Virtual Collaboration in the Online Educational Setting: A Concept Analysis

This study was designed to explore the concept of virtual collaboration within the context of an online learning environment in an academic setting. Rodgers’ method of evolutionary concept analysis was used to provide a contextual view of the concept to identify attributes, antecedents, and consequences of virtual collaboration. Commonly used terms to describe virtual collaboration are collaborative and cooperative learning, group work, group interaction, group learning and teamwork. A constructivist pedagogy, group-based process with a shared purpose, support and web-based technology are required for virtual collaboration to take place. Consequences of virtual collaboration are higher order thinking and learning to work with others. A comprehensive definition of virtual collaboration is offered as an outcome of this analysis. Clarification of virtual collaboration prior to using it as a pedagogic tool in the online learning environment will enhance nursing education with the changes in nursing curriculum being implemented today. Further research is recommended to describe the developmental stages of the collaborative process among nursing students in online education and how virtual collaboration facilitates collaboration in practice

Teacher Education Futures: Developing learning and teaching in ITE across the UK

A selection of papers from the Teacher Education Futures conference 2006

‘Economics with training wheels’: Using blogs in teaching and assessing introductory economics

Blogs provide a dynamic interactive medium for online discussion, consistent with communal constructivist pedagogy. This paper explores the use of blogs in the teaching and assessment of a small (40-60 students) introductory economics paper. The role of blogs as a teaching, learning and assessment tool are discussed. Using qualitative and quantitative data collected across four semesters, students’ participation in the blog assessment is found to be associated with student ability, gender, and whether they are distance learners. Importantly, students with past economics experience do not appear to crowd out novice economics students. Student performance in tests and examinations does not appear to be associated with blog participation after controlling for student ability. However, students generally report overall positive experiences with the blog assessment

Making the Connection: Moore’s Theory of Transactional Distance and Its Relevance to the Use of a Virtual Classroom in Postgraduate Online Teacher Education

This study explored the use of the Web-based virtual environment, Adobe Connect Pro, in a postgraduate online teacher education programme at the University of Waikato. It applied the tenets of Moore’s Theory of Transactional Distance (Moore, 1997) in examining the efficacy of using the virtual classroom to promote quality dialogue and explored how both internal and external structural elements related to the purpose and use of the classroom affected the sense of learner autonomy. The study provides an illustration of the complexity of the relationship that exists between the elements of Moore’s theory, and how the implementation of an external structuring technology such as the virtual classroom, can have both positive impacts (dialogue creation) and negative impacts (diminished sense of learner autonomy). It also suggests that, although Moore’s theory provides a useful conceptual “lens” through which to analyse online learning practices, its tenets may need revisiting to reflect the move toward the use of synchronous communication tools in online distance learning

A literature review of the use of Web 2.0 tools in Higher Education

This review focuses on the use of Web 2.0 tools in Higher Education. It provides a synthesis of the research literature in the field and a series of illustrative examples of how these tools are being used in learning and teaching. It draws out the perceived benefits that these new technologies appear to offer, and highlights some of the challenges and issues surrounding their use. The review forms the basis for a HE Academy funded project, ‘Peals in the Cloud’, which is exploring how Web 2.0 tools can be used to support evidence-based practices in learning and teaching. The project has also produced two in-depth case studies, which are reported elsewhere (Galley et al., 2010, Alevizou et al., 2010). The case studies focus on evaluation of a recently developed site for learning and teaching, Cloudworks, which harnesses Web 2.0 functionality to facilitate the sharing and discussion of educational practice. The case studies aim to explore to what extent the Web 2.0 affordances of the site are successfully promoting the sharing of ideas, as well as scholarly reflections, on learning and teaching

