Building a Collaborative community within the online environment

 

Studies have shown that collaboration is the key to learning in the online environment. By learning in an engaged community students have the opportunity to deepen their knowledge, embrace new ideas and receive constructive feedback. Students cannot be passive knowledge-absorbers who rely on the instructor to feed them information. In the online environment, it is imperative that they be active knowledge-generators who assume responsibility for constructing and managing their won learning experiences (Conrad & Donaldson, 2011).

 

The goal of a collaborative community in an online course is twofold: building knowledge & competencies within learners and building a network of mutual respect and sharing of ideas and perspectives (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010).

Begin your discussion by reflecting on your own collaborative learning experiences in an asynchronous online environment. Consider the following questions:

• How can instructional designers and instructors design collaborative activities into the asynchronous online learning environment?

• What are some core principles that are essential to building collaboration in the online environment?

• What are some of the benefits for learners when using collaborative activities in the asynchronous environment?

By Wednesday:

Create a discussion post that reflects on your own learning experiences within the online environment that incorporated online collaborative activities. What could have made the learning experience better? Provide at least 4 examples for instructors and students in regards to using and designing collaborative activities within the online environment.

 

By Sunday:

Reply to at least three of your classmate’s initial post and provide insight, constructive feedback, and ideas that expand and deepen the initial discussion post.

Discussion rubric: 

 https://www.dropbox.com/s/nbyyaezvlrztdup/App7DiscussionRubric.pdf

References:

Boettcher, J., & Conrad , R. (2010). The online teaching survival guide. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass A Wiley Imprint.

Conrad, R., & Donaldson, J. (2011). Engaing the online learner. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass A Wiley Imprint. 

Plagiarism Detection and Prevention

The definition of plagiarism according to Webster II New Riverside Office Edition is “to take and use as one’s own the ideas or writings of another” (Webster\'s II new, 2009). Basically, this means that plagiarism means stealing someone else’s work and then lying about it later.

Since more and more universities and colleges are offering online learning and distance learning courses, it has become essential for instructors and students to understand and protect themselves against plagiarism.

It is vital for instructors to be aware of the characters of plagiarism in order to be proactive in preventing it from happening.

What is Plagiarism: (CCC Library, 2010)

What plagiarism detection software is available to online instructors?

There are many different plagiarism detection tools available for instructors to prevent plagiarism within the online/distance learning environment.  By developing an understanding of various plagiarism detection software tools, it will allow the instructor to determine which one will work better within their online/ distance learning environment. 

Some examples of plagiarism detection software include: 

Dupli Checker: http://www.duplichecker.com/

Professional, student, and newbie, can equally benefit from it Dupli Checker. Upload essays, thesis, research papers and other written assignments , and get the analysis report within seconds. 

iThenticate: http://www.ithenticate.com/

iThenticate's offers writers, researchers and editors insight into plagiarism issues across different industries, and guidance for avoiding plagiarism within various roles and environments. Unfortunately, this is not a free service.

Turnitin: http://turnitin.com/

This website ensures that submitted work is original  by checking submitted papers against 24+ billion web pages, 300+ million student papers and leading library databases and publications. 

How can the design of my assessments help prevent academic dishonesty? 

In designing assessments there is no single approach that will deter plagiarism, but various strategies that can be adopted and reinforced. Assessments should be designed with the student in mind but also assessments should be aligned with the course goals and outcomes. 

Assessments plans generally have at least four types of experiences important to evaluation for example:

• ·         Participation in discussion post

• ·         Automated low stakes quizzes

• ·         Individual projects that include analysis such as critical thinking and   communication of that work to others in a final product of some type, such as a paper, interview, report, podcast, or presentation.

• ·         Team projects of various sizes and purposes (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010). 

It is important for instructors to give clear instructions and guidelines concerning course assignments so there is less room for students to copy and paste from other sources. 

What facilitation strategies do you propose to use as a current or future online instructor?

I currently use turnitin in my online/distance courses with great success. By using this software tool, I feel that I have the ability to identify student work that is not written in their own words. 

In the future, I plan on allowing my students to submit written assignments early to check their progress. I feel that if the student feels that their work is going to be checked for plagiarism throughout the course at different points, they will be less inclined to plagiarize and cite all of their sources. This will also give the student the ability to edit their assignments as the course progresses to ensure that their activities reflect their actual 

knowledge. 

 

What additional considerations for teaching should be made to help detect or prevent cheating and plagiarism?

It is very important that clear guidelines and consequences for plagiarism be given early in the course and stated in the course syllabus. If a student is suspected of plagiarism they should be confronted with direct and specific details from the assignment that was detected as plagiarized. Many institutions have student handbooks that will allow the instructor to follow the standard rules and regulations of the institution. 

Boettcher, J., & Conrad , R. (2010). The online teaching survival guide. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass A Wiley Imprint.

CCC Library. (2010). Plagiarism [Video]. Available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw6NxvwP41U

(2009). Webster's II new riverside dictionary. (Revised ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.