Examining the Use of a Supportive Orchestration Tool by Teaching Assistants During Collaborative Problem Solving

• In Event: Technology Methods and Tools for Promoting Understanding Within Collaborative Environments

Abstract

Efforts to increase the use of collaboration in engineering courses have been driven by research indicating that students can achieve higher conceptual understanding through social interactions. However, classroom research indicates that teaching staff are rarely adequately prepared to support students during collaborative problem-solving activities. This paper examines how the use of an orchestration tool may have influenced how teaching assistants monitored groups and initiated verbal interaction with them during collaborative problem-solving discussion sessions in an undergraduate engineering course.

Authors

• LuEttaMae Lawrence, University of California - Irvine

• Saadeddine S. Shehab, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Emma M. Mercier, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign