Student Collaborative Learning Research Articles

Методика використання сервісів Microsoft Office 365 для підтримування спільної роботи студентів

Методика використання сервісів Microsoft Office 365 для підтримування спільної роботи студентів

Applying Communication Theory to Structure and Evaluate the Social Media Platforms in Academia

The aim of this research was to reduce the dissimilarities in the literature regarding the use of social media platforms (SMPs) for training and its impact on students’ satisfaction and academic performance in higher education institutions. The main method of data collection for Communication Theory (CT) was a questionnaire survey. This research hypothesizes that CT applied to social media platforms for learning will affect online communication, motives to communicate, communication self-efficacy and attitude towards usethat in turn improve students’ satisfaction and students’ academic performance. The data collection questionnaire was conducted with 309 students familiar with social media platforms. Quantitative structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the results. A significant relationship was found between online communication, motives to communicate, communication self-efficacy and attitude towards usefeatures with TC for utilizing social media platforms for academic purposes that positively affected satisfaction and academic performance. Therefore, the study indicates that TC theory to use social media improve the collaborative learning of students and enable them to efficiently share knowledge, information, and discussions. We recommend that students utilize social media platforms in pursuit of their educational goals. Educators should also be persuaded to incorporate social media platforms into their classes at higher education institutions.

Using Video Self-Reflection to Support Collaborative Learning for Students With Learning Disabilities

Using Video Self-Reflection to Support Collaborative Learning for Students With Learning Disabilities

Students’ perceptions of Plickers and crossword puzzles in undergraduate studies

AbstractIn higher education, there are calls to incorporate active learning experiences that place the student at the center of learning, rather than encouraging students to be passive listeners. For students to have a deeper and more meaningful learning experience, educators can use an active learning approach. This approach attempts to engage students at higher levels of thinking so that they are more interested in, better engaged with, and understand the course material better. The aim of this study was to investigate students’ perceptions of Plickers and crossword puzzles as low‐cost pedagogical tools to foster active learning in an undergraduate course in food science and technology. A mixed‐method survey consisting of a 5‐point Likert scale and open‐ended qualitative questions was administered via Blackboard to elicit student responses. A total of 121 students were enrolled for the course and 70.2% (n = 85) completed the survey. Plickers were found to be easy to use (mean = 4.66), provided opportunities to answer to formative questions anonymously (mean = 4.60), and helped increase participation in class (mean 4.05). The majority of students felt that crossword puzzles required them to think critically (mean = 4.53) and provided them with the opportunity to assess how well they understood the course content (mean = 4.45). Moreover, a statistically positive relationship was found between student collaborative learning and crossword puzzle implementation scores (r = .506, p < .01). The findings demonstrated that when implemented effectively, Plickers and crossword puzzles contributed to greater enhanced student engagement. These pedagogical tools can be applied as formative assessment instruments and offer a low‐cost alternative to the limitations encapsulated by didactic pedagogy.

THE CHALLENGES OF USING SOCIAL MEDIA IN TEACHING AND LEARNING IN SOUTH AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION CONTEXT

Ponte Academic JournalDec 2020, Volume 76, Issue 12 THE CHALLENGES OF USING SOCIAL MEDIA IN TEACHING AND LEARNING IN SOUTH AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION CONTEXTAuthor(s): Jeremiah MadzimureJ. Ponte - Dec 2020 - Volume 76 - Issue 12 doi: 10.21506/j.ponte.2020.12.18 Abstract:As social media is progressively visible in South African higher education institution, facilitators utilize technology to facilitate and advance education as well as promote constructive learning. The purpose of this study is to examine the challenges of using online networking in education within the environment of South African higher education. It is considerable extra significant to comprehend the natural surroundings of technology in the progression of learning more than just a technology integration on its own. No matter in what way eye catching a recent technology can turn into, that recent technology is just an ordinary application that is utilized frequently to transmit learning material accessible on social media. Technology should never ever replace learning, but it will support learning processes, advance education effectiveness, and improve student education involvements. Students and lecturers should take advantage of a social media learning to make learning more manageable. Students feel comfortable to utilize the web applications that they already know. Social media applications are an open means, which also implies that they are open to unrestricted community. It is lecturers� responsibility to make sure this learning environment is safe for the best interest of student learning. It is also the obligation of lecturers to teach students and prepare them with logical and thoughtful abilities during the process of using social media means. A clever implementation of social media applications can involve students in collaborative learning, which is the strategy to an effective learning. However, the utilization of social media in teaching can occasionally be very challenging to lecturers. Students understands social media better so they can work cooperatively with their lecturers to make an online learning possible.\nKeywords: challenges, social media, higher education, teaching and learning. Download full text:Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution Username Password

