Facilitating Student Collaboration
Mathieu Plourde, Instructional Designer
IT-User Services

A Quick Poll
1. Do you currently use Sakai@UD?
• Yes.
• No.
2. Do you use collaborative activities with
your students?
• Yes.
• No.
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About Collaboration…
• What is your definition of Collaboration?
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Some Definitions
The process by which
Tools (collaborative authoring, video
people/organizations work
conferencing, shared whiteboards, etc.) that
together to accomplish a
allow multiple users to work on the same
common mission. (1)
content in a common environment. (4)
Active participation between
two or more people to achieve
a common goal such as co-
authoring literature. (2) A recursive process where two or more
people or organizations work together
Working with other people during the toward an intersection of common goals
writing process, whether it is — for example, an intellectual endeavor
generating ideas, identifying a main that is creative in nature—by sharing
idea to pursue, or suggesting possible knowledge, learning and building
approaches and ways of organizing; consensus. (5)
often helpful to discover new
perspectives. (3)
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Why Make Students Collaborate?
PRO CON
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Why Make Students Collaborate?
PRO CON
• Teamwork is a skill that must be • More police work
developed by students • Dealing with slackers
• To stimulate innovation • Individual contributions are hard to
• Groups tend to self-correct (virtuous attribute and grade
circle) • Patchworks are not collaborative
• Peer expectation and accountability
• Sets a pace
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What’s In It For Me?
• As an Instructor…
• Reduce Grading Workload
• Student-Generated Learning Content
• Should be a Win-Win Situation
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Collaborative Tasks and Projects
Writing a Collective
Letter/Position/
Make Lists Statement/Web Content
Group Portfolio
Meeting
Brainstorming Support
Group Projects
Collaborative
Collection of Notebook
Links Storytelling
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Fostering Good Behaviors
• Define and set up collaboration spaces
• Make your projects relevant SET
• Require higher level thinking EXPECTATIONS
• Assess often, chunk your assignments
• Assess the outcome, not the details
• Construct a charter
• Reward initiatives
• Give students an individual voice too
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To Grade or Not to Grade?
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Collaboration in Sakai
• Wiki
• Defining Groups
• Resources
• Forums
• Chat
• Blogs
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A Quick Poll
1. How many of you have used a wiki?
• I have used a wiki in the past.
• I have never used a wiki.
2. How many of you have used a wiki with
your students?
• I have used a wiki with my students.
• I never used a wiki with my students.
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A Web Page
Audience
Author Web Page Audience
Audience
Reference: Grenier (2007)
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A Wiki Page
Author/
Audience
Author/ Web Author/
Audience
Page Audience
Author/
Audience
Reference: Grenier (2007)
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A Wiki Demonstration Video
http://www.articulate.com/community/blogdemo/web2/engage.html
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Using the Wiki Markup Language
HTML Wiki Markup Final Output
<b>Bold</b> __Bold__ Bold
<ul> * Item 1 • Item 1
<li>Item 1</li> * Item 2
<li>Item 2</li> • Item 2
</ul>
Wiki Markup
Language is a
Simplified HTML
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Wiki Gardening
• By nature, a wiki is messy.
• Usability issues may occur.
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Some Recommendations
• Instructional Strategy
• Define Control and Ownership
• Define Individual and Group Work
• Use Templates
• Get Familiar with the Markup Language
• Use a Wiki Charter
• A Wiki is Not the End
• Define Your Grading Strategy
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Some Examples and Job Aids on Wikis
• My Wiki Report web page:
• http://udel.edu/~mathieu/wiki/
• Faculty experiences
• Job aids
• The STOLEN Principle
• http://www.a6training.co.uk/resources_Social_Software.php
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Setting up Groups in Sakai
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Group Folder in Resources
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Groups in Forums
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Synchronous Collaboration in Chat
• All rooms are always visible
to everyone
• The Chat tool keeps an
archive
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Blogs
• Collaboration is not the main purpose of a blog
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Discussion
• Describe ONE activity that could be modified or created
in ONE of your courses to involve more student
collaboration.
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Thank You!
• Questions, Comments?
• Mathieu Plourde
Project Leader, LMS – IT-User Services
mathieu@udel.edu
# 4060
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