Festival of Learning

Whether it is through policy and new curriculum in K-12 (BC Plan), or by revisiting the role and purpose of higher education at the post-secondary level (NMC Horizon Report, 2015), the current K-20 education environment in British Columbia is moving towards personalization, flexibility and mobility at a rapid rate.

The need for access to courses and programs that reflect the competencies valued the digital age and model inquiry based, experiential and authentic learning is central to the Royal Roads University Learning and Teaching model (Royal Roads University, 2013). 

As with other programs at Royal Roads University, in each of the courses in the MA Learning and Technology program, students are working in teams on a variety of authentic activities. Program assessment tasks are focused on process rather than content and active student engagement in these teams is essential to the learning process.

Taking a mixed-method approach, we explored the experiences of Masters-level students in a community building/onboarding module. Using the student experience as a foundation for the discussion, this interactive presentation will highlight preliminary findings of the role of online collaborative tools in fostering engagement in team activities and showcase the analysis of collaborative tools used in this research.

After taking part in this session, it expected that the audience will be better able to: understand the experiences of students who have taken part in online teamwork; appreciate how to select appropriate tools for students working in virtual teams; reflect more fully on the impact of online tools in team-based environments.


Presenters
Jo Axe, Director, School of Education & Technology, Royal Roads University
Elizabeth Childs, Associate Professor and Program Head, MALAT, School of Education and Technology, Royal Roads University
Darrell Pettyjohn, Manager, Learning Technologies, Centre for teaching and Educational Technologies, Royal Roads University