Collaborative Knowledge Foundation: Systemic Change in Knowledge Production
A foundation of participation - tools for building a collaborative learning environment
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Transcript of A foundation of participation - tools for building a collaborative learning environment
Building on a Foundationof Participation
or
Motivating Active Student Engagementin Blended Formative Learning
Brant Knutzen
Adjunct LecturerFaculty of Education
University of Hong Kong
Introduction
• My passion is online discussions– Moderator of BBS online Debate forum in 1983
• I have been using Moodle LMS to support blended teaching / learning since 2005– The “heart” of Moodle (Tomaz Lasic)– Learning activity with the most potential for social
construction of knowledge– Also the most likely to fail! Why?– What works, and why– Creating new tools
• Enable use of discussions as formative learning activities• Evaluating their success (learning analytics)
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
What is Blended Learning?
• Blended Teaching / Learning
– adding online activities to expand the learning environment
• Beyond the limited face-to-face classroom time
• Incorporating the use of external resources
• Creating and supporting learning opportunities which suit the student’s schedules (asynchronous interaction)
• Technology supports new ways to collaborate in groups
• Excellent transparency into the student learning process
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Social Constructivism
• John Biggs captured the educational value of discussion when he stated:
"Good dialogue elicits those activities that shape, elaborate, and deepen understanding“
(Biggs 1999 p. 5)
Benefits of Active Student Engagement
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Motivation
Motivation : how do we encourage student engagement with online activities?
– Intrinsic and extrinsic methods
– Effective use of technology
Goals:• Engage the students in formative learning
• Social construction of knowledge
• Enable teacher to focus on quality
• Sustainable teaching practice
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Motivation on three levels
1. Constructive Alignment – between formative and summative activities
2. Situative – groupings and task design create social pressure
3. Leverage the LMS – the Learning Management System (Moodle) provides structures and automation to drive collaborative learning
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Constructive Alignment
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
IntendedLearning
Outcomes
Teaching / LearningActivities
SummativeAssessment
Biggs, J., & Tang, C. (2007). Teaching for quality learning at university.
Constructive Alignment
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
IntendedLearning
Outcomes
Teaching / LearningActivities
SummativeAssessment
FormativeLearningActivities
Biggs, J., & Tang, C. (2007). Teaching for quality learning at university.
Constructive Alignment
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
IntendedLearning
Outcomes
Teaching / LearningActivities
SummativeAssessment
FormativeLearningActivities
Biggs, J., & Tang, C. (2007). Teaching for quality learning at university.
Constructive Alignment
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
IntendedLearning
Outcomes
Teaching / LearningActivities
SummativeAssessment
FormativeLearningActivities
IntendedLearning
Outcomes
e.g. : Intended Learning Outcome - at the end of this course, students will be able to:
• Critically evaluate and reflect upon theories, practice, content and concepts learned in this course.
Critically evaluate,
Reflect
ILO
Constructive Alignment
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Critically evaluate,Reflect
Teaching / LearningActivities
SummativeAssessment
FormativeLearningActivities
SummativeAssessment
e.g. : Learning Portfolio• Cumulative reflection blog• Meta-cognitive thinking• 温故而知新,可以为师矣。
CumulativeReflection
Blog
AssessmentILO
Constructive Alignment
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Critically evaluate,Reflect
Teaching / LearningActivities
CumulativeReflection
Blog
FormativeLearningActivities
FormativeLearningActivities
e. g. : Weekly Discussion Forums• Oral discussions in classroom to start• Initial perspective is first forum post• Q & A for one week (average ≈ 5 posts)• Final post is reflection on learning• Reflective posts copied into Word blog
WeeklyForum
Discussion
AssessmentILO TLA
Situative Motivation
• Socio-cultural factors
• Peer pressure to perform
• Key factors to achieve this motivation:
– Group formation
– Task design
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Situative Motivation
Initial state on first class session:
– Students are all individuals, no group identity
– Teacher as authority and arbiter
– Traditional transmission-style teaching
• Mass assignments for all students to work on individually
• No facilitation of collaboration
• Very limited social construction of knowledge
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Situative – no Grouping
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Teacher
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Very limitedcollaboration
Example forum – no groups or task design
Example forum – no groups or task design
• No groups or task design• Each student assigned a unique color, or can use the
Moodle profile picture and name• Time dimension is not scaled on Y axis
Situative – Grouping
• Group formation by common interest
• Small groups around size 5
– Sets up proximal access
– Reduces social barriers to interaction
– Reduces the “noise” level
• The Participation Forum allows the students to set up their own “semi-private” areas for discussion
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Situative – Task Design
• Task design creates a structured requirement for interaction
– Participation Forum task:
• Easy first post gets everyone involved
• Questions gets everyone aware and thinking
• Answers require critical or transformative thinking
• Additional rounds of Q&A
• Final post is reflective: how has perspective changed?
