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Gunnar Andersson, Sissel Larsen, Hong Wu
Østfold University College, Norway Faculty of Education, Halden
Faculty of Engineering, [email protected]
Learning Communication Skills through Non-verbal Interactions and Process Analysis – A None-traditional ICT related Teaching Approach for Teaching Education
Two major aspects are presenting for this paper:
• Exercising and learning communication skills through an acting and reacting play as a none-traditional teaching approach
• Using Learning Management System (LMS) to restore the course documents, including students’ work assignments, and generate a virtual classroom for on campus and remote students
• The current study exemplifies a case of teaching communication topic for education students at Østfold University College
• The course itself is a traditional course related to the organizational topics, named as “Communication, leadership and interactions”
• Targeting for regional remote students, approximately 1/3 of entire class of 30.
• Focusing on exercising and practicing on communication and interaction skills for students
• This will be undertaken and practiced by the stage and acting play with process analysis to follow with
The organization of course
A combination of • face-to-face teaching lectures• individual study (including literature review and assignments) • project based teamwork and self-conducted studies
Every student has to contribute his/her efforts to the project teamwork, such as,
• acting and reacting play on video clip• written analysis documents (reports and assignments)• oral presentation
Teaching communication and interactions through stage and acting play
• A background description on the persons or actors in the case (their positions and roles in acting)
• A situation description that includes circumstances, where and when this happened
• Topic: Related to the syllabus or theories, for example, different expresses or signals on lack of communication?
• Conflict: What is a conflict? Wherever more than two persons at the same place, there must be a potential for different or contra-dictionary wishes
• A single person’s position and role will always motivate his/her actions
Working process and methods
• The case through an acting play lasts normally 10 minutes per a session
• For multi-aspects learning effects, it is expected that every group member will act differently and play as vary actors/roles in such a communicative situation
• The intention of the stage and acting play is not necessarily for students to solving the misunderstanding or conflict, but demonstrate and understand the happening of such a situation
• An opponent group is involved in so that the interaction process can be demonstrated “alive”, especially when a “everything went wrong” case was occurred and discussed
Video session for acting play record
• A video session in 3-5 minutes to record an acting play
• The students will analyze what was happened in this video session
• They will also summarize their analysis for other students
• Their opponent group will make the same analysis (but might be same or different views or conclusions)
Technology application and media based learning approaches – new openings and paradigm
• It is topic and case focused, but curriculum based reading
• It deals with pictures, situations and non-verbal communication with short and repeated video sessions
• It consists of a number of written documents, mainly analysis reports and evaluations as the basic corn for the final exam
• It opens and needs changing options during the process (video sessions) and interactions (the opponent group’s analysis)
The Need of Flexibility for Learners – Experiences and Evaluations
Questions\Evaluation October 2004 (N=23)
December 2004 (N=6)
January 2005 (N=21)
April 2005 (N=10)
Multi-choice answers
I read/work mostly atMy homeMy workplaceDuring the gatheringOther places
87.0%0%69.6%17.4%
100.0%16.7%83.3%0%
95.0%9.5%71.4%4.8%
100.0%10.0%90.0%20.0%
Multi-choice answers
I read/work mostly on
Ordinary working hours 39.1% 66.7% 33.3% 20.0%
Evening 69.6% 83.3% 81.0% 90.0%
Weekend 47.8% 100.0% 61.9% 90.0%
During gathering 47.8% 66.7% 61.9% 80.0%
A survey summary on course evaluations throughout course period
Questions\Evaluation October 2004 (N=23)
December 2004 (N=6)
January 2005 (N=21)
April 2005 (N=10)
Single-choice answers
I put my efforts in 1-10 to read/work with lecture
5.8 average (N=22)Ranking from 3 to 8
6.5 averageRanking from 4 to 8
6.0 averageRanking from 3 to 9
6.9 averageRanking from 5 to 8
(1=poorest, 10=best)
Single-choice answers
My expectation reached in 1-10 with course
6.7 averageRanking 3 to 10
6.2 average Ranking 3 to 8
5.7 average Ranking 2 to 8
5.9Ranking 2 to 9
(1=poorest, 10=best)
The Need of Flexibility for Learners – Experiences and Evaluations
A survey summary on course evaluations throughout course period
• A great number of students work mostly t home and very few work at workplace
• Gathering seems to be an important event, also as working place and available time for working with lectures
• Other places such as libraries seem not to be the most common place for working with lectures
