Evidence for effectiveness of collaborative learning is growing, and employers continue to call for graduates with better collaboration skills. While group activities can provide potent learning opportunities, many students have both low expectations and underwhelming experiences of academic teamwork. This course will examine a variety of group scenarios, including approaches to group formation and group assessment and offer strategies to create more positive group and collaborative learning experiences.
Course Dates
This course ran from Wednesday, 28 February to Friday, 2 March, 2018 through this blog but is accessible online to anyone interested. There are 3 blog posts that will take about 10-15 minutes to work through.
Modules
- Day 1: Exploring collaborative and group learning. “Why do we do have to do this in groups?” This module explores pedagogical reasons to create groups and outlines some examples in a university setting.
- Day 2: Group formation. How can we set groups up for success? This module describes how groups are formed and factors that need to be considered in the process.
- Day 3: Expectations and experiences of collaborative learning. Can we be fair? This module explores what to consider when setting up assessments for group learning and strategies to support collaborative behaviour during groupwork.
Facilitators
Russell Waldron has worked in ANU Online since 2015 as a Senior Learning Designer. During this time Russell has worked on a variety of design projects in Business and Sciences, particularly on postgraduate online programs, staff training, and MOOC development. Russell has a Masters in Education and an undergraduate degree in Engineering.
Karlene Dickens is a Learning Technologist within the ANU Online Team. Karlene is an experienced trainer and has facilitated scores of workshops and presentations to national audiences as well as run multiple webinars to participants across diverse settings including corporate, community and university environments.
All are welcome
We welcome all staff, including tutors, demonstrators, professional staff, and academics at the Australian National University and beyond to join us for this course.
How do the coffee courses work?
All you need to do is Subscribe for Updates by visiting our blog and clicking on the red Subscribe button (scroll down to the bottom of the page) to receive future posts. We welcome you to comment and discuss on each post as they are added. Feel free to participate as much or as little as you prefer.
Questions?
Please feel free to contact Eddesign@anu.edu.au with any questions.