Facilitation Techniques and Tools for Online Project-Based Learning With Primary School Students

Abstract

"Current trends indicate that more schooling will take place online, including project-based learning (PBL). This shift opens new possibilities for interactions and collaborations among students, allowing for glocalization of learning and connectivism across international classrooms. The last two years have shown that many well-established techniques/tools for facilitating PBL in physical classrooms are not simply transferable to the online space. Thus, techniques/tools for online facilitation need to be explored, adapted, and newly developed, whilst considering existing pedagogical principles. We conducted three case studies lasting approximately 3 months each, in which primary school students (Grade 5-7) from Namibia, Malaysia, and Finland collaborated in online sessions. Throughout these studies we focused extensively on the facilitation process, exploring different techniques/tools with a trial-and-error approach. We were guided by our own experiences in facilitating and teaching within physical classrooms, and continuously reflected on the adaptation to online settings, whilst consulting theoretically-proposed and empirically-supported suggestions from various fields. For each case study, we video recorded the planning of the sessions, the sessions themselves, and the reflection afterwards. In addition to analyzing these videos, we also drew upon focus group interviews that were conducted with students at the end of the studies. Based on this data, we present facilitation techniques/tools, including the structuring of sessions (e.g., the importance of icebreakers, variety in activities, and navigation of digital tools), as well as aspects relevant to the climate (e.g., student-student interactions, facilitator-student interactions, autonomy, role distributions, and language). With the presentation we offer researchers and educators practical techniques/tools, as well as important aspects to consider when facilitating primary school students in online project-based endeavors."

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