• Students tend to work gradually more and more in evening or weekend, and less in ordinary working hours
• Students tend to make greater and greater efforts for their lecture work
• Stduents’ expectations to the course were best at starting, but down gradually until the last evaluation
Comments\Evaluation
October 2004 (N=23) December 2004 (N=6)
January 2005 (N=21)
April 2005 (N=10)
Most satisfied
Course was well organized. Professional lecturers. Positive about LMS (Blackboard) and its functions for discussions and assignments.Efficient organizing of gatheringsExciting and interesting lectures in communicationExciting (but also scared) with video filming, which is a good assignment for usSelf-responsibility for own learningSpent little bit time for getting familiar with LMS, appreciated this LMS way of working which is very flexible. ……
Lectures are fun and beneficial, especially acting play partQuick feedback from lecturers/supervisors via e-postInformation on course plan was good. Lecturers were well prepared for lectures
Interesting lecture contentI think lecture in “communication” part was pretty goodGood information from both lectures and internet (BB)Course was well structured and easy to follow
Lectures and possibilities for working and debating in groups in campusFreedom to work independently with assignmentsGood supervising and following up process, and good information onlineGood lectures
A summary of comments from the course evaluations
Comments\Evaluation
October 2004 (N=23) December 2004 (N=6) January 2005 (N=21) April 2005 (N=10)
Most unsatisfied
I wished there was not so much “silent while” Little bit difficult to work with LMS/Blackboard, maybe should add few exercises for quick learningIt took much time to reach the information onlineNot able to engage in discussions onlineNothing to complain. Wish to have weekly lectures, since this is unusual for full-time studentsWe have short days and I feel the time was not spent efficiently
Having problems with chat functionStill feel needs for face-to-face meetings and discussionsNot able to combine the curriculum/syllabus with real cases in kid garden. Few detailed samples to show the theories Working together with full-time and part-time students in a group, could not make this worksToo little lectures and little direct contacts with others in the class
Group composition as fulltime and part-time together did not workProblems for group meetings and discussions online, maybe we are too many, so it is hard to find availability for everyone. Someone in my group has poor online accessNo inspiration to work online, and wish to have more/longer lectures
We have not got substantial contentThere has been difficult to get LMS/BB to work in the group, as thought
A summary of comments from the course evaluations
Comments \Evaluation
October 2004 (N=23) December 2004 (N=6) January 2005 (N=21)
April 2005 (N=10)
Suggested improvement
Get detailed discussion topics in LMS/BBNothing needs to be changed, the gatherings worked well, wish we start teamwork onlineWish to have more practice related assignments at start, since I need extra exercise to use LMS/BBI wished more specific and topic related lectures, rather with cases and samplesMore teamwork within groupsStay in classroom and work in small groups with cases, since teamwork online did not workTry to be self-active and self-engaged. Individual supervising/guiding
Demonstrating more cases/samples related with kid gardenSpend whole days together when gatheringDo not combine the full-time and part-time students togetherRather work with a case as beginning, and that is the way to learnDetailed assignments to work in LMS/BB
Having full days and more lecturesDetailed assignments for groups will help us to startProfessional related short assignments, so we feel more relevance through lecturesBetter information for use of LMS/BB
If you use ICT, you must be active onlineMore cases related to kid garden professions. Feel this lecture was designed for a “leader”No suggestion and happy with harvest learning this yearMore supervising
A summary of suggested improvement from the course evaluations
The Importance of Acting Play for Learning Communication Skills
Citations from the student surveys about acting play:• “Exciting and interesting lectures in communication”• “Exciting (but also scared) with video filming, which is a good
assignment for us”• “Lectures are fun and beneficial, especially acting play part”• “I think lecture in “communication” part was pretty good”
Acting play seems to be the most exciting, but also efficient approach for learning communication skills for students
LMS in Non-verbal Interaction Based Learning Approach – Openings and Challenges
Openings
• This LMS applied non-verbal interaction learning pattern provides new openings for pedagogical experiments and debates. The study also opens a possibility to combine the fulltime and part-time students to attending a same class and work together.
• In a pedagogical aspect, this will also create a wider and vary composition of an online community, and activate the class debates and learning processes
Challenges
• Purely technical hurdling of LMS
• The proper balancing of LMS application and the lecture content
