Cross-Campus Collaborations Part 2
As you may recall, we penned an article which appeared on Profweb in March 2016 entitled Virtual Team Teaching is Gaining Ground in the Regions. This article described the Entente Canada-Québec supported cross-campus collaboration project involving CEGEPs from Jonquière, Alma and Abitibi-Témiscamingue. The project aimed to build a virtual regional team teaching network and to initiate our students to this approach through the use of multi-site collaborative activities. As promised in our previous article, we are now providing an update on the project as the semester comes to a close.
The second half of the winter semester of 2016 was dedicated to enrichment activities through collaborations between paired colleges and teachers from the afore-mentioned regional colleges. They were recently joined by members of the faculty at Vanier College and their students. What follows is a summary of the results from the Jonquière–Vanier College collaborative activities. These were developed for 2 sets of groups: English as a Second Language Block B (program-specific courses) level 3 student groups and English General Education level 4 student groups.
A Client/Supplier Simulation for ESL Block B Level 3
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our partners at Vanier: Shari Blaukopf (Office Systems Technology: Micropublishing & Hypermedia) and Lyne-Marie Laroque (Sociology) for whom this was a first Virtual Team Teaching experience. Lisa Deguire’s 102 Block B students participated in a graded Client/Supplier-simulation in the domain of Graphic Design with students from Shari’s Office Systems Technology: Micropublishing & Hypermedia course, who were in the process of studying the design of Reports & Forms. Lisa’s students at Jonquière described processes related to their field of study such as, Extracting DNA (Pure Sciences), Writing an Article ( Journalism) and Making a short film (Media Arts) that they had researched in order to communicate as required by the ministry objective “a substantial amount of, information in a-rich message for a non expert audience.”
This became the input for Vanier students who were supplied with data that became the basis for an Infographic that they had to design in Shari’s Reports & Forms course based on the information that was collected from Jonquière students.
We also wanted to ensure that our team teaching project integrated parts of the ICT Profiles for College Students. As described in the ICT profile, competency 4- Working in a Network, students were required to contact their partner on their own in order to request an appointment for the presentation of their description of a process related to their field of study. This meeting was recorded and shared privately with the teacher, using Google Hangouts on Air. The recording was used to assess the quality of the student’s language, use of definition and description strategies when addressing a non-expert audience and to verify whether students integrated the use of passive voice.
Of the 18 teams that were created, 11 succeeded in autonomously producing and sharing a video of their process description. Of these 11 teams, 5 were provided a copy of the infographic that was produced by their partner from Vanier College. Given the context and situations that were experienced, we are quite proud of our students’ performance and the level of success that they were able to achieve.
Jonquière and Abitibi students engaged in synchronous communication.
English General Education Level 4: Marxism and Literature
Margaret McCall’s 103 Block A students participated in 2 discussion groups. The common theme between Vanier College and Jonquière was Marxism. The Vanier Sociology students in Lyne-Marie Laroque’s class learned the theory and then presented what they had learned to the Jonquière literature students.
Since our class schedules were similar across colleges, students were able to collaborate synchronously via Google Hangouts. The ratio was 2 Vanier students to 1 Jonquière student. Discussions were recorded using Google Hangouts on Air. Jonquière students used the theory they had heard from their peers at Vanier College and then applied it to the in-class novel, which was The Hunger Games.
One of the spin-offs from the cross-campus collaboration came in the form of a summative written exam that offered the possibility to choose a subject. Students could choose Marxism or another subject for the summative exam topic, and 80% of the students ended up opting for Marxism as their topic. For us, collaboration equals students sharing learning.
All in all, there were some minor issues with the technology. However, the content prevailed over the technological glitches, and the collaboration made the experience of covering theory both relevant and enriching.
Would you like to know more? Our virtual team teaching teams will share and discuss details in our upcoming presentations at the 2016 RASCALS conference. We invite you to join us!
