Presentation at 2012 AECT conference in session on Intersubjectivity

1. 11/5/12
Intersubjectivity
Online: Design,
Facilitation, and
Evaluation
Vanessa Dennen
Florida State University
vdennen@fsu.edu
slideshare.net/vanessadennen
meme.coe.fsu.edu/vanessa
Online Discussion Cycle
Design Facilitation Evaluation
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2. 11/5/12
Elements Contributing to
Intersubjectivity
Attention
Power
Objectives
Intersubjectivity
Interest
Time
Design Issues
› What is communicated to students about
performance expectations?
› How do prompts scaffold performance
expectations?
› What should be included in prompts?
› Number of messages?
› Content of messages?
› Timing of messages?
› Interaction between message partners?
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Intersubjectivity and Design
› Course designers (instructors?) set the
design
› Students must accept and adopt it
› PROBLEM:
› Students execute at the checklist level
Facilitation Issues
Course
Why are Discussion
you here?
Exchange
What is
required?
Why are
these What are you
other What is the What am I replying?
saying?
people outcome?
here?
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Course Level Facilitation
› Need agreement on
› Why students are in the course
› What will be learned
› How it will be learned
Discussion Level Facilitation
› Need agreement on:
› What will be discussed
› The outcomes of the discussion
› Who may contribute
› Instructor-student agreement
› Peer agreement
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Message Posting vs Discussion
› A collection of messages that respond to
an assignment ≠ intersubjectivity
› Topically threaded messages ≠
intersubjectivity
› Intersubjectivity is reliant on discursive
interchange working toward a goal or
goals
Ownership, Complexity, and
Different Media
› Discussion Boards:
› Instructor as owner
› Respond to instructor, respond to peers
› Blogs
› Blogger as owner
› Encourages essays with responses
› Twitter
› Fragmented ownership and responses
› Short messages impact complexity of thought
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Exchange Level Facilitation
› Micro-levelexamination of the discussion
› Look at positioning and acceptance or
negotiation of position
› Discursive
interactions
› Performance of expertise
Facilitation Goals
› Encourage:
› Responsivediscourse
› Shared goals
› Group identity
› Helpin position negotiation
› Work toward an outcome
› Perhaps
group, perhaps related individual
outcomes
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7. 11/5/12
Evaluation
› Were outcomes reached?
› Whose outcomes?
› Sources of data
› Archived discussions
› Logfiles
› Need something more …
› Focus group?
› Interviews?
Closing Thought:
An Instructional Cycle
Evaluation of
Design Design
Assessment
of outcomes Participation
Facilitation
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