Abstract
With online pedagogy becoming mainstream during COVID, research on digital instruction grew dramatically, finding that online pedagogy was on par with face-to-face methods. Adding to this body of work this chapter assesses collaborations to provide meaningful student deliberations. Of particular importance was how students created dialogue and were academically reflective as they lived in geographically dispersed locations from Texas to California, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Wisconsin. Indeed, significant findings provided proof that over the course of sixteen plus years including during COVID students fostered a multiplicity of academic reflective deliberations. With the rapidly evolving educational landscape this chapter provides evidentiary proof that carefully designed online collaborations provide effective deliberative communities, an amenable design for any discipline.
TopBackground
John Dewey's approach to education in 1933 was revolutionary for his time as he espoused that student learned through a 'firsthand' approach which involved developing their problem solving and reflective skills. While the educator became a facilitator encouraging students to think about what they are doing involving them in reflective practice (Dewey, 1933).
While Dewey’s concept was intended for face-to-face classes integrating critical reflection online was extended by Garrison’s Community of Inquiry Model (COL). The model proposed a Venn diagram of three overlapping “presences” – cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence to adapt the critical inquiry process to online pedagogy.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Social Capital: Bandura’s notion of the ways in which individuals gain an understanding of the network of communities around them through learning.
Learner Autonomy: The notion of the learner as primarily responsible for their “stake” in the educational experience.
Community Of Inquiry Framework: A model which proposed a Venn diagram of three overlapping “presences” – cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence to adapt the critical inquiry process to online pedagogy.
Deliberation: A word which indicates the online synchronous or asynchronous critical dialogue.
Asychrony: Engagements occurring across different times according to the individual schedule of the learner.
Distance Education: Instruction that occurs in an online setting.