The Intersection of Muralist Movements and Two L2 Classes

The Intersection of Muralist Movements and Two L2 Classes Mariadelaluz Matus-Mendoza The Philadelphia Mural Movement is internationally known; admittedly, it is one of its most sought attractions when visiting the city. Using this form of art as the backdrop, a telecollaborative task-based project between two universities located in two different countries, in two different continents, was designed in fall 2015. Universidad Católica (UC) in Santiago, Chile, and Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, share a similar art form on their city’s walls: murals. Both movements relate to cultural, social, and political trends in their respective city and country. Selecting this as the overarching theme, this telecollaboration, part of two traditional intermediate world language classes’ curricula, was created with two goals: 1) to develop the intercultural communicative competence of students of a second language (L2), and 2) to prepare Chilean students who will study abroad in Philadelphia the following academic term. This current essay includes three sections. The first sets up for the project represented here, briefly describing the mural movements, on the one hand, and placing this project within telecollaborative projects, on the other. The second concisely presents its design, and its evolution. Finally, the essay turns to outcomes drawing on a qualitative analysis of an individual written survey and group debriefing sessions. The muralist movements in these two cities started twenty-five years apart with similar beginnings in working class neighborhoods, the participation of graffiti artists, and their desire to portray their citizens’ socio-political concerns. In Philadelphia, the artist Jane Golden invited graffiti artists to create public art on working class neighborhoods in 1984 which was the birth of Mural Arts Philadelphia. In the Southern Cone, in San Miguel, a neighborhood in Santiago, Chile, two local residents David Villarroel and Roberto Hernández convened not only graffiti artists, as Golden did, but muralists to paint on their neighborhood walls in 2009 which gave origin to Museo a Cielo Abierto. Both movements collaborate with their communities to create art that empowers them portraying issues dealing with social justice, racism, poverty, workers’ rights, migration, etc. Community members participate on the projects giving suggestions on mural themes, being models for them, or painting under the artist’s guidance. These artistic manifestations have also economically revitalized these neighborhoods and become tourist attractions for locals and non-locals. For this telecollaboration, a well-known muralist in Philadelphia, Cesar Viveros, recorded a lecture on the mural movement in the city and his art as an introduction to the project’s theme. It was uploaded to Drexel’s learning management system (LMS) to be watched by participant students. This telecollaborative project was created under the umbrella of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) that consists of “online and hybrid courses . . . where faculty from two or more cultures work together to develop a shared syllabus for the purpose of implementing an internationalized classroom emphasizing experiential and collaborative student learning.” (Rubin 2016: 263) At Drexel University, this collaboration is denominated as a “global classroom.” As noted previously, the global classroom consists of two traditional intermediate world language classes, one at Drexel and one at UC, where students of Spanish in Philadelphia and students of English in Santiago work using Asynchronous (ACMC) and Synchronous Computer Mediated [End Page 15] Communication (SCMC) technologies to facilitate developing their intercultural communicative competence and to prepare Chileans for their study abroad experience in the United States. Before describing the global classroom, it is necessary to define intercultural communicative competence as the speaker’s ability to operate in cultural contexts that allows one to appreciate and adapt to the cultural differences of the other. The aim is that students of a world language see the other’s culture as a variation of their own, not as a divider. It is also worth noting that the intercultural communicative competence involves the acquisition of linguistic as well as cultural competences. The duration of the global classroom was modified to accommodate UC’s need to evaluate their students and determine who would study abroad in Philadelphia the following term; it lasted six weeks in 2015, five weeks in 2016, and finally was set to run for four weeks in 2017. Weekly topics are...

Pair physical computing: high school students’ practices and perceptions of collaborative coding and crafting with electronic textiles

ABSTRACTBackground and Context: Physical computing involves complex negotiations of multiple, on and off-screen tasks, which calls for research on how to best structure collaborative work to ensure equitable learning.Objective: We focus on how pairs self-organized their multi-domain tasks in physical computing, and how their social interactions supported or inhibited productive collaboration.Method: We conducted a 30+ hour physical computing workshop where high school student pairs created interactive electronic textile signs. We recorded how students shared or allocated their tasks in fieldnotes and looked for reasons why this occurred through student post-interviews.Findings: Students worked collaboratively on project planning, which involved discussion and decision-making, but individually during project construction, which involved physical execution of their plan. The quality of students’ social interaction was seemingly linked to how viewed their partner as a socioemotional resource.Implications: Inherent qualities of the different domains of physical computing and how students view their partners in socioemotional terms can shape the productivity of student collaborative learning.

Four Pedagogical Dimensions for Understanding Flipped Classroom Practices in Higher Education: A Systematic Review

Despite being widely adopted in higher education to support student-centred learning, the pedagogical design of flipped classrooms has been criticised as lacking in theoretical framing. This study proposes that the pedagogical dimensions of personalisation, higher-order thinking, self-direction, and collaboration can be used as theoretical lenses to deconstruct how flipped classroom practices support student-centred learning. Through a systematic review of 56 cases from 51 studies of flipped learning implementation published in peer-reviewed articles, this study found that flipped classrooms personalise learning through resource and teacher access, develops higher-order thinking through problemsolving, and engages students in collaborative learning through both peer groups and design groups. Trends of positive student learning outcomes are more consistent among cases that support collaborative learning and student selfdirection of learning performance review by repeated application and remediation. Nevertheless, majority of the cases reflect students having limited personalisation of learning choice and structured collaborative processes are seldom used apart from the few cases implementing team-based learning. The theoretical applications of the four pedagogical dimensions as well as the implications for the future research and practice of flipped classrooms are discussed.

Improving Students’ Scientific Writing Ability through Blended learning-Based Collaborative Learning

Scientific writing is a way for someone to put the concept of thinking in written form so that other people can understand what is being thought. Students are the next generations who have idealism in thinking that needs to be nurtured. The purpose of this study was to improve the scientific writ-ing of students through Collaborative Learning by utilizing blended learn-ing technology. The research method used is action research, using collabo-rative learning that is applied in learning to write scientific paper. The stu-dents are expected to have logical thinking aspects, data objectivity, vocab-ulary mastery, use of Enhanced Spelling (EYD), use of effective sentences, and paragraph development. It can be concluded that collaborative learning can improve the ability to write scientific articles because in collaborative learning students are very active, motivated and always intrigued by their hearts and minds to solve problems faced in the same group and they can compete competitively, and motivate other students to achieve the maxi-mum learning outcomes

Exploring the potential of natural language processing to support microgenetic analysis of collaborative learning discussions

AbstractIn this study, we explore the potential of a natural language processing (NLP) approach to support discourse analysis of in‐situ, small group learning conversations. The theoretical basis of this work derives from Bakhtin’s notion of speech genres as bounded by educational robotics activity. Our goal is to leverage computational linguistics methods to advance and improve educational research methods. We used a parts‐of‐speech (POS) tagging program to automatically parse a transcript of spoken dialogue collected from a small group of middle school students involved in solving a robotics challenge. We grammatically parsed the dialogue at the level of the trigram. Then, through a deliberative process, we mapped the POS trigrams to our theoretically derived problem solving in computational environments coding system. Next, we developed a stacked histogram visualization to identify rich interactional segments in the data. Seven segments of the transcript were thus identified for closer analysis. Our NLP‐based approach partially replicated prior findings. Here, we present the theoretical basis for the work, our analytical approach in exploring this NLP‐based method, and our research findings. Practitioner NotesWhat is already known about this topic Over the last 10 years, several educational research papers indicate that natural language processing (NLP) techniques can be used to help interpret well‐structured, written dialogue, eg, conversations in online class discussions. Two recent papers indicate that NLP techniques can also be used to help interpret well‐structured, spoken dialogue, eg, replies to interview questions and/or comments made during think aloud protocols. Multimodal learning analytic techniques are being used to investigate collaborative learning. These studies use non‐verbal features of data (gaze, gesture, physical actions), prosodic features of verbal data (pitch and tone) and/or turn‐taking and duration of talk per speaker data, as means of predicting group success. None of the MMLA studies attempt semantic analysis of student talk in collaborative settings. What this paper adds A theoretical framework for why and how an automated NLP approach can support discourse analysis research on co‐located, computer‐based, collaborative problem solving interactions. This framework, entitled the Problem Solving in Computational Environment Speech Genre, links children’s physical interactions with computational devices to their verbal exchanges and presents a theoretical rationale for the use of NLP methods in educational research. Description of an interdisciplinary method that combines NLP techniques with qualitative coding approaches to support analysis of student collaborative learning with educational robotics. Identification of student learning outcomes derived from the semantic, PSCE Speech Genre and NLP approach. Implications for practice and/or policy Educational researchers will be able to expand upon our findings towards the goal of using computation and automation to support microgenetic analysis of large datasets. Robust microgenetic learning findings will provide curriculum developers, educational technology developers and teachers with guidance on how to construct and or create learning materials and environments. From an interdisciplinary perspective, this research can support more interdisciplinary exploration of conversational dialogues that are ill‐structured, indexical and referential. This research will support the further development of machine learning techniques and neural network models by computational linguists.

Sustaining pedagogical change via faculty learning community

BackgroundThe necessity of a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) literate population continues to be a high priority worldwide. One approach to build and bolster a STEM-literate workforce is to explore approaches for strengthening the teaching of college-level STEM courses. The use of collaborative student learning pedagogy is broadly accepted as an effective approach to improve student learning outcomes over traditional methods, such as lecture. How to encourage and sustain the use of such evidence-based teaching practices in STEM fields is a critical topic. To achieve pedagogical change among college faculty, research supports a faculty learning community (FLC) structure. FLCs are a way to facilitate deeper understanding of a topic within a community of practice. Of particular interest for this paper is whether any FLC-supported pedagogical change was sustained by the faculty after the FLC ended and if so why.ResultsEngineering faculty found success in implementing paradigmatic pedagogical changes by engaging in an FLC that intentionally provided structures to promote a community of practice. This paper reports on the endurance of these pedagogical changes up to 2 years following conclusion of the FLC, with evidence summarizing reasons why many of the faculty had absorbed much of the once-new pedagogical approaches into their ongoing practices.ConclusionsFLC structures that faculty credit to their pedagogical change and the enduring impacts of those changes are described. These results offer evidence that it is possible to structure faculty support for them to make enduring pedagogical change, rather than temporary or one-time changes as part of a particular initiative. The findings, discussion, and conclusions of this study are likely to be of interest to faculty developers, innovative university leadership, or faculty exploring ways of sustaining a pedagogical change.

Equity in college physics student learning: A critical quantitative intersectionality investigation

AbstractWe investigated the intersectional nature of race/racism and gender/sexism in broad scale inequities in physics student learning using a critical quantitative intersectionality. To provide transparency and create a nuanced picture of learning, we problematized the measurement of equity by using two competing operationalizations of equity: Equity of Individuality and Equality of Learning. These two models led to conflicting conclusions. The analyses used hierarchical linear models to examine student's conceptual learning as measured by gains in scores on research‐based assessments administered as pretests and posttests. The data came from the Learning About STEM Student Outcomes' (LASSO) national database and included data from 13,857 students in 187 first‐semester college physics courses. Findings showed differences in student gains across gender and race. Large gender differences existed for White and Hispanic students but not for Asian, Black, and Pacific Islander students. The models predicted larger gains for students in collaborative learning than in lecture‐based courses. The Equity of Individuality operationalization indicated that collaborative instruction improved equity because all groups learned more with collaborative learning. The Equality of Learning operationalization indicated that collaborative instruction did not improve equity because differences between groups were unaffected. We discuss the implications of these mixed findings and identify areas for future research using critical quantitative perspectives in education research.

