Activity4

Write a reflective essay that supports and explains your reasoning for selecting the concepts and suggestions for this presentation. Support your reasoning for their inclusion. Include, as well, a brief reflection on your experience of designing the presentation. Why did you select this format? What is it about this format that is effective for this particular presentation? Be sure to include citations for quotations and paraphrases with references in APA format and style.

__Online Collaborative Issues __
As the technology advances rapidly, the purpose of embracing e-learning in a climate of shrinking budgets and growing student enrollments in online institutions, look to seek a solution to address low retention and drop-out rates, by trying to find ways to motivate students through their online course offerings. Technology is constantly changing and improving rapidly, and “education systems have an obligation to keep pace with emerging technology” (Shaffer, 2008, p. 1). Research studies on classroom motivation have found that certain strategies can help students adopt more positive attitudes and become more motivated in the learning process.

Motivation “energizes” human behavior and “gives it direction” (Dornyei, 2010, p. 77) to improve learning and foster literacy, but one should follow up on motivation strategies to check whether they help improve students’ achievement in the subject matter when collaborating online. Using supportive texts other than the online course content made accessible to the students would enhance motivation and better recall and comprehension of the text. Udvari-Solner (2005) argues teaching strategies should extend further than delivering instructions to include content that is relevant to student’s lives. For example, an empirical survey of motivational strategies in language classrooms in Taiwan (Cheng & Dornyei, 2007) resulted in ten commandments for motivating language learners: “teachers should set a personal behavior example, make sure that the class atmosphere is relaxed and pleasant, present tasks properly to the learners, have good teacher-student relationships, work on increasing learners’ self confidence, ensure that language classes are interesting to the students, promote as much as possible learners’ autonomy, personalize the learning process, increase learners’ goals, and make sure that learners are familiar with the target language culture” (p. 155). These Ten Commandments for motivating learners can be used in all online course settings.

Another significant dimension to online collaborative learning is providing learners with opportunities to interact freely and learn from each others’ mistakes through collaboration. Instruction strategies can also enhance students’ engagement or involvement in the learning process. Cooperative group learning (Ghaith, 2003) and the use of technology (Ramachaudran, 2004) shift the focus from teacher controlled classrooms to student centered ones. In deciding on content that addresses the interests and needs of diverse students, Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences (Gardner, 1983) may be considered to understand and identify strengths in all students. The researcher encourages students’ prior knowledge in a computer programming class to be highly considered before the students enroll for a higher programming level course. One of the teaching strategies that the researcher uses in her programming course is to let the students think critically, to focus on questions about logic, which actually develop good critical thinking. The learners give their self-opinions on real-world applications and as instructors challenging the students make them better with the subject. Udvari-Solner, Villa, and Thousand (2005) stipulate corrective feedback as part of teaching strategies and designing a teaching-learning process that can promote meaningful participation for all students within an online classroom.

Vygotsky’s (1978) theory about how individuals learn from each other is often used to explain the benefits of learning in groups. Vygotsky’s ideas about how we learn have led to the development of “learning communities” centered on student-to-student interactions and the exchange of ideas. From a theoretical perspective, the teacher’s job is to assess the student’s understanding to locate the point in the “zone of proximal development” (ZPD) where the learner needs the assistance. Once that has been done, the online instructors may provide minimal assistance, and pose “think outside the box” questions to extend students’ thinking further. This may motivate students in providing opportunities for them to articulate and reflect on their thoughts, for example, the instructor may scaffold a programming logic by relating the problem to an activity that would be familiar to the students. The students might benefit from “learning by doing,” as they start to think independently about the problem in a new way by going through a logical thinking process and instructors may interject comments and offer support only when needed. By scaffolding, the instructors may provide guidance to new online learners in the development of group process skills (Resta & Lafierriére, 2007, Brooke 2007); and using communication technologies effectively (Bulu & Yildirim, 2008) for problem-solving and hands-on group activities.

