My development task and virtual peer learning

My development task was to plan an authentic e-learning course about the sustainability. The course tries to find some answers how people can continue living sustainably in our world. The main question of the course is for learners to solve: What would be the sustainable way of living for an individual? I think the task itself would benefit from the multicultural approach since that way the results can have different views and be more comprehensive.


To promote collaboration and peer learning, students work in groups around the question. They will have time for peer learning since there will be several weeks time to solve the question. Team work will start with the planning phase, and group agree what areas of the sustainability are covered. At the beginning there might be good have some common team training in order to help collaboration and team building. Virtual communication is ensured by groups’ own online discussion forums where they can discuss and work together.

Personal and group reflection, also a part of peer learning, is done periodically (e.g. once a week) by writing an online diary about the work done and discussions around the topic. Collaboration is emphasized when writer of the diary changes every time so that each member of the group participates to writing. Peer learning is also present when other groups read and comment the diary. Online resources about the subject are available, and peer learning is ensured also with interviews of experts, who will also help students online. Also students can suggest the resources of their own.

End product of the course will be an article written by a group instead of an individual. That will also emphasize peer learning. The assessment is done based on the article and group work (activities during the work). The whole assessment criteria emphasizes peer learning.

Aim is to plan a multicultural virtual course. At the very beginning it should be considered that the course fits to all kinds of students. The learning environment needs to support different kinds of learners and there needs to be the possibility for different views when working with the task. Aim for this course is that multicultural authentic learning culture will be created in teams. Learning culture creation is possible when teams work collaboratively being positively dependent on each other. The nine elements of authentic e-learning is used since they support the culture understanding and creation. Learning communities including access to expert thinking with group and individual reflections support the culture creation.