Far apart, yet close together: Cooperative learning in online education

Abstract

Online education can play a crucial role in increasing access to educational opportunity and in promoting lifelong learning. The Covid-19 pandemic has done even more to raise awareness of the importance of online education. The pandemic has been a Category 5 disruptor of education systems. This article was written to help teachers at all levels of education facilitate cooperation among their students as a key element of online education. While many teachers believe in the benefits of student-student cooperation, and theory and research support this view, many teachers worry that distance learning is already difficult enough without adding the complications of cooperative learning, no matter how beneficial it might be. The article begins by discussing some of the obstacles teachers may encounter as they seek to integrate cooperative learning as part of online education. The main part of the article presents nine lesson plans for language education via cooperative learning in online education settings. While the content of the lessons focuses on language learning, the lessons can be employed in a wide variety of content areas. The article concludes with general suggestions on overcoming the previously mentioned obstacles.

Preparing Students for Success in a Changing World: The Role of Virtual Whiteboards in the Modern Classroom

“…As a tool, one piece of technology often cited in the literature to promote active learning is the virtual whiteboard (Ivone, Jacobs & Renandya, 2020). A virtual whiteboard is an interactive screen display that allows users to write, draw, and present media, audio, pictures, or other information to promote collaboration ( Figure 2).…”

“…Students can interact with each other as well as the content. The rich history of interactive virtual whiteboards highlights that there has been a steady rise in their application in many Western European countries, with nearuniversal applications of virtual digital whiteboards (Ivone et al, 2020). The evolution of these tools in higher education has followed a similar escalation of use (Helmold, 2021), although the literature on higher education student preferences in engaging in learning via this medium has had limited exploration.…”

Preparing Students for Post-COVID-19: Looking at the Bright Side

“…Language educators may already know such terms as TEFL, TESOL, NESTs and Non-NESTs, TENOR, LSP. In June of 2020, on the Teachers Voices FB group (helmed by another longtime colleague, Dr Willy Renandya of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore) [3], I saw a call for papers for a journal in Argentina talking about a special issue of that journal on a language education term I had never seen before: T-LUC (Teaching Languages in Unprecedented Circumstances). T-LUC is fun to say, and it is an acronym that truly fits our times.…”

“…Three pushed changes of our COVID-19 induced unprecedented circumstances form the focus of this paper. These changes are: (1) The rise of online learning, (2) The increased need to address climate weirding, (3) The increased need to address threats to social cohesion.…”

“…The pushed changes we face, especially in this time of pandemic, can be scary. To recap, the three pushed changes considered in this paper are: (1) The rise of online learning (2) The increased need to address climate weirding (3) The increased need to address threats to social cohesion.…”