4.4 Enabling resilience: a few adjustments!
Context is key! As this was the first year this learning strategy was implemented for this course there are a few adjustments to be made to further enhance flexible student learning.
Session implementation: If the entire program runs in a virtual environment the compulsory sessions do need to include a discussion with the lecturer. Setting up a schedule for exactly when each team would meet with the lecturer is important to ensure everyone is online in time and it then becomes a focal time for further discussion without the lecturer (often both before and after the lecturer-mediated conversation).
Session 1: The first session will be most important as reported by the students – for getting to know each other and decide what tasks each person will be the lead on based on personalities and existing skill sets. In a virtual environment this may be more awkward and therefore teacher support and prompts may be more necessary than it was in the classroom.
Session 2: More advanced negotiation tasks using role play. These could be created as hypothetical situations for common problems (like social loafing). Similarly, this session would be useful to remind students that expression of emotion is not bad and can help identify problems. To avoid the discussion becoming personal (conflict) use invitations for feedback so everyone becomes more open to discussion (Ayoko et al., 2012).
Session 3: In addition to the reflection task (which is done individually) it would be useful to add an activity where students discuss in their teams what their personal motivations are for the task – what do they want to gain from the task/module. This type of task has been found to increase motivation and completion particularly for marginalised students (Kizilcec et al., 2020). In a team setting this could help remind everyone that they have common goals while further strengthening the cohesiveness of the group.