Abstract
The International Network for Chemistry Language Development is a community of faculty and students that employ video conferencing technologies in collaborative learning experiences. Learners partner with an international peer at another university to complete online collaborative assignments (OCAs). OCAs focus on shared learning and professional experience rather than assessment of knowledge to practice chemistry communication in the oral, written, and symbolic domains. We present OCAs as an example of the Third Space, where control over interactions and learning is negotiated between unfamiliar remote students, empowering students as emerging experts. This digital Third Space results in the formation of trust (a) between student partners to prepare for—and contribute during—the OCAs, and (b) between students and faculty as partners in teaching and learning. Additionally, we report how revisions to the OCA design are achieved with current students as consultants and partners, and former students as co-researchers and co-designers.
Highlights
Efforts to promote student participation in educational decision-making have recently garnered increased attention (Cook-Sather, Bovill, & Felten, 2014; Bovill & Felten, 2016; Cliffe et al, 2017)
Third Spaces empower students to explore the boundaries of expertise outside of conventional hierarchies (Wegner, 2011), and can include digital spaces, constructed through digital technologies such as video conferencing, text messaging, and social media (Potter & McDougall, 2017)
Drawing upon the conceptualizations of Gutiérrez and Potter and McDougall, a digital Third Space can refer to a space between the classroom and workplace, in which the boundaries of learner and professional are blurred through online communication
Summary
Efforts to promote student participation in educational decision-making have recently garnered increased attention (Cook-Sather, Bovill, & Felten, 2014; Bovill & Felten, 2016; Cliffe et al, 2017). KEYWORDS collaboration, chemistry, online learning, students as partners, trust, third space Current students partner with faculty and an international peer as co-learners that choose which professional skills they will prioritize during the experience, and determine how they will conduct the learning process based on their mutual needs.
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