Unisa online - Working together leads to deeper learning and enriched learning

Collaboration with others and working in a team is a critical skill for students, especially in terms of fostering deeper learning, but in many cases, this comes down to telling students to form study groups. However, with the educational technologies afforded by myUnisa --- especially the wiki and blog tools --- more meaningful collaboration and group work can be integrated into Unisa modules.

This is the view of Alice Goodwin-Davey of the Institute for Curriculum & Learning Development (ICLD), who facilitated a staff workshop entitled "Collaborating with myUnisa: using a wiki or blog to get students to work together."

Goodwin-Davey and workshop attendants brainstormed the challenges associated with group work and collaboration for open distance learning (ODL). Some of the questions raised included how to get students to work in groups where there are thousands of students in a single module, how to manage the groups and how to mark group work fairly.

Since part of the focus of the presentation was on the wiki and blogger tools on myUnisa, Goodwin-Davey showed examples of how lecturers can create wiki spaces for students, and how some lecturers have created blogs to get more students to participate and share their learning with other students, for example

• posting a scenario or case study in a blog and then asking students to add their comments
• creating group wiki pages on the wiki, where designated groups can upload projects or shared research
• having students create their own blogs to bring in-progress research or relevant web links to share with other students
• posting student discussions around what they learnt on a group discussion visit (even with group photos) on a blog

Group work can be linked to activities, projects, group discussions and as part of formal assessment strategies. The workshop was part of a series of staff discussions and workshops on myUnisa, in collaboration with ICT.

For more information on collaboration or using a wiki or blog on myUnisa, contact Alice Goodwin-Davey on goodwaa@unisa.ac.za or Leonie Steyn on steynL1@unisa.ac.za.