Facilitating Student Collaboration in a Synchronous Online Course for Supervision in Field Instruction

Silver School of Social Work

Description

This presentation focuses on collaborative dynamics between students as well as between students and the instructor during synchronous online class sessions conducted in the Fall Semester, 2016. We were interested in how meaning would be formed during these live sessions. How would students interact to create meaning together? What role would the instructor play in facilitating collaboration? One of our goals was to identify which aspects of the course were most useful in producing meaningful collaboration. How would various technologies used in the course facilitate social presence and collaboration to address the larger question of: how do we implement good design that increases students’ satisfaction and success in online learning? In addition to interpersonal dynamics, we were interested in how the course meeting platform (WebEx) tools would afford the process, quality, and outcomes of interaction between all participants.

Presenters

Henry Samelson Educational Technology Specialist (Silver IT), Alison Aldrich Clinical Associate Professor of Social Work
Facilitating Student Collaboration in a Synchronous Online Course for Supervision in Field Instruction