Fusing the Jigsaw Method and Microsoft Teams: A Promising Online Pedagogy

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered a universal disruption over the past year, and has caused unforeseen and formidable changes, but simultaneously has also enthused a digital transformation for educational institutions of all levels. With the upsurge in the usage of digital technologies, some potential caveats should be addressed, in particular, the speculative effective methods, course design and structure. A prodigious deal of reappraising and reimagining the philosophy of what is deemed to be the most familiar is imperative, not only to promote student-centred learning, but also encourage online engagement. Considering the suspension of all face-to-face classes due to the rapid spread of the global pandemic, the purpose of this study was to assess the usability and adoption of the jigsaw method on the web-based platform, Microsoft (MS) Teams for both synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning. A pre-experimental research design was utilised with one post-test dataset obtained from the post-experiment learning analytics. Subsequently, the usability and adoption of the jigsaw method in MS Teams were evaluated based on the reciprocity of students’ responses towards the design. It is postulated that MS Teams stand out as a promising technological tool to facilitate the integration of the jigsaw method into an online learning environment. It advocates better students engagement and collaboration, and thus leads to the positive impact on students’ performance and enhanced comprehension of course content, specifically the availability of customized MS Teams features; channel and synchronous chat, which are recommended to support an engaged learning ecology.