Principle 2: Reciprocity and Cooperation Among Students

Good practice in undergraduate education develops reciprocity and cooperation among students.

Introduction

Learning is enhanced when it is a team effort rather than a solo race. Good learning, like good work anywhere, is collaborative and social, not competitive and isolated. Working with others often increases involvement in learning. Sharing one’s ideas and responding to others’ improves thinking and deepens understanding.

Getting students to collaborate can be easier with technology than in the face-to-face classroom. There may be many reasons for this, but it seems that at least one is that online it is easier for the shy student to "speak up" and the bully to be silenced. Whatever the reason, here are a few activities that work well online and can be used to foster better collaboration among students.

Learning Management System

Most colleges give faculty access to a Learning Management System (sometimes called a Course Management System), like WebStudy, Blackboard, or Moodle. With a Learning Management System, there are many ways instructors can increase student interaction. For example, instructors can create small groups and activate a discussion board, chat, and other tools for each group. Students can then begin to meet together online just as they would on ground. Instructors typically also create one or more class forums, where they can post a question of some sort and then encourage students to interact with each other as they seek an answer.

While most colleges provide their own Learning Management System, instructors can also use one of the free "online classroom" sites to create their own classes outside the college system.

Learning Management Systems

Vyew. This is a free online meeting system. Instructors can create an account and host up to 10 students at a time. The drawback is that Vyew is add-supported, so there may be a small ad in the corner of the class; however, the price is right.

WizIQ. WizIQ is a fairly standard online classroom suit that includes the features instructors expect. However, with WizIQ instructors can also create and schedule a class, and then let people who happen to be visiting the WizIQ site join that class. It is an interesting way to schedule "free lance" classes for students outside of the college.

Collaborative Editing

Faculty members often want students to collaborate on some writing project. This is normally a "term paper" or other such summary activity; though collaborative writing can focus on much smaller projects. In too many cases, writing teams divide the project into smaller units ("You write chapter 1 and I'll write chapter 2") and then somehow try to consolidate those units into some coherent whole before submitting it. This, though, typically leads to disjointed writing with numerous "styles" evident throughout the document. There are, in general, two types of online tools that make collaborative authoring actually work the way instructors envision:

Wikis

A wiki provides a way for a group to jointly edit an online document in a collaborative effort. Every member of the editing group has equal access to the entire document at all times, and can make whatever changes seem necessary. With a wiki, group members can write new paragraphs, edit paragraphs written by others, or even delete paragraphs which may not apply. In the end, the group of students will have worked together to create a single, unified document, which is the essence of collaborative writing.

One of the most popular wikis on the Internet is the Wikipedia. While there could be legitimate debate about the quality of the information in the Wikipedia; there can be no debate that it is, at least, an incredible collaborative effort. Literally tens of thousands of writers from all over the world have jointly edited the content of the Wikipedia. If you want to "play around" with editing a wiki, the Wikipedia sandbox is a great place to start.

One of the more interesting uses of a wiki is for collaborative class notes. A professor can post a lecture outline (bullet points) on a wiki before class; then, have students collaborativly "fill in" the rest of the notes. If the class is taught in a computer lab, then students could actually fill in the lecture notes during class (and if those notes were displayed by a projector during the lecture, it would make a great feedback loop for the professor). If the class is not in a computer lab, then students could add their own notes to the wiki later. Either way, this type of wiki would create a nice collaborative study guide for everyone in class.

Wiki Tools

PBworks. PB Works (the PB stands for "Peanut Butter" -- no joke!) is a large community of wikis and other collaboration tools created and maintained by educators from around the world. They offer educators both free and various premium (or paid) services; however, the free service is normally adequate for a class.

NoteMesh. This is a specialized wiki designed for students to keep collaborative class notes. A student can add a class to NoteMesh, then other students can join the class. Together, all students can add to and edit the class notes, so by the end of the semester the entire class has been annotated online.

Wet Paint Wiki. This is another free wiki site where instructors can create and host a wiki for their classes. Wet Paint Wiki is very easy to use and has a lot of nice features, such as pretty templates for wiki pages.

Online Text Editors

There are sites where a group of students can create a document and then each of them can log on and edit that document online. In the end, they would have a single document that could be downloaded in Word (or some other word processor) format, then emailed, printed, or used like any other document.

Online Text Editing Tools

Google Docs. Google has created a very nice online editor for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Instructors can create "starter" documents here and then give students editing rights. In this way, students can collaborate as they write documents and other materials. Google Docs also includes a Spreadsheet and Presentation tool, so students can collaboratively edit those types of materials as well as a word processor document.

Zoho. This site includes a large suite of tools that students can use collaboratively. Included at Zoho is a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation tool; but also a project manager, database, email manager, and a dozen other interesting tools. The basic tools, along with 1G of online storage, is free; some of the more advanced tools require a paid subscription.

Video Collaboration

All of the benefits listed for Wikis and Online Text Editing can be extended to online video and audio editing. There are a few websites that permit people to post PowerPoint slide shows, videos, or other content and others can then post comments or even add markup to the video with drawing tools. Instructors can use this type of tool to post lecture notes (in the form of a narrated PowerPoint slide show or movie) and then encourage students to annotate those notes.

Video collaboration Tools

Viddler. This free tool permits instructors to create a video, then others can add text comments that are tied to the video's timeline. With Viddler, instructors could create a video lecture and then students could add questions or other comments to the video. The free account may have ads tacked onto the start of the video, but the price is right.

Social Networks (or Social Media)

One of the most pervasive and popular modern web concepts is the social network. Newspapers, weekly magazines, and even television has had a lot to say about various social networks over the past year or so. In fact, social networks are considered the second generation of the World Wide Web and are often said to embody WWW2 (or "Web 2").

A social network is nothing more than an online place where people can meet. Think of it as something like a public park; a place where people can chat, share a recipe, discuss politics, or whatever else comes to mind. It is a way to interact with friends from around the world. Many social networks have become a means for college students to keep in contact with their peers after graduation.

Social Network Tools

MySpace and FaceBook. These are social networks for students; MySpace is focused on the K-12 group, while FaceBook is intended more for college-age students. The networks themselves are fairly similar. Both offer a way for a student to create a "profile," listing things such as favorite foods and music. Both include discussion forums where students can engage each other. Both include live chat, photo albums, and many other features. In short, these two social networks form a virtual "student union" where students can relax.

TappedIn. This is another social network, but one that is focused specifically on teachers, especially teachers in K-12 schools. This particular social network is not nearly as large as either MySpace or FaceBook, but it features the types of discussions and interactions those of us in education appreciate. I would encourage you to look over TappedIn, join this virtual community, and share your experiences with your peers from around the world.

SecondLife. Here is one of the more controversial, and popular, social networks. Second life is an entire virtual world that includes shops, schools, sports, and many other reflections of real-life. It is different from the other social networks in that each participant creates an avatar (or virtual representation of himself or herself), and then moves that avatar through the SecondLife world. The avatars interact with each other, earn (and spend) money, and, in general, live just as they would in the real world. SecondLife is a fascinating place to visit.

Ning. Using Ning, instructors can create their own social network for a class, club, or other activity. Ning is easy to use and instructors can have an online community up and running in a matter of minutes. It also has a lot of features they can turn on or off to give students tools needed for class (like a photo album).