The presentation I gave described the processes and outcomes of an e-learning initiative involving collaboration between the University of Bath's Centre for the Development of New Technologies in Learning (CDNTL), and the university's Department of Social and Policy Sciences. The collaboration tested one online solution to a very practical problem; the teaching of large cohorts (~200) of students, which leads to reduced opportunities for interaction and feedback, especially with regards to group work. GroupLog was designed to support a particular pedagogy rather than any one subject, i.e. a collaborative, activity based approach to learning, through the use of structured group work. Designed with this pedagogy in mind, the value of GroupLog can be considered to be cross disciplinary.
The tool uses content management and weblog principles to permit groups of students to obtain feedback from their lecturer that would otherwise be difficult with such large cohorts. Furthermore, it presented an opportunity for peer-learning by allowing student groups to review each other's work which they would otherwise not have experienced nor could have been provided using the institution's VLE.
The tool has now been used for over a year with two, separate cohorts of students. Evaluation shows that the tool has been favourably received by the students and lecturer alike and further development of the tool is now underway.
The demonstration can be downloaded as either a powerpoint file (215 KB) or hmtl.
