
– Provides a budget.
– Evaluates consultant's two alternative plans for the
event, chooses one, and provides a rationale for the
selection.
– Evaluates and approves detailed budget.
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Interdependence

Consultant
– Develops two alternative plans for the event.
– Advises the client to choose the better plan, giving clear
reasons why it is superior. Both plans, though, are
within the guidelines provided by the client.
– Provides a detailed costing for the selected plan.
– Provides steps for implementation.
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Interdependence

Researcher
– Keeps a diary of the communication among team
members including:
•
•
•
•
Time spent on different communication channels
Frequency of messages on each channel
Main topic of communication
Reflection on the effectiveness of each communication channel
– Prepares a graphical representation of this information
to be included in the presentation.
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Interdependence

Presenter
– Organises material into a PowerPoint presentation.
• Includes information from the researcher for the firm’s billing
purposes and for improving the quality of the firm's service for
future clients.
– Demonstrates creative and innovative ideas
appropriately to “sell” the plan to the client.
– Presents the project online to the tutorial group in the
last week of semester.
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Leadership

Team member
– Suggested that the team member who was the
Researcher be responsible for keeping the project
moving forward
• Practical since researcher was monitoring all communication

Tutor and unit coordinator
– More of a monitoring role
– Access to most communication and able to resolve any
potential conflicts
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Accountability

Communication archives
– Available to all team members (bulletin boards, private
forums, chat rooms)

Peer-assessment of individual team member
contribution
– Default assessment was equal distribution of marks
among team members
– Option for the team to request unequal distribution
(communication archives provided partial evidence of
unequal participation)
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Communication

Frequency of communication media
– Asynchronous media used most frequently
• Email (41%), private forums (bulletin board) (20%)
– Some notable exceptions:
• One team used instant messaging almost exclusively (95% of
all communication compared with average of 5% across all
teams)
• One team used SMS extensively (64% of all communication
compared with average of 5% across all teams)
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Communication
Frequency of Communication Media
ICQ
12%
Instant
Messaging
5%
SMS
5%
Email
41%
IRC
3%
WebCTChat
10%
Bulletin
Board
20%
WebCTMail
4%
Average across 39 teams
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Communication

Duration of communication media
– Average time: 460 minutes (~7½ hours)
– Shortest time: 41 minutes
– Longest time: 1,978 minutes (~33 hours)
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Communication Summary
Duration of Communication Media
ICQ
11%
Instant
Messaging
4%
IRC
8%
SMS
1%
Email
30%
WebCTMail
2%
WebCTChat
33%
Bulletin Board
11%
Average across 39 teams
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Survey


Students surveyed at end of semester.
Asked for a rating on 20 questions related to:
–
–
–
–

Team communication
Team dynamics
Perceptions of the team project
Perceptions of e-learning
Plus comments
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High level of interactions
Team communication
Disagree
12%
The degree of interaction was very
high (49%)
Getting in touch with team
members was easy (35%)
Agree
49%
No opinion
Easy to contact team members
39%
Disagree
41%
Agree
35%
Learn more about No
team
members
opinion
24%
I learned more about other
team members than I would
have in a ftf team (47%)
Disagree
26%
No opinion
27%
Agree
47%
Team dynamics
Reaching consensus was easy
Disagree
18%
Reaching consensus was easy
(56%)
I enjoyed working with this
team (61%)
I appreciated the cultural
diversity of the student
population more (47%)
(12 different cultures reported by teams)
Agree
No opinion
56%
26%
Enjoyed working with this team
Disagree
14%
No opinion
25%
Disagree
16%
No opinion
37%
Agree
61%
Agree
47%
Worked independently
Project
Disagree
8%
Project guidelines were clear
(76%)
No opinion
16%
Agree
Reaching consensus was easy
76%
Disagree
14%
Able to work independently on
own tasks (70%)
Project was a positive
experience (61%)
No opinion
16%
Agree
70%
Positive experience
Disagree
10%
No opinion
29%
Agree
61%
Effective learning experience
E-Learning
No opinion
16%
Disagree
6%
Effective learning experience
(78%)
Agree
Comfortable with monitoring
78%
Disagree
16%
Comfortable with
communication being monitored
(51%)
WebCT encourages active
learning (74%)
Agree
51%
No opinion
33%WebCT encourages active learning
No opinion
22%
Disagree
4%
Agree
74%
Comments

Positive
– “I think that the online team is a great idea for university
courses. Why: Its so easy to see who is at meetings, record
minutes, have tasks pinpointed. You have time to think
before answering via email and the ability to get good
written feedback. Maybe I was lucky in that the team I
was part of was excellent. So far it has been one of the
best group experiences.”
– “No fights only good discussions, everyone has done their
bit excellently, it has been a pleasure to work in this
team.”
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Comments

Negative
– “Communication was difficult because not all group
members could access all channels.”
– “One of the team members was a bit difficult to get in
touch with – took several days before he answered
email and he did not show up in the chat room.”
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Evaluation

Student self-reports
– Overall satisfaction with the project

Project grades
– More than two-thirds (69%) of the teams attained a
higher grade (D or HD)

Conflicts
– 7 of the 39 teams requested variation in grading
• 2 teams requested 1 member receive a grade less
• 2 teams requested 1 member receive a pass grade
• 3 teams requested 1 member receive a fail
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Example Project Event
Homer’s Funeral
Marilyn Ranford, Timothy Geldard, Kelwin Chan, Veronica Malmoe
Conclusions

Cooperation
– Students felt a sense of autonomy in working on
subtasks as well as working interdependently with team
members. Most students found the teamwork a positive
experience despite some members not working as well
as the rest of the team.

Collaboration
– The majority of teams were congenial. More than half
of the teams found it easy to reach consensus in
problem solving, enjoyed working together and
expressed interest in meeting face-to-face.
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Conclusions

Design of web-based learning environment
– Include elements of tasks, resources and supports.

Teamwork attributes
– Integrate key attributes of communication,
interdependence, leadership and accountability
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Further considerations

So … perfect? No, not quite …

Team composition
– Consider incorporating an initial skills matrix to match
students of similar work habits (e.g. JIT), preferences
(different streams) and grade expectations.

Comparison
– Compare results with different student cohort (in 2003).
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