Some groups encountered problems with the cooperative activities. These difficulties ranged from very little collaboration to intense competition for leadership roles and personality conflicts (yes, this even occurred with faculty). We made a common mistake of believing that it was merely enough to assign members to work in groups on a common task. This experience reinforced the importance of applying a systematic methodology to the design of a learning strategy. Future iterations of the workshop will structure the learning to include the essential elements of cooperation; positive interdependence, face-to-face promotive interaction, individual and group accountability, interpersonal and small group skills, and group processing (Johnson, Johnson, & Holubec, 1993).
During the second part of one of the workshops we experimented with making the learning more self-directed to accommodate the busy schedules of the faculty. Participants were not instructed to interact with fellow participants through the discussion board or to review each other’s work. This approach contradicted Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of learning. As Vygotsky (1978) has suggested collaborative learning exercises provide the social construct for participants to negotiate understanding by exposing them to multiple perspectives and interpretations.The schedule for the learning activities was not firmly reinforced. Feedback was provided for the completed sections of the instructional design template and the instructional storyboard, but no other assessment strategies were used. As a consequence very few participants completed all of the required steps to prepare their course for online delivery. This experience clearly reinforced the notion that systematic instructional design provides for effective learning. The success of the first part of the workshop can be attributed to a method of design which combined the structured learning environment of an objectivist approach with the interactivity and authenticity of constructivist learning strategies.
The third lesson relates to the motivation of the learner. Most faculty who took this workshop were motivated by intrinsic factors like their desire to learn. The first few times we delivered this workshop, the extrinsic rewards for the learner were minimal as there was no formal recognition for completing the workshop. One could argue that the workshop was very practical in that it led participants through the actual steps of designing their course. However, we may have overstated the value of this workshop for faculty. Participants that completed the forty hours of learning activities deserve to receive some type of official recognition which could be applied to the promotion and tenure process. The next iteration of the course has been revised to meet the standards for accreditation as part of the Continuing Medical Education Certification Program offered by the Centre for Faculty Development in Medicine, at the University of Toronto.
References
Johnson, D. W., Johnson, R. T., & Holubec, E. J. (1993). Cooperation in the Classroom (6th ed.). Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind and society: Development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Additional Resources
Faculty Development That Works - An Interview with David G. Brown
Centre for University Teaching, Ottawa
Gold, S. (2001). A constructivist approach to online training for online teachers. JALN, (5)1, 36-57
FacultyDevelopment.ca
Faculty Online Support Services
The New Classroom Faculty Series: Engaging Students with Online Activities, University of Waterloo
Creating Learner-Centred Instruction, Faculty Development Institute, Virginia Tech University
Rueter, J. G., (1999). Faculty Development for Teaching and Learning with Technology: New Directions for PSU
Rueter, J. G., (1997). A New Metaphor for the Spread of Innovation in Teaching and Learning
Rutkowski, K (2001). The Diffusion of Web Technology in Education (Applications & Challenges)
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