Confirm the educational benefits of online tools and group work
Confirm the educational benefits of online tools and group work
Confirm the educational benefits of online tools and group work
A research group from the University of Malaga (UMA) (Spain) has put into practice a novel methodology that uses technology to improve student performance. Through online tools, active learning and collaborative work are encouraged, a very demanded aspect in the current labor market. The project is inter-university, since students and faculty from Málaga and Sevilla participated. The system can be applied to various stages of education, starting with secondary education, or to improve the functioning of companies and institutions.
The most prominent purpose was to improve the results of teaching. The professor of the marketing department of the Department of Economics and Business Administration of the UMA, Sebastián Molinillo, explains to the Fundación Descubre that this study is pioneering, and is based on the validation of a model that integrates multiple variables. A wide range of collaborative tools is used, most of which are available to anyone for free, and it is a procedure easily imitated in other environments.
To carry out the research, students have used file exchange and storage platforms, including Dropbox or Google Drive, a synchronous means of communication, in this case Skype, a WordPress blog, social networks or a forum within the campus. Virtual of the UMA that is based on the Moodle software. In addition, they had the opportunity to use a classroom with relay systems with video cameras, to make the final presentations to the rest of their colleagues remotely.
It was intended that the students, during a semester, perform their work, not in a Word document that consisted of a sum of parts, but that they did it collaboratively, in the construction of the solution of the problem that was posed to them, writing in a Wiki type support. This tool, which was also hosted on the virtual campus of the University of Malaga, allowed students to build content in a continuous, agile and simple way.
Teacher using a virtual campus. (Photo: F. Discover)
This new teaching proposal would help to make profitable and to take greater advantage of the existing virtual campuses in the universities. The research can be consulted in the article 'Exploring the body of interactions, social presence and emotional engagement on active collaborative learning in a social web-based environment', published in the magazine Computers & Education.
With the tools called Social web-based collaborative learning (SWBCL), or collaborative learning based on the social web, it is intended that the student work in groups actively. "To promote that, we believe that the collaborative tools of the web are very useful and that is what our research shows," says the expert. The study is complemented with the analysis of the possible effect of four variables, in addition to active learning: the social presence, or how the student sees himself within the group and how he feels the group sees him; the role of the teacher in the interaction with the students; the emotional commitment, that is, that the student enjoys and feels comfortable and cared for during the training; as well as the interaction between the students themselves.
This last variable has less influence on the model studied by the UMA team. "Sometimes there is not all the level of interaction that we would like because of the fears that exist within the group itself," says Sebastián Molinillo.
The tasks that were presented to the students and that had to be solved collaboratively consisted of real problems of analysis of small and medium-sized companies in Andalusia. The fact of choosing companies from the closest environment, instead of large multinationals, entails a series of advantages. For example, there could be a closer contact with the workers, by which they could talk and know their circumstances first-hand. Likewise, it contributed to the students knowing more in depth the business fabric that surrounds them. To begin the work, they were given a brief description of the entity and they were told what their current situation was and how they could solve the challenges that were presented to them. In short, know their status, develop a diagnosis and propose improvement measures.
The study was motivated because in the subjects related to the Business Administration of the UMA, as in many other disciplines, the group work is promoted among the students, especially as a result of the adaptation of the study plans to the European Space of Higher education. A few decades ago it was concluded that it contributed to develop a series of skills that autonomous independent work does not have, says Professor Molinillo. This capacity, he adds, is being demanded by many companies, since the objectives that can be achieved are more beneficial. This is helped by the use of online tools that have emerged in recent years, and that can improve the efficiency of the tasks carried out collaboratively, both in terms of productivity, as well as in results, or in the group's own organization.
One of the main research topics in the Marketing area is consumer behavior, which is one of the specialties within this group of the UMA. In this case, the students are the clients and their attitude, motivation, conflict, social presence, use of the tools, etc. are measured.
Another aspect pursued by this teaching technique focuses on encouraging, on the part of the teacher, that students lose their fear of expressing themselves in public, in this case, through the Internet, and on professional issues, speaking as a specialist Analyze a company.
The results, according to the UMA professor, are positive although these initiatives are currently developing unevenly. For example, all Andalusian universities have a virtual campus, however, each teacher uses them in different ways, some in a very basic way. Also, there are more options that can help and that not everyone uses or worries about going further. Together with a positive attitude on the part of the students, everything together would be very effective for their training, argues the researcher.
As a usefulness, Sebastián Molinillo emphasizes that, on the one hand, in the context of education, it has been shown that experience is useful, and that it can be exported to other careers and levels. As for the student's preparation, he acquires skills in the domain of some tools and an option to work remotely, which will allow him to be more efficient when he joins the labor market. As a result, the company will be more productive. Another associated benefit is that, if travel is avoided, it saves time, money and generates less pollution, helping to preserve the environment.
Therefore, it seeks to encourage the use of new technological tools in a context of collaborative work, within the field of education, and more specifically, through the active participation of students. In another parallel study of the research group it was revealed that the students see this type of teaching techniques as an additional work load. For their implementation it is important that they perceive a benefit, a reward when performing these tasks, that is considerable with respect to the final grade of the subject.
This last study measures the attitude of the student when facing collaborative work. Both complement each other and are part of the educational innovation projects of the University of Málaga, which is the institution that provides the funding. Currently, the team of experts continues with this line of active learning research, although in this case, encouraging the students' linguistic skills in English. (Source: Discover Foundation)
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