The Way Forward: From Sanctions to Supports

The New York City Working Group on School Transformation brought together education practitioners, school reformers, policy-makers, advocates, and parent and student leaders to propose alternatives to the school closings policy of the New York City Department of Education (DOE). (See the list of Working Group members in Appendix 1.) The group was initiated by the New York City Coalition for Educational Justice and coordinated by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform following the fall 2011 conference Effective Alternatives to School Closings: Transforming Struggling Schools in New York City. This report presents the Working Group's conclusions about the limitations of school closings and a set of recommendations for systemic responses to the needs of struggling schools

Knowledge convergence in computer-supported collaborative learning

This study investigates how two types of graphical representation tools influence the way in which learners use knowledge resources in two different collaboration conditions. In addition, the study explores the extent to which learners share knowledge with respect to individual outcomes under these different conditions. The study also analyzes the relationship between the use of knowledge resources and different types of knowledge. The type of external representation (content-specific vs. content-independent) and the collaboration condition (videoconferencing vs. face-to-face) were varied. Sixty-four (64) university students participated in the study. Results showed that learning partners converged strongly with respect to their use of resources during the collaboration process. Convergence with respect to outcomes was rather low, but relatively higher for application-oriented knowledge than for factual knowledge. With content-specific external representation, learners used more appropriate knowledge resources without sharing more knowledge after collaboration. Learners in the computer-mediated collaboration used a wider range of resources. Moreover, in exploratory qualitative and quantitative analyses, the study found evidence for a relation between aspects of the collaborative process and knowledge convergence

An analysis of online and blended learning environments : measuring approach and learning outcomes in corporate settings

Organizations use training as an investment with the desirable end goal of gaining a valuable employee, despite cost and time constraints on their organization. This review investigates how e-Learning and blended learning training methods are currently used in organizations. It measures the Return-On-Investment of e-Learning and blended learning training methods within corporate learning environments and examines means to improve learning outcomes for learners and the organization. For this review, peer-reviewed journals were evaluated to analyze e-Learning and blended learning methods and outcomes. Conclusions reveal that both e-Learning and blended learning training models are being successfully used in corporate training modules. Factors such as development costs, training time, and course design will affect learner outcome and productivity and profitability for organizations. Additional research is needed to verify long term ROI for organizations using online or blended learning methods for means of training

The Affordances of Social Annotation in the Online Writing Classroom: A Community of Inquiry Analysis

Social annotation (SA) is a genre of web-based applications that allow users to annotate texts and to see and respond to annotations others have written. To explore the potential of SA for teaching writing online, findings from twelve empirical studies of SA in education were analyzed through the lens of the Community of Inquiry framework. Results indicate that SA can contribute to cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence in online writing instruction. SA supports collaborative understanding and unpacking of texts. Students can identify and discuss main ideas, claims, rhetorical moves, evidence, etc. They can ask and answer questions. The demands of articulating their views and comparing them to those of others cause students to become aware of their thought processes, a metacognitive development. Pedagogical strategies such as highlighting important concepts and seeding expert annotations can focus attention and scaffold learning. SA can promote the development of community as students collaborate and encourage one another. Teachers can plan and monitor SA activities aligned with learning outcomes. The findings provide insights to guide incorporation of SA in online writing instruction

Experiential Learning across Borders: Virtual Exchange and Global Social Justice

As the populations of college and university students become more diverse and have more demanding lifestyles, postsecondary institutions are showing greater interest in unconventional and innovative ways to offer students international experiential learning. Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), also known as virtual exchange, connects students in two different countries to investigate global realities from a cross-cultural perspective. With international exchange experiences no longer limited to those in certain majors or with financial means, COIL creates more equitable and sustainable access to international engagement. In this study, we describe a COIL exchange between ESL students at the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) and first-year writing students at the University of the Bahamas (UB). The COIL project consisted of two assignment sequences: one on the cultural contexts of education in students’ respective home nations and the other on global social justice issues. We found that COIL collaboration offered students a variety of opportunities, including: to diversify their perspectives; to learn about global social justice issues; to participate in the negotiation of linguistic meaning; and, finally, to try on different identities, such as the position of an expert on their home culture