Redesign course projects around collaboration, open-ended problems, shared knowledge objects, technology mediation, and as-needed mentoring¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 3 claims (3 for) · 1 study (1 qualitative), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The article reports five design principles used to redesign the course: collaborative projects involving social interaction replaced individual assignments; open-ended and complex problems requiring inquiry were introduced; shared knowledge objects were requested as part of envisioned solutions; technology mediation via an online collaboration application replaced a course management system; and interactive mentoring and supervision sessions on an as-needed basis replaced lectures. The participating teacher was involved in the re-design, and students were encouraged to organize and manage their own projects using skills from prior research courses.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Teacher involvement in redesign
• An introductory workshop introducing small-group projects, ill-structured problems, object-oriented collaboration, and online technology
• Access to external clients

Constraints¶

• Implemented and studied within one design-based research iteration in a single higher-education course

Target Learners¶

• undergraduate students in higher education

Target Learning Goals¶

• engagement in collaborative knowledge production
• addressing open-ended, ill-structured problems

Claims¶

• Groups performing generative epistemic actions more frequently produced higher-quality knowledge objects than a division-of-labor group [+W]
• Group interaction profiles differed: Groups D and E favored generative actions while Group B's interaction was predominantly regulative [+W]
• Productive interactions in long-term small-group collaboration take different forms, with discourse-based and object-oriented patterns the most relevant [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Pedagogical scenarios that organise learning around knowledge creation with shared objects
• Use open-ended, modeling-focused collaborative tasks with embedded scaffolds to support group disciplinary engagement

Examples¶

-

Key Sources¶

• Damşa, C. I. (2014). The multi-layered nature of small-group learning: Productive interactions in object-oriented collaboration. Intern. J. Comput.-Support. Collab. Learn. (2014) 9:247–281. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11412-014-9193-8