Introducing the Penn State World Campus through Certificate Programs in Turfgrass Management and Geographic Information Systems

This paper describes two of the distance educational programs—Turfgrass Management and Geographic Information Systems—offered through the Penn State World Campus during its first year of operation in 1998. Detailed information is provided on how these programs were selected and supported, the nature of the students who enrolled and the faculty who developed and taught the courses, and the technology and infrastructure employed for delivering content and engaging students in collaborative learning. The organization of the World Campus, the evolution of these programs, and the results obtained from them during the first 18 months of operation are presented. Several contemporary issues are addressed from a faculty perspective, including: teaching effectiveness, relationship with students, satisfaction with product, compatibility with other responsibilities, ethical concerns, incentives and rewards, team efforts, support services, perceptions by colleagues, scholarly value, opportunity cost for faculty, intellectual property concerns, and compensation.

Dilemma between constructivism and constructionism

PurposeThis paper aims to provide a review of the two often-confusing learning theories: constructivism and constructionism. It then presents their similarities and differences by identifying various learning dimensions of the two philosophies. The authors then develop a teaching-learning framework that integrates those dimensions. The authors have also implemented the framework in two information technology (IT) courses and obtained students’ feedback that relate to various learning dimensions of both of the two philosophies.Design/methodology/approachThe authors review existing literature to understand the difference between constructivism and constructionism and develop a list of learning dimensions that can be applied to classroom education. They then discuss the background information or tools necessary to develop a teaching-learning framework and apply that framework through a case study. They finally present the results.FindingsA constructivist teacher sets up the learning environment for students that fosters individual learning and presents a problem to be solved, while the students go on their own way to produce a personally meaningful artifact without any further teacher’s intervention. On the other hand, the constructionist teacher sets up the environment for collaborative learning for students, then he or she defines the problem to be solved and the meaningful end product to be developed, and then guides them to reach towards the goal. Student assessment supports this difference.Research/limitations implicationsResearchers and teachers should look carefully which methodology they are discussing and which one they are applying. They can further the authors’ research in a different angle than the authors did by finding the learning dimensions.Practical implicationsTeachers should use constructionist approach to set up their classroom and guide their students throughout the course time, such that students can work collaboratively on a project to learn the important concepts to be developed. They should also use appropriate tools and technologies that enhance classroom activities and learning. Teacher should act as a guide/facilitator or a project manager to plan for the classroom/project and monitoring and controlling project/class throughout the semester.Social implicationsUnderstanding the critical differences between the two learning philosophies, educators in all levels should be clear how to set up their classrooms – from kindergarten to university education, such that all students can develop their knowledge not only through personal cognition but also through interaction with others. A collaborative environment produces knowledgeable people in the society with better understanding and respect toward each other.Originality/valueCollaborative learning environment provides a better learning opportunity over personal cognition – a major enhancement in constructionism over constructivism. Sharing the creation process as well as the product, and the use of various tools and technologies in the development process, provide a better understanding of a subject matter. The discussions and results presented here might bring some insights to the instructors who might be contemplating to implement the educational philosophies of constructivism or constructionism, or intermixing of the two in their classrooms.

Usage of Social Media Tools for Collaborative Learning: The Effect on Learning Success With the Moderating Role of Cyberbullying

The adoption level of emerging web technologies is rapidly growing in educational settings. Given the widespread popularity of social media, it has become essential to understand and adopt social media sites to develop future educational plans as well as deploy current course material on new technologies. This article addresses the issue of perception and usage of social media from the perspective of student collaborative learning and learner performance by incorporating the Technology Acceptance Model and Constructivism Theory about collaborative learning. By analyzing the results using a Structure Equation Modeling technique, this study found that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived enjoyment all have a significant positive relationship with social media usage. The results indicate that social media serves as a dynamic tool to expedite the development of learning environments by encouraging cooperation and communication among students which reinforce their learning behavior and performance. However, it was found that a negative relationship exists between perceived enjoyment and collaborative learning. Cyberbullying as a moderator was found to be a dampening factor in the positive relationship between collaborative learning and learner performance.