Motivation is critical to learning and when it comes to problem solving or learning a difficult material, “students must first become engaged and then persevere when they encounter challenges” (Darling-Hammond, 2002). Other than keeping the students engaged, interesting and challenging with their coursework activities, instructors should constantly encourage the students’ confidence of their abilities to see the expectancies of success as the end-result. Students take pride in their work challenges and sharing their ideas with their groups by collaborating online to see higher-order learning outcomes. More nearly equal participation including both the instructor and the students, may enhance a sense of community among participants in a virtual learning environment (Griffin, 2007).

The researcher works for Maricopa Community Colleges and used Microsoft PowerPoint application as a tool in preparing the actual presentation for online instructors on student motivation and as how to overcome issues in online collaborative learning. PowerPoint application being chosen for the presentation is due to the fact, it is the most popular and common e-learning tool on the market. Educational institutions such as community colleges depend on government funding running with limited budgets, will have difficulty to obtain the buy-in to make e-learning as important as they would like. Hence, they often turn to PowerPoint to jump-start their online training initiatives. Also, faculty staff those have missed the presentation can be able to view the researcher’s presentation from their very own systems, as Microsoft office application is installed on every computer across Maricopa community colleges.

As PowerPoint is ubiquitous district-wide, the presentation can be uploaded on to a seminar tool such as Adobe Connect to make the recorded presentation available online in an asynchronous mode. This would help the faculty audience to review or re-visit the presentation on motivational strategies and as how to overcome the common issues with online collaboration. Clark & Meyer (2008) discussed that asynchronous communication facilitates reflection and independent research for both instructors and learners. When created as a presentation, reaching out to the faculty of all learning disciplines using PowerPoint has a greater impact than distributing as newsletters via emails.

Thus, instructors may help by involving students in active learning and engaging by providing hands-on online activities that would allow using their skills for practical and relevant academic purposes. Motivating learners allow them to take control of their learning and when students interact in class and collaborate online, they learn. Motivating the students to learn should be the utmost importance for all online instructors as by sharpening this ‘tool’ that the students can become highly successful in both their academic and professional lives.

References Brooke, S. L. (2007). The case method and collaborative learning. In K. L. Orvis, & A. L. R. Lassiter (Eds.), //Computer-supported collaborative learning: Best practices and principles for instructors// (pp. 66-88). Hershey, PA: IGI.

Bulu, S. T. & Yildirim, Z. (2008). Communication behaviors and trust in collaborative online teams. //Educational Technology & Society, 11(//1), 132-147.

Cheng, H.F. & Dornyei, Z. (2007). The use of motivational strategies in language instruction: The case of EFL teaching in Taiwan. //Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 1(//1), 153 – 174.

Clark, R. C. & Mayer, R. E. (2008). //E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven// //guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning.// San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.

Darling-Hammond, L. (2002). //Learning from others – Learning in a social context.// The Learning Classroom: Theory in to Practice. Retrieved from []

Dornyei, Z. (2010). Researching motivation: From integrativeness to the ideal L2 self. In S. Hunston & D. Oakey (Eds.) //Introducing applied linguistics: Concepts and skills// (pp. 74-83). London: Routledge.

Gardner, H. (1983). //Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences.// New York: Basic Books.

Ghaith, Gh. (2003). The relationship between forms of instruction, achievement and perceptions of classroom climate. //Educational Research, 45 (//1), 83 – 93.

Griffin, C. A. (2007). Management 311, on-line course in leadership: //A case study// //evaluation.//Unpublished Ed.D., Northern Arizona University, United States -- Arizona.

Ramachaudran, S. (2004). Integrating new technologies into language teaching: two activities for an EAP classroom. //TESL Canada Journal, 22 (//1), 79 – 90.

Resta, P. & Laferrière, T. (2007). Technology in support of collaborative learning. //Educational Psychology Review, 19(//1), 65-83.

Shaffer, K. (2008). //A viable solution for the computer technology curriculum dilemma.// (Doctoral dissertation, Robert Morris University, United States, Pennsylvania). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database (AAT 3328715).

Udvari-Solner, A., Villa, R. A., & Thousand, J. S. (2005). Access to the general education curriculum for all: The universal design process. In R. A. Villa & J. S. Thousand (Eds.). //Creating an inclusive school (2nd ed.)// (pp. 134 – 155). Alexandria: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). //Mind in society: The development of higher psychological// //processes.// Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.