A window into learning: case studies of online group communication and collaboration

Abstract

The two case studies presented explore the potential offered by in-depth qualitative analysis of students' online discussion to enhance our understanding of how students learn. Both cases are used to illustrate how the monitoring and moderation of online student group communication can open up a ‘window into learning', providing us with new insights into complex problem-solving and thinking processes. The cases offer examples of students' ‘thinking aloud' while problem-solving, showing how and why they arrived at particular outcomes and the underlying thought processes involved. It is argued that these insights into students' learning processes can in turn offer us the opportunity to adapt our own teaching practice in order to achieve a better pedagogical ‘fit' with the learning needs of our students; for example, through a more precise or more timely intervention. It is also suggested that looking through this ‘window' enables us to concentrate our assessment more closely on the process of task completion, rather than focusing solely on the end product

Approximately in-person in the locked-down home: Approximation, digital ties and maternity amid the COVID-19 lockdown

“…In digital education studies, for instance, scholarship on virtual learning platforms and environments has considered these facets (cf. Jones and Cooke, 2006), as also within religion studies (see Hutchings, 2012, on online churches, for instance) or studies of online communities (Hjorth, 2007). Often across these fields, the focus lies on the design of the platform itself and the social functions these might seek to emulate and reproduce in their interfaces with users, or within the discursive practices arising within communities meeting primarily online.…”

Medium for empowerment or a ‘centre for everything’: Students’ experience of control in virtual learning environments within a university context

“…Much writing about the benefits of VLEs focuses upon the significance of community. Clarke and Abbott (2008) and Williams et al (2007), for example, explore the role of VLEs in developing and maintaining the student community for students off-campus whilst others have investigated the process of facilitating interaction and creating such communities (Jones and Cooke 2006;Guldberg and Pilkington 2007). Such approaches challenge transmission models of teaching and accord with movements within higher education to promote learner autonomy (Lamb and Reinders 2007).…”