Active, Cooperative Learning in Online Higher Education. The Learning Design for “Change Management” at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

Abstract

This chapter describes and analyzes the result of an active, cooperative learning design adopted in “Change Management,” an elective course at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), which is a fully online university. The paper describes the context and foundations that support the learning design, outlines the learning activities and their evolution, and presents the results of a student survey to assess the design’s effectiveness in reaching its main goals. The results of the survey suggest that students perceived this design as enhancing their teamwork abilities, while being interesting and motivating, as well as useful in learning the course’s content. Therefore, the desired goals were attained and the design was kept, with minor changes, in subsequent editions of the course. In addition, students without prior teamwork experience valued the collaborative activities more than students who had previously worked in teams in other subjects of their degrees. In contrast, no differences were found for individual learning activities. This suggests that the design can be useful in introductory courses where students are asked to learn in virtual teams for the first time.

Citation

Rimbau-Gilabert, E. (2018), "Active, Cooperative Learning in Online Higher Education. The Learning Design for “Change Management” at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya", Misseyanni, A., Lytras, M.D., Papadopoulou, P. and Marouli, C. (Ed.) Active Learning Strategies in Higher Education, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 169-185. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78714-487-320181008