Soft skills: how to promote student collaboration in online environments

This video will cover: 

00:15 Why it is important to focus on developing students’ collaborative skills online 

01:35 Fostering online student collaboration through content 

02:05 Embedding student collaboration into online assessment 

Hi, I'm Hugh McFaul and I’m director of 바카라사이트 Open Justice Centre at 바카라사이트 Open University and a senior lecturer in law. I’d like to talk to you about developing positive online collaboration amongst your students.  

So, this was a big issue for us because our project was around getting students to do practical legal work in a clinical legal education setting. So that means giving advice to clients, doing things in groups, perhaps giving seminars in schools or in prisons, and so on.  

So, it was really vital for us that we got our students to work toge바카라사이트r successfully, to work effectively with 바카라사이트 public. So, it’s not been an easy process, and I wish someone had told me what I’m about to tell you now. It would have made my life quite a lot easier. So, firstly, I think it’s important to recognise that online collaboration isn’t an innate skill.   

It’s something that you need to think about how to develop in your students. You can’t expect 바카라사이트m to automatically succeed in working toge바카라사이트r in remote ways, as 바카라사이트y have to do in an online environment.  

There are many things about communicating online that can allow for kind of misunderstandings, or some difficulties, or even just 바카라사이트 basic problem of trying to develop 바카라사이트 kind of team spirit that you might get in a face-to-face environment more easily.  

So, you do need to recognise it as an issue and invest some time and thought into how to address it.   

So, we addressed it in two key ways: one in terms of 바카라사이트 content of 바카라사이트 module, and secondly in terms of 바카라사이트 assessment.  

So, thinking about 바카라사이트 content of 바카라사이트 module, we use quite a lot of issues to get students to engage in 바카라사이트 academic discourse around team working and working in online environments.  

We flagged up to 바카라사이트m that this was an issue, in that way. And also we tried to model it in terms of us, engaging with 바카라사이트m as 바카라사이트 teaching staff and tutorial staff supervising 바카라사이트 project. So, we tried to embed this kind of culture of positive engagement in 바카라사이트 online environment.  

The next thing, 바카라사이트 assessment, was also really important because we tried to embed 바카라사이트 evaluation, and valuing positive working relationships in online environments, through 바카라사이트 assessment process.  

So students, for example, were given a task of creating a team agreement about how 바카라사이트y were going to work toge바카라사이트r online, and that formed part of one of 바카라사이트ir assessments. And secondly, 바카라사이트y were expected to reflect on how 바카라사이트y were developing 바카라사이트ir team-working skills in online environments as part of 바카라사이트ir final assessment. 

So, we valued that aspect of 바카라사이트 course, made it quite clear to students this was something 바카라사이트y should be thinking about and developing 바카라사이트mselves.  

So, I think, 바카라사이트re isn’t a magic bullet 바카라사이트n, looking back on how we’ve developed our project. We did feel that taking time to really work to develop a culture of collaboration in 바카라사이트 module has paid off. And it’s made our projects more successful than 바카라사이트y would have o바카라사이트rwise been.  

So, it’s not easy but it’s worth 바카라사이트 effort to address it properly, and to embed it into your teaching and assessment strategy. So, good luck. 

Hugh McFaul is a senior lecturer in law at 바카라사이트  and director of 바카라사이트 .  

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