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Situative – after Grouping / Task Design
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Teacher
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Situative – after Grouping / Task Design
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Teacher
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Situative – after Grouping / Task Design
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Teacher
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Example forum #2with Groups and Task Design
Participation Map - example forum with Groups and Task Design
Assess with Rubric
Public Assignment
UnsustainableAssessment
Grouping, Task Design
Formative learning activity designGoal: Social Construction of Knowledge
Assessment Design
Students Engage!200-300 posts
No Collaboration
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Optional Activity Assess with Rubric
Public Assignment
UnsustainableAssessment
Lack of participation
No points Grouping, Task Design
Formative learning activity designGoal: Social Construction of Knowledge
Assessment Design
Students Engage!200-300 posts
No Collaboration
Activity does notachieve ILO
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Optional Activity Leverage the LMS Assess with Rubric
Public Assignment
UnsustainableAssessment
Lack of participation
Near 100% Participation!
KnowledgeConstruction!
DisaffectedStudents
Topic Questions Design,Activity Management
No points Grouping, Task DesignProgrammed
Point Distribution
Formative learning activity designGoal: Social Construction of Knowledge
Assessment Design
No CollaborationParticipationForum
Activity does notachieve ILO
Students Engage!Collaboration!
Intended LearningOutcome Achieved!
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Leveraging the power of the LMS
• The Participation Forum automatically awards points based on participation, produces a grade
– Grades produced by participation:• One post = 6• Two posts = 8• Three posts = 8.6 • Four posts = 9• Five posts = 9.2• Six posts = 9.33• Seven posts = 9.42• Eight posts = 9.5 etc
• More Q&A participation = higher grade• Carl Rogers: “unconditional positive regard” • Grabinger & Dunlap: REAL – “risk-free environment”
More participation -> higher grade
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Number of discussion posts
Number of posts -> Forum Grade
A foundation of participation
• This assessment method for assessing a forum creates a foundation of participation: in my experience over 90% of students will cognitively engage with the discussion
• As always, the teacher’s role is to create the educational value of the activity:– Set up challenging topic questions to guide
exploration
– Maintain a “visible presence” in the forum activity
– Successfully moderate the discussion
Discussion moderation techniques
• Salmon’s 5-stagemodel ofeModeration
• Teacher guidesstudents upthe levelstowardknowledgedevelopment
Source: http://www.atimod.com/e-moderating/5stage.shtml
Participation-based forum grade
• The Moodle LMS handles the awarding of quantitative marks for participation
• Teacher can focus on quality:– Monitor progress
– Guide the discussion
– Challenge students
– Time for thoughtful qualitativefeedback• Minimum: 30 mins to 1 hour each week per discussion
The Participation Map
• New Moodle plug-in automates the production of the map of discussion activity:– Quantitative statistics
– Qualitative graphic display: a “data portrait”
• Useful for displaying discussion activity– Feedback to students in the class (who is working?)
– Feedback to teacher (what approach is working?)
– Anonymous mode for reporting research results
Example Participation Map
Student profile picturesStudents can interact in multiple groups
Tim
e sc
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fro
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ay 1
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14
Red line shows rating cutoff
Group comparison stats
Overall discussion statistics
Quantitative Data
• Quantitative ratings of overall discussion
Map of discussion starting in class
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Map of Procrastination
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Participation Map is a teacher tool
• After install on Moodle server, this learning analytic tool is only available to those with Teacher roles
• New option on CourseAdministration block
Participation Map operation
• Select theforum, andthen plot type:– Normal plot
for feedbackto teacher andstudents
– Anonymousfor reportingresults outside
Conclusion
• I have been using the Participation Forum methodology since 2007– Three levels of motivation consistently achieves
very high levels of student activity and engagement with group discussions
– Enables the teacher to focus their time / efforts on providing qualitative feedback to support formative learning
– “Sounds good, but do you have any evidence?”Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Student activity achieved – Moodle report
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Student participation achieved
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Course comparison – posts and views
Slide Design: Brant Knutzen
Questions and Discussion
• My blog about these open source and other research projects: Brant.Knutzen.se
• Specific websites for downloading open-source projects:– ParticipationForum.org– ParticipationMap.org
• Questions?
• My email is: [email protected]