Reflections on Topic 3

OK so for this topic I have chosen to reflect on ‘an occasion when real collaborative learning took place that moved your own thinking forward’, as it is aptly put on the ONL page.

Although I have experienced some collaborative learning in the past (but sadly, and remarkably, only a few times) as a teacher, I choose an occasion a couple of weeks back when PBL09 worked on Topic 2 (Open Learning – Sharing and Openness). Rarely have I experienced such an effortless and stunning group work, and where the collaborative learning resulted in a quite nice video presentation. When I try to analyse what went right, so to speak, I go to the literature to try to find factors that were important for our group to be successful collaborative learners.

In a study by Scager et al (2016) that focused on factors that increased the effectiveness of collaboration in university courses, it was shown that “factors evoking effective collaboration were student autonomy and self-regulatory behavior, combined with a challenging, open, and complex group task that required the students to create something new and original.” Our task fits this description nicely I think: It was open and complex and we were instructed to create something new and original from the scenario we were given. Also, we were free to use any tool or method to solve the task (i.e. we worked in an autonomous and self-regulatory manner). Moreover, we had great support from our facilitators. They intervened very little but nudged us in the right direction when needed. A metaphor for the PBL 09 facilitators’ splendid work could be a successful football referee who is almost invisible to the spectator but discreetly and correctly directs the way the game is played.

All in all I think that the work we created for Topic 2 was a bit of our finest hour (yes WSC is my hero and role model) during this course (at least it was for me). Funny enough it started badly on my part, as I had not read the scenario for Topic 2 or anything else on sharing and openness in open learning by the time of our first group meeting. This made me feel terribly unprepared. However, Gizeh, our co-facilitator, said that I could use this to my advantage and that being unprepared might spark my creativity, which it certainly did. So with her reassuring words and great piece of advice, the meeting turned out to be a highly productive and fun experience for me. Thanks Gizeh! 😀

Reference

Scager K, Boonstra J, Peeters T, Vulperhorst J, Wiegant F. Collaborative Learning in Higher Education: Evoking Positive Interdependence. CBE Life Sci Educ. Winter 2016;15(4). pii: ar69.