Collaborative learning and digital practices - how do you feel about that?

The topic for this week was 'networked and collaborative learning'. It sounds good, doesn't it? We learn together by sharing and caring and helping each other out. It rhymes well with theories about the sociocultural nature of human beings. As we are all part of the world around us, and our minds and actions are impossible to separate from our experiences and the context we act in.


Learning and feeling - goes together like a horse and carriage?

However, I'd like to touch upon an aspect of collaborative learning, which I felt was not addressed by the theoretical framework of this weeks' work. I'm referring to 'emotions', or feelings, or affect.

Image in  CC0 Public Domain. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/en/emotions-smileys-feelings-faces-36365/


Self-determination theory describes how intrinsic and extrinsic factors have an influence on the creation of knowledge in a socio-cultural setting. With help of this theory, we can see if the students are motivated either by their interest in the task itself (intrinsic motivation) or by external factors such as grades or appreciation from peers or teachers (extrinsic motivation) (Mullins, Deiglmayr, & Spada, 2013). A combination of the two factors of motivation is relevant to study if we want to understand how a task is successfully completed, and there are studies that suggest that pure extrinsic motivation can even create aversion towards the task or the learning experience.

By Areeq (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons


Motivation is the key when students are to use their full potential of all their capabilities, especially their cognitive skills. In a collaborative setting, all the processes (both individual and social) are shaped and controlled by the emotions and the motivation they create. 'When socio-emotional challenges emerge, the collaborative group encounters them with the means they possess in that specific context and time. The group’s reactions to the challenges will further influence and shape the group’s emotional and motivational atmosphere' (Järvenoja & Järvelä, 2013, p. 165). The socio-emotional state of a group put together to collaborate has a significant influence on the result of their task. Negative emotions can be disruptive and one person can bring the whole group down. Studies show that positive feelings can give the whole group a motivation factor which will help them succeed in their task.


Motivation and emotions in online learning environments

My reflection in relation to this extracurricular reading (which is inspired by a course I took about a year ago on 'Designs for Learning', at the Department of Education, Stockholm University. This course was an elected course as a part of the Master's program I'm enrolled in) has to do with the observation that emotions are not always easy to convey properly in digital media. Especially if you are not a digital resident. Users are not always capable of conveying their emotions in such a way that it can be turned into a relevant motivational factor for them as individuals and as part of a group. The technology, or perhaps the individual's mastery of the technology, is a factor to consider if we are to understand the successful completion of an online course or learning activity. I, therefore, believe that in order to create better online learning environments, we need to put even more effort into preparations and support for students to learn the tools before they can utilise them (and their own learning) to its full potential. Not exactly to require people to take a course in order to complete the course, but perhaps to stress the importance of learning how to socialise online and to let that take up a lot of space in your planning of the course schedule and learning goals?

References

Järvenoja, H., & Järvelä, S. (2013). Regulating emotions together for motivated collaboration. In Baker, M., Andriessen, J., & Järvelä, S. (Eds.) Affective learning together: social and emotional dimensions of collaborative learning (pp. 162–181). London & New York: Routledge.

Mullins, D., Deiglmayr, A., & Spada, H. (2013). Motivation and emotion in shaping knowledge co-construction. In Baker, M., Andriessen, J., & Järvelä, S. (Eds.) Affective learning together: social and emotional dimensions of collaborative learning (pp. 139–161). London & New York: Routledge.

Self-determination theory. (2017, March 24). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Self-determination_theory&oldid=771932540

Comments

  1. Thank you for this post! It is interesting that you stress the social aspect of motivation. This would be a good addition to Salmon's model since she assumes online students need time to get acquainted with the environment and the social interactions before content can be learned.

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    1. Thank you for comparing with Salmon's model, I agree that it is very much compatible with the idea of emotions as drivers for motivation. Perhaps it is not only for us to set aside time for the social part of a course, but also to put some kind of value to the feelings and reflections? Could it be included in the learning goals of the course?

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    2. Yes, I think that is a good idea actually. We need more diverse assessment methods and learning goals if we want to capture more of what is learned online and in groups.

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  2. Hi Sofie
    Thanks for sharing your experience. It is interesting to read you post since it clearly explain theory with practice.
    I agree that pure extrinsic motivation create robotic environment that student just try to work to fullfill mandatory activities. It is a challenge for course designers to convert extrinstic motivation into intrinstic.

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    1. Thanks for your comment, Ranil! It is indeed hard to figure out how to tap into the intrinsic motivation in individuals, as it varies so much depending where they come from and what type of personality they have. One way to do this would be to systematically collect and compare reflections from participants in online courses to continuously improve and get more experience in the matter.

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  3. Hi Sofie. You raise such an interesting point here and I couldn't agree more! How many times has one sent a text or email with one meaning in mind, only to find that the emotion and tone has been interpreted differently by the recipient! Creating clear and authentic emotional communication is so important to our process of socialising and yet so difficult to do effectively when only communicating via online tools. Would be very interested in chatting to you about your research at some stage if you would be open to that. Thank you for your blog post.

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    1. Hi Domninque, and thanks for the positive feedback. I've been thinking a lot about how feelings are our friend and enemy at the same time, but that we can't help having them. I've not managed to incorporate so much about this in my current work, but I hope there will be some space for this in the future. Although a tricky area, it is still something that we can all relate to. I'd be happy to stay in touch! Just connect in one of the many networks online and we can continue from there :)

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  4. I am trying to catch up with some old blog posts and other reading. When I read your reflection I couldn't agree more. The emotional contact is what I miss the most when I take online courses and poor or lacking emotional contact will eventually destroy my intrinsic motivation in a course. Moreover, now that the course is finished, writing the blog posts is driven much more from extrinsic motivation (read: getting the course certificate) than from my lacking intrinsic motivation. I regret that I didn't manage to do it earlier.

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    1. Thanks for your comment, Anna-Karin. Yes, isn't it all about living and learning :) But I guess we need to think about ways in which our students are given opportunities (i.e. both time and space) to elaborate those tools for intrinsic motivation. How do we do that in our everyday practice? It is like you say, so easy to rely on the extrinsic drivers and to follow up on those. Hm... 🤔

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  5. Hi Sofie! I agree with you about the importance of motivation to spur on learning. I think it's the single most important factor driving learning. Emotions play a central role in determining how well motivation is sustained, so helping or guiding online participants how to socialise and express emotions is key. It's so easy to create misunderstandings online, especially if the medium of communication is writing only.

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    1. Thanks for the comment, Luis. Yes, the feelings are important, but if we put a value to being open and sharing (like in the previous topic), would it be possible to do the same with emotions? Is it possible to include parameters for wanted or unwanted feelings or how you deal with them? Now when I write this, I'm thinking that the key to this would possibly be the reflections we are doing in our blogs. Would that be the answer?

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