Providing spaces for peer interaction in Collaborate
The results for the remote studying survey are in and there’s one student concern in particular that’s been front of mind for me in all of this:
‘Group discussion and group project support’
That students on the Grad Dip are concerned about this is no surprise to me. They’ve come to understand peer interaction and the studio as a vitally important part of their education. So what happens when the physical space (suddenly) becomes digital?
The whole notion of online learning is one that really forces us to rethink what an education space is and does. Teaching and learning has been at the forefront of discussions. However, with no studios, libraries, workshops or canteens, where do those non-timetabled, student-led and peer interactions take place?
Student networks
Students of course have their own networks. There’s a lot of personal communication happening through WhatsApp, WeChat and Instagram. Should we expect students to expand their personal networks and spaces to accommodate all this? No, I don’t think so. We need to provide an institutional space.
Synchronous > Asynchronous
And what about time? 75% of my students are now in a different time zone. They need ways to plan and work together at times that work for them. These need to happen outside of the ‘timetable’ and they will need to happen online.
Experimenting
So we need a digital version of a studio. Essentially an unmoderated virtual space that sits within an institutional platform. In physical space terms, this would be a room that’s always open to anyone with ID or a key. Like any ‘real’ studio.
As I started to think about this I found that, not surprisingly, Blackboard Collaborate works for this (I promise I’m not on commission). You can add a Collaborate session to Moodle and set it up to run for ‘the duration of the course.’ This creates a room that’s always ‘open.’
To follow the room analogy, the key is an institutional login and the door is Moodle. All online meeting software is prone to ‘bombing’ and trolling by uninvited guests. While Collaborate won’t be completely immune to this, putting access to classrooms within in a Course or Unit page and behind an institutional login is very important.
Setting it up
To enable this kind of space, you need to enable guest access. Regular session settings as embedded through Moodle will not automatically give participants presenter rights. In regular classrooms, you have to be ‘upgraded’ by the Moderator.
If you enable Guest Access, you can to set permissions for participants using the room so they can share content and chat without a moderator present. So, in effect, this space can be left ‘open’ so students can arrange to meet there and work.
Managing it
With guest access enabled, each session will have two ‘tabs’ in Moodle. The first is the regularly classroom link. It will have a big green button that says Join Session. That’s the moderated session. The other tab will say ‘Guest Links.’ That’s the unmoderated one. Students can’t see that link so you need to signpost the link as a URL in Moodle.
- Timetabled sessions = first tab, ‘Session,’ green button
- Off-timetable = second tab, ‘Guest Links’
Bandwidth?
I should point out that I have a small cohort. 22 students. So any of the bandwidth generated here is not likely to have a major impact on the overall UAL service. I ran this by the DL Support team just to be sure. If you have a large group, it’s worth checking with DL Support on the best way to set this up.
Better still, consider the communities of practice that exist in the group and set up smaller studios to enable these.
Collaborate put out this best practice advice that’s really useful as both a tutor and a student to consider.
Unmoderated?
There’s also the issue of an unmoderated space. As with anywhere, it’s important to establish what is and is not acceptable behaviour in that space. DL Support recommended this link which is useful for thinking about this.
Blackboard Collaborate also put out this best practice advice that’s really useful as both a tutor and a student to consider.
MVP
This is an experiment. There will be challenges. Particularly for students with internet connection issues. Chances are we will have to troubleshoot these as we go and I will no doubt have to iterate this approach. For now, it’s just ‘a’ way of thinking about this problem and the university-supported platforms that might be available to address it .