Subject: task11 discussion: networking
Author: B
From my knowledge Pacific islanders are traditionally and generally communal beings sharing tasks, ideas and even wealth. Doing group activities such as projects is often the norm for Pacific islanders, however it does not mean that there is no competition as students. When looking at the online law course that I had mentioned in previous discussions, it was interesting to reflect and analyse the effects of networking and cooperative learning on student motivation to learn through group activities online. There were some issues that were raised that did occur in the law course at the University of the South Pacific (USP) in regards to mutual dependence, supportive interaction and developing skills for collaborative learning.
The online law course is a first year or 100- level undergraduate course offered to law students throughout the USP region. In order to introduce students to be able to become familiar with collaborating and interacting online, an icebreaking activity where student are to post an introduction on the discussion board and then they would have to post a comment on 6 other colleagues’ introductory postings (3 from their country and another 3 from outside their country). It certainly helped students to get used to the idea of posting on a discussion board, and the lecturer would then summarise the importance of such an activity and thanked everyone and lead them into the first lesson. Students seemed to appreciate it, since they got to know someone else in their class. It would be important to note that students were also advised about using appropriate language and any flirtatious or vulgar language would not be tolerated. This was the first step in learning collaboratively and getting used to interacting online.
There was success in designing and developing legislation for an imaginary state as a group in their first group activity which was their lesson 1 task. Groups of maximum 7 students were created to concentrate on one of the following areas that were marine environment, criminal, manufacturing industry, family, labour, copyright, tourism, national parks and public entities. In their group they would use the assigned discussion board to develop their legislation and each student was to post 3 legislative clauses to their area. They would discuss it and start building their legislation for the imaginary state on the discussion board and agree (or disagree) to start building their section in the wiki. One person was to be elected to start placing the clauses on the wiki which was to be graded. A guide for adding to a wiki was made available to all students.
Though it was successful there was an issue with student contributions as mentioned as being adverse effects of mutual dependence where students usually waited and let other students in the group to make postings (p.10). Upon observing the discussion forum the lecturer also noted that there were 2 students in the particular group who seemed to dominate the discussions and instead of posting 3 they posted 10. So it could have made students afraid of posting their 3 contributions. So it would be a good idea that the group number be reduced to 2 or 3 members.
In the same case the lecturer took note of the composition of his students and their postings on the icebreaker to form groups. He did not let students choose their groups since who knew there was a greater chance that they would group into country or gender or age or interest groups. He made sure there was diversity in each group which enabled students to learn collaboratively. One thing that the lecturer did ensure was that he did step in when he saw some students were not contributing and swing the discussion their way with encouragement. However he allowed students to discuss among themselves to complete a task. On the wiki students also knew it was him because he would make remarks in ‘red’.
The Keller’s ARCS model and strategies, as well as Hooper’s guidelines to collaborative learning really are important in developing content and tasks online. It was easy to reflect on the law course and ways that it could be improved to motivate students to learn online and to learn collaboratively.