Overview of the Course

Welcome to Cooperative Learning in an Online Environment, a mini-course for learning how to collaborate online. In this course we will be discussing how to teach online using collaboration. This course will last 3 weeks, in which participants will be expected to participate at least 3 times during each week. Each session should last about 1 hour, for a total of 3 hours per week (including completing assignments).

The course will be conducted in a Web Quest format. This web site has opened in a separate window from the tools you will be utilizing to discuss the concepts learned. Be sure to have both the discussion forum and this window open on your computer as you work, so that you can do the assignments, and then respond in the discussion area.

Each of the numbered activities below should take about an hour. It is suggested that you plan on accessing this course 3 times during the week for an hour at a time. This way we can interact with each other on a timely basis, thus adding to the collaboration.

Try to complete:

• Activity #1 in each section by Tuesday of that week,
• #2 by Thursday, and
• #3 by Saturday. That way we can start a new week on Sunday.

A. Week One -- Discussing the Basic Principles of cooperative/collaborative learning

1. Read the article given on Cooperative Learning and its components, and respond to discussion forum topic "What I know about Cooperative Learning and Collaboration".
2. Discuss (on the appropriate forum) what you feel are the major components of cooperative learning that SHOULD be included in an online environment.
3. As a group, come to a consensus about what we will be looking for as we evaluate some existing pedagogies for cooperative components and their adaptability to the online environment. Create a group rubric that measures the major concepts.

B. Week Two -- Adapting Existing Pedagogies to the Online Environment

1. Following the Web Quest format, review the following pedagogies:

• Web Quests
• Jigsaw Pedagogy
• Active Learning Strategies
• Blogging

2. Individually evaluate two of the above strategies using the rubric developed in Week 1.

3. As a group, create a visual organizer on how the above strategies will adapt to the online learning environment.

C. Week Three -- Assessing Collaboration

1. Discuss grading issues that may arise in cooperative learning online.
2. Using our own rubric, evaluate our work in this course for interactivity/cooperation.
3. Assessing Knowledge of Cooperative Learning -- Final Evaluations - Individual participation, and group participation.

If you want to sign up for this course indicate on the forum that you are enrolling in the course. Only the first four to register will be accepted.