Artefact 1 - Collaborative Learning in Distance Education

My group was formed on the 9th of September 2017--which coincides with my very start with this program--and our presentation due date was on October 22nd. It consisted of four participants located in Greece, Germany, and Canada. It being the 2^nd assignment facilitated our scheduling our course of collaborative work. The article we chose to review, after a long brainstorming and library search, was a very contemporary one by Khalil, H., & Ebner, M. (2013). Using Electronic Communication Tools in Online Group Activities to Develop Collaborative Learning Skills.  We had a number of synchronous and asynchronous sessions and this is a photo we took from a synchronous session which we all agreed would be part of our capstone project. As you may assume from the photo, this collaboration, given the difference in time zones, turned some of us into night owls and the rest into early birds, but my wonderful partners and I never ceased smiling, boosting our emotional presence in our small but dynamic and effective learning community (4.4)!

More specifically, the fact that we had already e-met each other in the welcome forum and realized that we shared common interests, enhanced our decision on working as a group. We exchanged email and Skype accounts and  leveraged Google Docs and Skype affordances. The choice of Google Docs/ Google Drive was really useful as, while still working on MDDE 601 assignment 1 which was an individual one, we wrote down the collaborative assignment requirements and deadlines, and started brainstorming, making annotations and comments (3.1, 3.2), which was very helpful as it allowed time to compare and decide on an article.

We set a date for our first formal synchronous meeting, a videocall discussion, which was really fruitful as it facilitated making decisions, expressing thoughts, exchanging ideas, and sharing responsibilities. Unfortunately, one participant’s contributions were really slow as other commitments did not allow her to share her part sooner than the day of our next arranged meeting. That was the only part of our collaboration that really made me so anxious during the whole week that we kept logging on to see if she had shared her part of work. As a consequence, it led to a long synchronous meeting as we had to make suggestions, changes, and resolve problematic areas synchronously (1.7, 3.4).

Bearing in mind that we were four members with different ideas, suggestions, ways of expressing thoughts and emotions, and, last but not least, different time zones, I had to work till early hours in the morning, as I was 9 hours ahead from one of the participants who is located in Edmonton.  At this point of collaboration, much tension overtook our efforts, as we had to find ways to avoid conflict, though not be deprived of the freedom to express our ideas. Luckily, when due time came, everyone contributed their part and, upon observing that each one had an individual writing style, we decided on one of us to take over proofreading the whole critique and propose some changes so that there was a flow of coherent and cohesive writing (1.1). A constructive discussion and recommendations followed and led to our final paper. At this point, my peers much helped me focus on APA formatting as well as improve my academic writing by example (4.1), and I am thankful for that! Fortunately, we managed to be on time, which was a sigh of relief for me, as time management is of high importance in collaborative work and I want to be responsible and meet the deadlines as far as no forces out of my control impede my doing so.

During our session, and having realized that our whole process much reflected the theme of the article itself, we came up with the idea of conducting a survey, contingent with our topic, on how the course collaboration groups worked, the challenges they met, and the tools they used (1.2). This process would further engage course participants in our forum discussions, boost interaction, and lead to rational conclusions as to what better worked for each group (5.5). Though I had not yet taken MDDE 602 course on research methods, luckily enough a group member helped me to formulate the questions in such a way that there were no ethical and social conflicts involved. It is beyond question that participants respond to our questions anonymously (5.11). I decided on taking the survey myself and asked my peers to do the same as to make sure that what we required our course participants to respond to was meaningful and reflective, but at athe same time easy to conduct (5.1).

A screenshot of some of our questions:

To add to this, responding to our questions, as our instructor shared, would help them reflect on their own collaborative process as to prepare the last part of this assignment, that is, the self-reflection paper. Being acquainted with online questionnaires, I eagerly offered to work on that, as a chance to practice my skills and facilitate the process (5.10). We decided on making good use of some of the questions that were already in the Appendix section of our article to be reviewed. This way we were given the chance to critically choose and formulate questions (1.3, 5.1) which proved to be a wonderful opportunity to partially replicate the survey of the article in a different context (5.2, 5.3), receive results, and share along with the summary of the forum discussion in the form of a powerpoint presentation (1.9, 4.6). This process helped us learn how to summarize, present, and analyze results within the learning community, which was a valuable experience at the early stages of my learning journey of this program (5.6, 5.7).

A sreenshot of the responses to Question 1:

As soon as we uploaded our paper, the responses on the forum discussion were numerous and favorable, and so were the instructor’s comments and feedback. The satisfaction of the recognition of our hard work led us to become enthusiastic and flexible to our initial roles and further review literature so as to contribute to the forum discussion and provoke high level critical thinking (4.3), which successfully facilitated the accomplishment of the task. This unspoken contribution really created and led to even stronger ties in the group and a sense of commitment to our goals (4.4, 4.5)!

