Participation in a collaborative learning community should be assessed in a variety of ways. Students can be assessed based on their participation in wikis, blogs, dicussion boards, and chat rooms. Students should be provided with the opportunity to rate each other and provide feedback to each other in order to facilitate assessment (Laureate Education, 2008). Students should not be penalized for a lack of prior knowledge or experiences as compared to their classmates, but rather should be rewarded for growth in their personal knowledge base. Students will be able to demonstrate this growth through seeking out feedback and responding to any feedback provided. They can add new ideas on to the feedback provided and expand upon their prior learning and experiences.
If the learning community comes across a student who does not want to interact, the instructor and community should encourage at least a minimal amount of interaction. They could perhaps encourage the student to post their initial thoughts with the learning community providing feedback. The instructor might then encourage the student to try to collaborate with one person to start out if the student was perhaps feeling uncomfortable collaborating online. I don't think the student should ever be forced into something that they are uncomfortable with. If the student gradually became more comfortable then they could be encouraged to communicate with two, three, four or perhaps even more as their comfort level increases with collaborating. If they do not become more comfortable collaborating over time, the instructor should work with the student to come up with a fair way to evaluate the student. However, since collaboration is an important factor in distance education, perhaps the student should even be encouraged to explore other modes of learning that would benefit their learning style.
Reference:
Laureate Education, Inc. (2008). Principles of Distance Education. Baltimore: Author.
Sara I like your post. You are very up front with what you believe. Yes, sometimes we have a student who does not feel comfortable working with a group. I am one of those people, but I do my part. When I work in a group I am always afraid they will make me the speaker. I will do anything else in my group, but I do not like speaking in front of a group of people. So how do we grade students that will collaborate within their group, but will not give the presentation if they are asked too? Which I can say most of the time we do not have to have presentations given, but there are those times that we do.
ReplyDeleteSara,
ReplyDeleteI, like Lou Ann feel that we as educators need to find a way to let our students assess each other as well as we assess the entire group. When I am placed in a group, I do my part and expect the same from everyone else, but that is not always the case and that will continue as we are all human and some people are lazyl. even people working on higher degrees.
Sara,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that students should not be expected to all be on the same level. How would you suggest that the amount of knowledge the student has be assessed? I suggested a pre-test in my post.
I love your ideas for how to deal with the student that doesn't feel comfortable participating. I think that having the student interact with one student at a time is a good way to help the student adjust.