Enhancing student learning through collaboration

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that collaborative working has much to offer the learning process. Though it is used in many different disciplines, its use is curtailed largely due to the fact that many feel that the assessment is rather subjective and often unfair. It is difficult to identify individual contributions within a team. Some students can avoid making any real contributions whilst being carried, or hiding behind, stronger group members. Stronger group members can become disillusioned without the benefit of appropriate recognition.It is important to overcome the problem of assessing group work. One of the most powerful is the use of VorteX, a recent development undertaken in Aberystwyth that provides real time collaboration aimed specifically at novice programmers offering: remote collaborative working, individual contribution metrics, animated replays of the entire group work, and scope for potentially any group working exercise. VorteX has been used with great success on a number of first year projects as demonstrated by the following quote:"I found the experience both enjoyable and insightful. Initially I was a little apprehensive at not knowing who I was working with. What I really found interesting about the experience was that it was almost like plugging straight into my colleague's heads, in effect bypassing or filtering out all the visual "noise" associated with day-to-day communication. This permitted us to operate mainly on an intellectual level. Working in this way allowed Student-X [a profoundly deaf student] to interact with us on an equal footing without the usual communication problems and physical barriers enabling him to work freely and express his ideas effortlessly.Significance and Relevance of the Topic: Many academics share the opinion that collaborative work is of significant value. Unfortunately the available methods of assessment make it hard to use to its full potential. This demonstration will introduce new ideas that will make assessment much fairer and less subjective.