Developing knowledge work skills in a university course

ABSTRACT

A blended university course whose design is inspired by the Trialogical Learning Approach is presented. The structure, activities, and content of the course are described in detail and followed by an explorative case-study conducted on data collected during the 2017–2018 edition of the course. The general aim was to understand the impact of the course on students’ perceptions of their acquisition of knowledge work skills and on their overall appreciation of the course. One hundred and nine psychology students voluntarily participated in a course titled ‘Experimental Pedagogy’ held at Sapienza, University of Rome (IT). The data collection was informed by the trialogical design principles that inspired the course and defined the knowledge work skills to be observed, i.e. collaboration, continuous improvement, and digital skills. Two anonymous self-report questionnaires were administered. Data was analysed using a mixed-methods (qualitative and quantitative) approach. Results indicated that the course was perceived to effectively promote the majority of the intended skills. Moreover, students appreciated the possibility to concretely work on a project-based learning activity that allowed them to create a shared and meaningful object and reflect their actual learning as intended by the theoretical approach.

KEYWORDS:

• Knowledge-work skills
• HE; TEL; TLA

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. http://elearning.uniroma1.it.

2. Padlet.com.

3. Significance of differences between module 1 and 2 after post hoc (Bonferroni).

4. Significance of differences between module 1 and 3 after post hoc (Bonferroni).

5. The original examples are in Italian and they have been translated into English by the first author of this paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

N. Sansone

N. Sansone is a Researcher in the field of Experimental Pedagogy at Unitelma Sapienza, University of Rome. Her main research interests are in the field of Educational Technology and Collaborative Learning, with a specific focus on Higher Education. She has participated in various national and international projects around this topic (PRIN 2005; KNORK 2014–2016; HORIZON 2020 Up2U 2017–2019) in which she has led teachers’ training programs, designed and conducted research studies, and published several international articles, chapters and conference papers. Since 2014 she has been an e-Learning consultant for the School of Administration of the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers. She is the Chief Editor of ‘QWERTY, International Journal of Technology, Culture and Education’.

D. Cesareni

D. Cesareni is Associate Professor of Experimental Pedagogy at the Faculty of Medicine and Psychology, where she teaches Experimental Pedagogy and is a member of the PhD programme in ‘Social Psychology, Development and Research.’ She has developed research in the field of Education Technologies and has collaborated on national and international research to monitor the collaborative use of technology at school (COFIN 2000; PRIN 2005; European Projects CL-net, Computer supported collaborative learning networks, 1998–1999, Euroland, 1999–2000 and ITCOLE, Innovative Technology for Collaborative Learning and Knowledge Building, 2001–2003, KNORK 2014–2016). She was involved in teacher training for new technologies, also collaborating with INDIRE for some on-line training courses (For-tic project). Donatella is the co-editor of ‘QWERTY, International Journal of Technology, Culture and Education’ and is part of the scientific committee of the scientific journal ‘TD, Didactic Technologies’.

M. B. Ligorio

M. B. Ligorio is a Professor at the University of Bari (IT), Department of Educational Sciences, Psychology and Communication where she teaches Educational Psychology and E-learning. Her research interests concern new educational technology, digital identity, learning in virtual environments, Educational web- forums, communities, intersubjectivity, higher education, innovative learning methods, blended learning and e-learning. She has published over 80 research papers, has contributed to many books and has led numerous international research projects, predominantly focused on the use of technology in educational contexts. She is the main editor of the international journal ‘QWERTY, International Journal of Technology, Culture and Education’ (http://www.ckbg.org/qwerty).

I. Bortolotti

I. Bortolotti is a PhD student in the Department of Social and Developmental Psychology at the University La Sapienza. She is a qualified psychologist, instructor and e-tutor for several University and teacher training courses. Her research interests are in education, technology mediated collaborative learning and teachers’ training. Ilaria is a member of the Collaborative Knowledge Building Group and has participated in international projects including KNORK and Up2U as a Consortium GARR fellowship student.

S. L. Buglass

S. L. Buglass is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Nottingham Trent University where she teaches on both undergraduate and post-graduate psychology courses. Her research interests combine the domains of social, developmental and cyber psychology. She has published research in international journals on social interactions on digital platforms, online vulnerability, social network analysis and the fear of missing out (FOMO).