DISCIPLINE
Education (Teaching and Learning Theory).

DURATION
The design was conducted over several learning session during a 5 week period, implemented as the second activity in the subject.

ICT USED
WebCT site providing access to an online discussion forum. Students submit their reports directly to the web site.

DELIVERY CONTEXT
The current context has been a combination of online and face-to-face mode. The initial information session was conducted in the computer laboratory in a face-to-face mode. This could have been done online. The delivery context comprises three classes totalling 70 students with approximately twenty-four students per class.

TARGET AUDIENCE
Undergraduate Bachelor of Education Degree students with no prior online experience. The Online Jigsaw design has broad application to other disciplines and other tertiary levels of education.

COHORT
The original learning setting was designed for a cohort of 70 first year, Bachelor of Education (BEd) students drawn from a first year enrolment of approximately 200 students. Of the seven first year class groups, three classes undertook this learning design. Each class comprised approximately 24 students, which broke into 6 topic teams of 4 students. In this 3 class design, this meant that each topic team had 12 students. Each topic team from each class collaborated online to investigate their topic.

While the number of teams was appropriate, the design would work more effectively with a smaller number of students eg 6-9 students depending on the class size.

BROADER CONTEXT
The unit attempts to get students to make links between theory and practice of teaching and learning. Also, this course forms the basis of the teaching and learning contexts relating to the Key Learning areas of the curriculum.

The broader context of the degree is to train the students to become primary school teachers. The Bachelor of Education degree aims to develop communication skills and information technology skills as well as other attributes of a graduate. It was envisaged that students would be introduced to using communication technology embedded within the study of teaching and learning, the focus of this unit.

All graduates from the University of New England are expected to have developed the following skills and attributes:

1. Knowledge of a Discipline
   Graduates will be able to demonstrate command of a significant body of knowledge of sufficient depth and its applications.
2. Communication Skills
   Graduates will be able to communicate effectively.
3. Global Perspective
   Graduates will be able to demonstrate a global perspective and inter-cultural competence in their professional lives.
4. Information Literacy
   Graduates will have developed competencies in information literacy.
5. Life-Long Learning
   Graduates will be prepared for life-long learning in pursuit of personal and professional development.
6. Problem-solving
   Graduates will be effective problem-solvers, capable of applying logical, critical and creative thinking to a range of problems.
7. Social Responsibility
   Graduates will be committed to ethical action and social responsibility.
8. Team Work
   Graduates will be able to work collaboratively to achieve common goals.

The main goals are:

• To develop an appreciation of the advantages of interdependence and collaborative constructed understanding.
• To develop skills of autonomous learning.
• To develop a knowledge base for teaching and learning through group projects.

Through purposeful sharing and a defined process the design expects that students will engage in the online process with enthusiasm and that the bulletin board discussions will prove to be successful as a communication and peer building tool.

The designers believe this process will lead to a broader understanding of the specific content of the unit through collaboratively producing a joint text to describe their joint understanding. Rather than students having to rely on surface approaches to their learning, this online strategy should help students develop a deeper understanding of the complexities of the learning and teaching process.

It is expected that the students will produce a quality essay displaying their ability to critically reflect on theory and practice.

The contribution to the online group work is not as such assessable. However, students undertook the writing of an essay under test conditions at the end of the semester.

We believe that students involved in this process will be able to produce a higher quality essay at the end of the semester that will reflect the skills they have developed through discussion and that their ability to critically reflect on theory and practice will be evident.

THE CHALLENGE OF USING ICT EFFECTIVELY
Some of the challenges for teacher educators have come about through the adoption of an inappropriate model for use in the digital environment, such as the transference of the traditional tutorial model into a dedicated bulletin board environment, which fails to provide a suitable process for the students to effectively engage in cooperative discussions or to develop a knowledge-building community (Hewett 2001, Engestrom and Cole 1993, cited in Owen 2000).

References:

Hewitt, J. (2001).Fostering a Knowledge-Building Community in a Knowledge Classroom. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research association, April, Seattle.

Owen, M. (2000).Paradigms for curriculum design: The Design of Reflective, Situated, Collaborative Professional Development Supported by Virtual Learning Environments. EURODL: http://kurs.nks.no/eurodl/eurodlen/index.html.

While we acknowledge that there is a complexity of issues that can affect the success of online discussions, such as computer literacy, technophobia and connectivity difficulties for distance students, our position is that much of what passes for bulletin board discussion activity is often ill defined or lacks purpose for the student and results in a considerable increase in workload for the teacher.

Thus, it is contended that students participating in effective discussion processes, such as through the application of an Online Jigsaw, will promote a more meaningful online learning experience. Plus, the teacher is able to participate in the process without having to become "fixed to the computer" for hours on end.