Our last synchronous meeting was just before posting our summary and presentation of survey results. Apart from working on our last part of that collaboration, which was really nice, we expressed the willingness to collaborate in the future in case we meet in any of the courses of our program. That was the time of the photo taken, a screenshot of one of our synchronous meetings. After our group summary post, I e-mailed the rest of the group thanking them for the fruitful collaboration. It was a great lesson to learn with so many takeaways at this early stage of my studies!

My encountering with participants from the four corners of the world, with time zone and cultural challenges (4.7), as to intensively work and make decisions was a lifetime experience that provided me with a new perspective of our global community (4.8).  My take-away, which was further reinforced when taking MDDE 631course, was that diversity allows for innovation to flourish!

Collaborative learning with groups formed heterogeneous in demographics can achieve fruitful outcomes and, as an educator, I could definitely make good use of this in my own context, transferring new knowledge. Therefore, my takeaway could be crystalized as follows:

No matter how hard working one person might be, other people’s perspectives and contributions—either big or small—might be the little precious stones missing from individual work to make it unique! Many minds are better than one! 

Another important lesson learned was that, though I am quite proactive and self-regulated, it is not always the case with other peers. This experience has taught me that I have to be patient, respect other people’s priorities and be flexible when need be. You may never know what other people may suffer despite their smiling at your presence.

The development of soft skills, such as empathy, support, and respect for diversity through collaborative work was a very important takeaway from the very first course taken at Athabasca University, which much influenced my further collaborations that were quite a few throughout this learning journey.

To add to this, this experience boosted my successful learning in this program, as the new skills, competencies, and knowledge acquired helped me to excel in all courses to follow. Additionally, while taking MDDE 621 and MDDE 651  Dr Tsinakos and Dr Bainbridge respectively proposed my working for my final papers on CMCSs for Collaborative Learning and on Profiling Dr Starr Roxanne Hiltz and Reviewing her Work—a pioneer digital sociologist who predicted our current networked world. My prior knowledge and experience gained from this artefact helped me build on it and construct meaningful new knowledge, further review literature, and gain new insights (5.4, 5.6).

1. Problem Solving, Analysis, & Decision Making

• 1.1.   Recognize problems
• 1.2.   Define the aspects of problems
• 1.3.   Formulate questions
• 1.4.   Find and access information
• 1.5.   Critically evaluate the relevance of information for a given situation
• 1.7.   Make reasoned arguments using critical reflection, leading to rational solutions
• 1.9.   Present them to others
• 1.10. Recognize the wider implications of specific knowledge

3. Communication Technologies and Networking

• 3.1.   Use a variety of communication and document-sharing tools to create, reflect, and communicate with others
• 3.2.   Analyze and evaluate the various applications and implications of these technologies
• 3.4.   Compare and evaluate the relative advantages and disadvantages of these technologies in various distance education contexts

4. Communication & Interpersonal Skills

• 4.1.   Write clearly and in a style appropriate to purpose (e.g. assignments, essays, published documents, and theses)
• 4.3.   Justify and defend your ideas orally and in writing in meetings, forums, seminars, exams and other contexts
• 4.4.   Support the learning of others when involved in teaching, mentoring, moderating, collaboration or demonstration activities
• 4.5.   Participate and contribute effectively in collaborative group activities
• 4.6.   Demonstrate effective design, delivery and critical evaluation of presentations, computer conferences, or seminars
• 4.7.   Work cooperatively with diverse groups and individuals both within the university and/or in the workplace
• 4.8.   Organize, and convey your ideas effectively through a range of communication skills and work collaboratively and in teams.

5. Research

• 5.1.   Frame effective and meaningful research questions
• 5.2.   Identify, discuss and apply theoretical considerations to proposed research
• 5.3.   Access and critically evaluate sources and content for quality, applicability and relevance
• 5.4.   Critically review literature both broadly and in-depth
• 5.5.   Formulate questions and reasoned arguments, leading to rational conclusions
• 5.6.   Summarize and synthesize information with a view to pursuing deeper understanding
• 5.7.   Effectively communicate information, arguments, and analyses in the discipline of Distance Education, in a variety of forms, to suit different contexts and audiences
• 5.10. Demonstrate the use of communications and other technology-based research tools
• 5.11. Describe and adhere to ethical practices and institutional policies throughout te research process

6. Management, Organization and Leadership

• 6.1.   Analyze the current and future climate of the distance education and distance learning industry, and formulate strategies to respond to that climate