Anastasia Trekles, Ph.D.

Use the Quality Matters rubric and Standards 5 and 6 to help guide your course development

Develop opportunities aligned with course objectives for students to engage in class –online or off

Use tools to promote both synchronous and asynchronous interaction in your classroom

As with other standards, QM stresses alignment of interaction and technology tools to course objectives

Always keep objectives in mind and use them as guidance when developing activities or choosing technologies

Good objective verbs for promoting interaction: Discuss

Present

Analyze

Solve

Design

Compare and Contrast

Critique

Argue

Group projects can sometimes become headaches for both students and instructors

While there are benefits, there are often challenges in coordination and getting students to truly collaborate

Try activities that promote collaboration, but still result in an individual grade

Provide groups a chance to work during class time (or incentivize online participation)

Teach AND assess team process skills as part of the activity

Assign roles to each group member to create structure

For more: https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/design/instructionalstrategies/groupprojects/challenges.html

In your requirements, ask students to provide feedback and hold each other accountable. Try the following prompt:

Everyone on your team is expected to contribute. The purpose of peer review is to provide effective feedback. Take time to conduct a peer review and submit a completed form for each of your team members.

Also, take a moment for a self-evaluation as well and submit the evaluations to your supervisor. Please be honest on the evaluations on yourself and your peers. Please post an evaluation for each team member, and one for yourself.

In an online class, groupwork gets a little more complicated

Individual responsibilities and assessment is even more important

Considering offering both synchronous and asynchronous options for working together

Synchronous tools: WebEx, Google Hangouts, Skype, Facebook chat, phone/text

Asynchronous tools: Discussion boards, wikis, Trello.com, email, Facebook groups

All users with a Purdue account have access (including students)

Visit http://purdue.webex.com to log in Webcam and microphone needed Start a conference – five types:

Personal room: always available from the start page

Meeting: For interactive presentations of a general nature

Event: For scheduled online events and webinars

Training: To administer online tests or quizzes, and conduct lab sessions or virtual office hours

Support: For helping others work through technological issues by sharing screens

Meetings and the personal conference room are the most popular and common way to set up a conference

Simple, easy to get started at any time One student can share the link to others to

connect Meetings can be recorded for later viewing

(or to share with instructors who want records!)

All published recordings go to the KalturaMediaSpace: http://mediaspace.itap.purdue.edu

You may log in at the MediaSpace website to access links to all recordings

You may also access recordings in BlackBoardthrough the Build Content -> Kaltura command

There is a lag time between recording and accessing the finished recorded link, which can be several hours depending on length

Google Hangout is a free alternative to Adobe Connect if your students need a meeting room or a tool for collaboration http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/hangouts/

Available on: Windows

Mac

Tablets (iOS & Android)

Mobile Devices (iOS & Android)

Facebook can be a great way to get people together

Can be used synchronously or asynchronously

You can create groups or encourage students to create them on their own

Creates a more informal, fun space for discussion

Classic, simple threaded discussion forum

Perfect for asynchronous debate, brainstorming, and peer review

Create threads (messages) then reply to start conversation

Forums can be graded by points or rubrics

Subscribe to forums to receive message notifications in email

BlackBoard has some basic group tools including self-signup, group discussions, and group assignments

Group Tools can be a little difficult for students to understand at first, but can be useful

See http://help.blackboard.com/en-us/Learn/9.1_2014_04/Instructor/080_Collaboration/050_Course_Groups

Trello.com Answergarden.com MindMeister.com Mural.ly FlockDraw AWWApp.com More at

http://www.creativebloq.com/design/online-collaboration-tools-912855

Reach us at: pncolt@pnc.edu

Twitter and Facebook: @PNCOLT

http://www.pnc.edu/distance for all workshop notes, links, and training needs