Using digitized objects to promote critical thinking and engagement in classrooms

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the impact of using digitized objects for inquiry with middle-school classrooms. Research analyzed critical thinking processes and student engagement during collaborative investigations with 3D models of authentic objects.Design/methodology/approachDigitized objects were 3D scans of fossils from the paleontology collection at the Natural History Museum of Utah implemented as 3D prints and 3D virtual models. Verbal protocol analysis examined critical thinking processes during collaborative student learning. Engagement was assessed via student feedback and a classroom observation protocol.FindingsThe findings demonstrated that digitized objects facilitated key critical thinking processes, particularly observation, problem finding, elaboration and evaluation. Student feedback was very positive and focused on strong interest in 3D technologies and the ability to engage in authentic exploration. Observations showed very high levels of on-task engagement.Research limitations/implicationsAdditional research is necessary to determine if findings generalize across varied learner populations, including broader age ranges and socioeconomic samples, to activities implemented as fully online experiences and to digitized objects from varied domains.Originality/valueFindings demonstrate digitized objects are effective methods to engage students in critical thinking and to promote engagement with authentic objects during classroom learning. Results demonstrate strong potential of new technologies to leverage the educational impact of digitized objects from local collections, setting the stage for expanded educational outreach by museums and libraries.

Reinventing the Teacher as the Wayfinder

The online environment encourages organic, collaborative student learning.

Assessing collaborative learning: big data, analytics and university futures

Assessment in higher education has focused on the performance of individual students. This focus has been a practical as well as an epistemic one: methods of assessment are constrained by the technology of the day, and in the past they required the completion by individuals under controlled conditions of set-piece academic exercises. Recent advances in learning analytics, drawing upon vast sets of digitally stored student activity data, open new practical and epistemic possibilities for assessment, and carry the potential to transform higher education. It is becoming practicable to assess the individual and collective performance of team members working on complex projects that closely simulate the professional contexts that graduates will encounter. In addition to academic knowledge, this authentic assessment can include a diverse range of personal qualities and dispositions that are key to the computer-supported cooperative working of professionals in the knowledge economy. This paper explores the implications of such opportunities for the purpose and practices of assessment in higher education, as universities adapt their institutional missions to address twenty-first century needs. The paper concludes with a strong recommendation for university leaders to deploy analytics to support and evaluate the collaborative learning of students working in realistic contexts.

Faculty and Student Perspectives on Redesigned Learning Spaces at Mason

Mason is reimagining learning spaces on our campuses to foster active and collaborative student learning. This commitment is part of our strategic plan goals for innovative learning and supporting teaching and scholarship excellence. While we currently have 12 classrooms intentionally designed to support active learning, both the Peterson Health Sciences Building and the Robinson rebuild offer significant opportunities for increasing the number of these learning spaces. As part of this initiative we have created an iterative design and implementation process that leverages faculty and student experience feedback. This poster will highlight preliminary findings (e.g., satisfaction, sense of community and connectedness, types of learning experiences, etc.) from both our faculty and student surveys from the 2015-2016 academic year.

Engaging Students in Literature Circles: Vocational English Reading Programs

This article reports the findings of ethnographic classroom research on the deployment of literature circles in English reading classes in the vocational secondary education sector in Indonesia. Grounded in micro-interactional, thematic, and discourse analyses, empirical findings showed that the students engaged actively in text selection, role assignment, and text meaning making through sharing-and-discussion sessions. Empirical data also revealed that they could learn a wide array of lexico-grammar through discussing chosen texts with others. This group discussion activity also paves the way for sharing and discussing both content knowledge (vocational subjects) and genre and lexico-grammatical features. This suggests that literature circles could promote students’ content knowledge and language learning enrichment. Through role scaffolding by teachers and peer support, students could not only explore varied features of the language—e.g., how lexico-grammar was used in context through texts but also enrich their content knowledge. This empirical evidence supports the use of the literature circles in intensive reading programs in order to engage students in collaborative learning and to build a learning community in which teachers play a pivotal role as a guide throughout the literature circle process.