Cooperative Learning

Now we're talking. Yet another strategy I actually already use in my classroom. Think, Pair, Share; Jigsaw; etc nothing new here (to me any way). But....how am I going to translate this to a web- or multimedia-based lesson without using a tool like CMaps? It would be too easy for a single student to do all of the work and then delegate credit to predict his or her own grade. Another tool I could think of to use would be something like Elluminate and then record the sessions so I could check after the fact to see that every person does actually participate. However probably the simplest method of assuring that all group members actually do their part would be to have them all email their portion of a presentation/assignment to me (the instructor) prior to them compiling the final product. Another option would be wiki assignments since I would be able to see who added what by checking out the page history (as in pbwiki).

Cooperative learning is a great tool to use in the traditional classroom to get students thinking about concepts and to think through problems. Something I've done in the classroom to make sure all students do their part is to tell each student they have a "specialty" and are the expert in that area so they must do a certain part. I guess I could do that with a web-based assignment but again, it would be harder to monitor who actually did what.

-Scott