Collaboration matters
Different approaches to facilitate group work
Collaboration among students is a great way to improve learning. Besides, it is an authentic preparation for their later work life. Working and solving problems in teams is becoming increasingly important. A productive collaborative environment requires authentic and relevant tasks and it can be facilitated by various digital tools and techniques.
We will hear various approaches from ETH faculty members of how they create a collaborative environment in their class using different Moodle features.
Input Marlene Mader
Marlene Mader works at the TdLab at D-USYS and is part of the teaching team for the course “Tackling Environmental Problems” (UPL). UPL is a one-year course for about 150 first-semester Bachelor students, where they learn how to analyse and identify sustainability problems of a Swiss region and how to develop measures to address them in interaction with stakeholders. In this Refresh Teaching Marlene will talk about the use of the learning journal where student groups have to reflect on their collaboration and work process every week. In addition, she will briefly explain how they use a role test to ensure a fair group composition.
Input Réka Mihalka (ETH/UZH Sprachenzentrum)
Réka Mihálka is a lecturer at the Language Center of the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich; she teaches courses on academic writing at master’s and doctoral level. In a master’s course at D-MTEC, she has been experimenting with various techniques on Moodle (student quizzes, peer review, group projects, etc.) to increase student engagement through collaboration and autonomy. She will show both the ups and downs of the process: what has not worked as intended and what seems to be a promising new path.
Annette Bieger and Regina Zäch
Annette Bieger and Regina Zäch work in the Plant Ecology group of IBZ at D-USYS and teach two Bachelor courses in the spring semester. Annette has a background in Biology and has a certificate as an elementary school teacher. Regina studied Environmental Sciences and did her teacher training at ETH (Zertifikat Umweltdidaktik). Annette and Regina are going to discuss their attempt to foster group collaboration work and its challenges during a 2nd year’s Bachelor course using Moodle.
