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.