Strategies for the Effective Design and Implementation of Collaborative Peer Learning Activities

TitleStrategies for the Effective Design and Implementation of Collaborative Peer Learning Activities
Faculty/College/UnitArts
StatusActive
Duration2 Year
Initiation04/01/2020
Funding Details
Year 1: Project YearYear 1
Year 1: Funding Year2020/2021
Year 1: Project TypeSmall TLEF
Year 1: Principal InvestigatorRicardo Serrano
Year 1: Funded Amount19,604
Year 1: Team Members

Ricardo Serrano, Director, Arts Instructional Support and Information Technology, Faculty of Arts
John Vigna, Instructor, Creative Writing Program, Faculty of Arts
Nisha Malhotra, Sr. Instructor, Economics, Faculty of Arts
Jonathan Graves, Instructor, Economics, Faculty of Arts
Qian Wang, Sr. Instructor / Chinese Language Program Coordinator, Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts
Brianne Orr-Álvarez, Instructor, Spanish, French, Hispanic and Italian Studies, Faculty of Arts
Florian Gassner, Instructor I / Undergraduate Advisor, German and German Studies, Central, Eastern and Northern European Studies, Faculty of Arts
Michael Schandorf, Lecturer, Arts Studies in Research and Writing, Coordinated Arts Program, Faculty of Arts
Laura Baumvol, Lecturer, Journalism, Writing and Media, Faculty of Arts

Year 1: Summary

The purpose of this project is to build capacity within the Faculty of Arts to support the adoption of peer pedagogies through collaborative document authoring. Through a series of pilots that represent a range of different courses and disciplinary contexts, we will support instructors in exploring the use of collaborative document authoring tools to facilitate activities such as: peer review and feedback for writing assignments, shared files for group projects and presentations, peer annotation and small group writing activities. As a result of these pilots we hope to develop a better understanding of the types of learning activities that collaborative document authoring can support, the pedagogical value of those activities and effective methods for facilitating and supporting them across a broad range of courses. This project is motivated by feedback from faculty focus groups where instructors highlighted collaborative learning activities as an area where Arts should focus increased instructional and technical support.

Year 1: TLEF ShowcaseYear 1: TLEF Showcase
Year 2: Project YearYear 2
Year 2: Funding Year2022/2023
Year 2: Project TypeSmall TLEF
Year 2: Principal InvestigatorRicardo Serrano
Year 2: Funded Amount21,188
Year 2: Team Members

Year 2 Instructors:

Ricardo Serrano, Director, Arts Instructional Support and Information Technology, Faculty of Arts
Neil Armitage, Lecturer, Sociology, Faculty of Arts
Gisele Baxter, Sessional Lecturer, English Language and Literatures, Faculty of Arts
Katherine Lyon, Assistant Professor of Teaching / TA Training Coordinator, Sociology, Faculty of Arts

Year 1 Instructors:

Laura Baumvol, Lecturer, Journalism, Writing and Media, Faculty of Arts
Siobhán McPhee, Associate Professor of Teaching, Geography / Associate Dean, Equity, Innovation and Strategy, Faculty of Arts
Brianne Orr-Álvarez, Assistant Professor of Teaching / Director, FHIS Learning Centre, French, Hispanic, Italian and Spanish Studies, Faculty of Arts
Michael Schandorf, Lecturer, Arts Studies in Research and Writing, Coordinated Arts Program, Faculty of Arts
Qian Wang, Senior Instructor / Chinese Language Program Coordinator, Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts
Zhaokun Xin, Lecturer, Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts

Year 2: Summary

The purpose of this project is to build capacity within the Faculty of Arts to support the adoption of peer pedagogies through collaborative student learning activities. Through a series of pilots that represent a range of different courses and disciplinary contexts, we will support instructors in exploring the use of discussion, videoconferencing and file sharing tools to facilitate activities such as: collaboration on shared projects, management of group work, file sharing, and building knowledge through learning communities. Through these pilots, we hope to develop a better understanding of the types of learning activities that collaborative learning tools can support, their pedagogical value and effective methods for supporting them across a broad range of courses. This project is motivated by the results of phase 1 of this pilot, which highlighted the need for more instructional support in Arts for instructors who wish to make use of collaborative learning in their classrooms.