Assessing university student collaboration in new ways

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Accepted Manuscript (AM)
Author(s)
Ellis, Robert
Han, Feifei
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2020
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This study argues for the importance of using the different evidence to assess and evaluate a key graduate skill – collaboration. To do so, it investigates the experience of 356 first-year students in a blended course design and measures their collaborative patterns. Combining research methodologies from student approaches to learning and social network analysis, the results reveal evidence of different collaborative patterns across the population sample. The investigation uncovers contrasting groupings of students with deep and surface approaches to inquiry and to online learning technologies, positive and negative conceptions ...
View more >This study argues for the importance of using the different evidence to assess and evaluate a key graduate skill – collaboration. To do so, it investigates the experience of 356 first-year students in a blended course design and measures their collaborative patterns. Combining research methodologies from student approaches to learning and social network analysis, the results reveal evidence of different collaborative patterns across the population sample. The investigation uncovers contrasting groupings of students with deep and surface approaches to inquiry and to online learning technologies, positive and negative conceptions of the learning environment, and relatively higher or lower academic outcomes. These are discovered to logically relate to different collaborative patterns. The most effective collaboration strategies involve collaborating only as much as tasks needed, in smaller groups, and being reciprocal by accepting and inviting peers to work together. Effective collaboration strategies also include students positioning themselves to gather information easily in their collaboration networks and to develop closely knit collaborative groups. The results offer an evidence-base to identify different experiences of student learning and collaboration to improve program design and the attribute of collaboration, and to improve the concepts underpinning policy development for quality improvement of university graduates.
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View more >This study argues for the importance of using the different evidence to assess and evaluate a key graduate skill – collaboration. To do so, it investigates the experience of 356 first-year students in a blended course design and measures their collaborative patterns. Combining research methodologies from student approaches to learning and social network analysis, the results reveal evidence of different collaborative patterns across the population sample. The investigation uncovers contrasting groupings of students with deep and surface approaches to inquiry and to online learning technologies, positive and negative conceptions of the learning environment, and relatively higher or lower academic outcomes. These are discovered to logically relate to different collaborative patterns. The most effective collaboration strategies involve collaborating only as much as tasks needed, in smaller groups, and being reciprocal by accepting and inviting peers to work together. Effective collaboration strategies also include students positioning themselves to gather information easily in their collaboration networks and to develop closely knit collaborative groups. The results offer an evidence-base to identify different experiences of student learning and collaboration to improve program design and the attribute of collaboration, and to improve the concepts underpinning policy development for quality improvement of university graduates.
View less >
Journal Title
Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education
Copyright Statement
This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 08 Jul 2020, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2020.1788504
Note
This publication has been entered in Griffith Research Online as an advanced online version.
Subject
Education
Higher education
Social Sciences
Assessment in new ways
collaborative patterns
student approaches to learning research
Educational Research