Online Interaction and Small Group Work

1. Online Interaction and Small Group Work Inez M. Giles igiles@umuc.edu June 8, 2000

2. Agenda • Discuss nature of interactivity/dialogue • Look at small group issues • Demo of online classes to illustrate points • Hands-on exercise

3. Why online? • Convenience! • Anecdotal • Survey results • Giles’ dissertation • 89% of students cited convenience as reason

4. Convenience Defined • Distance education frees students from the constraints of time and place (Moore) • Asynchronous interaction

5. Quality Benchmarks • Teaching/Learning Benchmarks • Course Structure Benchmarks • Student Support Benchmarks • Faculty Support Benchmarks • Evaluation and Assessment Benchmarks

6. Non-Essential Benchmarks • Courses should be broken into modules • Specific time expectations are set for faculty and students • ***Courses require collaboration and group work***

7. Some Key Findings • Policies follow practice • Faculty teaching distance classes were usually volunteers and highly regarded by their peers • ****Interactivity is essential to quality***

8. Interactivity/Async. Dialogue • Conversation between two or more people • Facilitates changes and perspective transformation (Mezirow) • Valuable for revealing diversity of opinion that lies below the surface of complex issues (Brookfield)

9. Interactivity/Dialogue • Exemplifies democratic process (Dewey) • Have opportunity to voice opinions • “Moral endeavor” (Rorty) • Bringing people together in conversation and challenging them to create new meanings

10. Opposition to Interactivity • Insufficient time • No experience with moderating dialogue (especially online) • “Just the facts” • Risky • Others?

11. Techniques • Ask open ended questions • Give opposing point of view (counter arguments) • Ask which questions they would like to discuss • Develop a “Critical Incident Questionnaire (Brookfield)

12. Planning for Interactivity • Define interactivity for students • Don’t assume they understand your intent • Present the idea carefully • Don’t assume they will be happy about dialogue participation • Model participation

13. Continuing Interactivity • Questioning, Listing, Responding • Ask for more evidence • Ask for clarification • Link two student’s questions • Post summary/synthesis questions • Paired listening exercises (online) • Establish an online community

14. Online Community • Suggested traits • Hospitality • Deliberation • Appreciation • For caring enough to share, for thoughtful comments or deep insight • Raises level of trust in classroom

15. Faculty Development Sessions • Should allow participants to experience asynchronous firsthand • Model behavior in training session • Discuss participant experiences • Don’t focus on technology • Courseware should be in background • Provide rich references and resources

16. Small Groups Online • Compressed timeframe • Forming, storming, norming, performing • Requires very specific guidelines • Need to manage student expectations of the small group experience

17. Small Group Issues • Size • Participation • Self-select or assigned • How to kick-off • Performance assessment • Ask students to rate their performance as well as other participants

18. Reference for lab: • URL: tychousa.umuc.edu • Login: ____ guest (1 - 9) • Password: fotc