Learning design strategies for online collaboration

An LMS analysis

Abstract

Ask any student about their thoughts on group work and the response is likely to be negative. They experience issues around choosing suitable topics/projects/issues, finding a group, getting underway as a group, meeting deadlines, and being assessed for their individual participation. What learning design strategies can be applied to support online collaboration? This case study explores the online collaboration activities of a sampled selection of 72 sites in the learning management system to identify learning design strategies which promote effective collaboration. A framework was developed and applied to provide a consistent approach to the analysis of these sites. The results indicate unique and reusable learning designs that ranged from simple to complex in design.