SOLSTICE Conference th & 5 th June 2015 Designing and facilitating cross-country collaborative learning in a professional education context Sarah Cornelius, University of Aberdeen, UK Blair Stevenson, Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Finland

Our ambitions To raise vocational educators’ intercultural awareness through meaningful and manageable collaborative tasks that can be achieve within existing course structures, requirements and timetables To explore issues around the design and facilitation of collaborative online learning

Plan Reflect Observe Act x n= n=27

Step 1 – make contact Step 2 – describe your class  type into the document  Add any other info – e.g. professional challenge you are investigating

Step 3: Finnish students will design you a lesson – you can help!

Step 4: Provide feedback on lesson plan Step 5: Teach lesson or activity Step 6: Online meeting

Access and motivation Online socialisation Information exchange Knowledge construction Development Local introduction, technology availability Online introductions Sharing contextual and class related info Lesson planning and review Implementation and group review Salmon 5 stage model Implementation

Task ownership Task character Task control Sense of belonging and commitment Individual learner accountability and positive interdependence Relevant and authentic activity Meaningful stages Opportunities for feedback Exploring assumptions and expectations Technology choices Communication preferences Kirschner P, Strijbos K and Beers P H (2004) Designing electronic collaborative learning environments. Educational Technology Research and Development 52(3) ownership character control Framework for Collaboration Kirschner et al (2004)

Participants Informal discussion Questionnaire feedback Facilitators Log of activity Reflective conversation CPD professionals Professional dialogue Sources of evidence

Preliminary findings Unable to make contact Lesson plan implemented Stage 1 Stage 2Stage 3 Stage 4Stage 5

Successes implementation of the lesson as planned with positive feedback from learners and subsequent redesign of future inputs exchange of additional lesson plans and information beyond the activity requirements significant learning about new technologies and tools for collaboration (including Padlet and Skype) renewed appreciation for international issues and for the value of cross-disciplinary exchange in vocational education rather than a close focus on individual discipline areas 

Challenges initial difficulties in communication with allocated peers mis-interpretation of the task difficulties in understanding the task developing sharing understandings of the context or subject areas obtaining effective feedback

Areas for improvement Access and motivation Online socialisation Information exchange Knowledge construction Development issues, timing Establishing identity: tutor intros, video selfies Common topic, improved clarity of task Community resources exchange Support ongoing group dialogue

Issues for facilitators Pre activity – Finding synergies between programmes – commit to course outcomes and learners – Sharing of teaching approaches/assumptions Creating the learning space – creating social presence and intercultural understandings – developing trust, individual and ‘corporate’ responsibility – Support information exchange (within and between groups) During the activity – Encouraging and monitoring progress – Managing adult learners - supporting those who prefer structure and certainty as well as those who are comfortable with ambiguity and risk taking – Managing expectations

– What technologies? – Online identities – use of video? – Creating effective groups and networks? – Scaling up? – Learning from other contexts? How can we provide authentic opportunities for international online collaboration between vocational educators that support ongoing professional development?

Sarah Cornelius Blair Stevenson Thanks to colleagues and students who participated in the project and contributed to evaluation. Twitter: sarah.cornelius