Teaching Practice for Resource-based Collaborative Learning in Information
Technology Environment
Xiao-qin Zhang 1
1
Department of Information Technology and Business Management, Neusoft Institute of Information, Nanhai, China
(zhangxiaoqin@neusoft.com)
Abstract - The teaching design of resource-based
collaborative learning, as a teaching strategy, is on the basis
of relevant theories of educational technology, and confirms
reasonable teaching resources and knowledge by analyzing
learning contents and teaching objectives so that
collaborative learning can be put into effect depended on all
kinds of collaborative means and interactive mode and
learning effect is also improved. On the basis of relevant
theories of resource-based collaborative learning, this paper
takes the example of “Purchasing Management” course in
vocational high school, and elaborates the teaching design
process of resource-based collaborative learning in detail
from four steps, that is frontend analysis, detailed design,
learning process, and effectiveness evaluation and so on. The
teaching practice has acquired well effect and it will offer
important references for transformation and practice of
education of vocational high school in China.
Keywords – Collaborative learning, information
technology environment, resource-based learning, teaching
practice
and takes training the learners’ comprehensive quality as
core, and become more and more perfect and reasonable
in the teacher’s guidance[1][2]. Sometimes it gives place to
“independent study”[1].
Collaborative learning, which is also called
cooperative learning, is a kind of learning process, in
which some learners help each other and discuss together
or share out the work and cooperate with one another in
order to accomplish one learning tasks. Collaborative
learning stresses the learner’s organizational form, but
resource-based learning is a kind of learning strategy. The
resource-based collaborative learning makes the resourcebased learning becomes coordination, and makes the
collaborative learning face all kinds of resources. It tries
to discuss the mode of collaborative learning on the basis
of learning resources[1].
The process of resource-based collaborative learning
can be reduced to four progressive stages which are
frontend analysis, detailed design, learning process, and
effectiveness evaluation and so on[1][3].
I. INTRODUCTION
In information technology environment, how to
integrate the information technology and course, and how
to teach and design the teaching process effectively, has
become hot issues in the field of educational
informationization. The instructional strategies of
resource-based collaborative learning, lets the learners
face all kinds of network learning resources in the form of
collaborative learning, and conduct the independent study
by building learning groups[1], accordingly improves the
learners’ information search and operational capacity,
teamwork skill, and planning and organizing skills, and at
the same time promotes teaching benefits teachers as well
as students and the teaching effect. This paper, taking the
example of Purchasing Management course in vocational
high school, introduces the teaching design process in
detail, according to the theory of resource-based
collaborative learning.
II. THE CONNOTATION OF RESOURCE-BASED
COLLABORATIVE LEARNING
Resource-based Learning can be described the
learning process which lets the learners collect related
resources and judge their true and false, right and wrong,
and then deduce and reasoning and summarize and so on,
at the last present the conclusion reasonably. This learning
process is on the basis of the course learning objectives,
III. TEACHING PRACTICE OF RESOURCE-BASED
COLLABORATIVE LEARNING
A. Frontend Analysis
At this step, the teachers should analyze learning
contents, learning objectives, and learner characteristics.
At the same time the teachers should also analyze the
feasibility of resource-based collaborative learning for the
practical learning contents[1][4].
Purchasing Management course has these main
learning contents: purchasing process, purchasing way,
purchasing plans and budget, supplier relationship
management,
acquisition
negotiations,
contract
management, procurement process control, purchasing
cost management, and development tendency of
purchasing management and so on[5].
In the information technology environment, we
establish the learning objectives of resource-based
collaborative learning for this course. First, the knowledge
objectives are as follows[6]: requires the learners to know
the notion of purchasing and purchasing management, and
master the purchasing process and the main purchasing
way like centralized purchasing and invite bidding, and
understand the important significance of purchasing plans.
The learners should also master certain method of
developing and selecting suppliers, understand the
advanced idea of supplier relationship management in
supply chain environment, master some skills of
acquisition negotiations and the main receipts used in the
purchasing process, know the key articles of purchasing
contract and development tendency of purchasing
management, and master the main contents and method of
purchasing cost management[7]. Second, the action and
skills objectives are as follows[6]: the learners should write
the purchasing plans and budget, also can write a bidding
announcement and organize the bid opening, and develop
suppliers by all kinds of channels, negotiate using some
skills, control the purchasing process, and analyze the
purchasing cost. Third is the information attainment
objective[6]: the learners should apply office software in
order to write a purchasing plan, and establish the system
of supplier’s comprehensive evaluation and the
purchasing cost analytical system. It’s very important to
operate the purchasing management software expertly.
Besides, the learners have studied some courses
systematacially like Introduction to Modern Logistics,
Business Management, and Warehouse Management etc.
They have the basic theory attainment of the Purchasing
Management course in relevant knowledge, and they also
have completed some correlated curriculums of computer
application foundation, which give the learners essential
capacity of data processing and software operational. In
addition, most of the learners enjoy some learning items
like organization planning, debate, discussion, and
cooperation in teams, which are the necessary condition
for learning this course.
B. Detailed Design
In this stage, what should be done are designing the
learning resources and building the learning groups. It’s a
critical stage of concrete operations for resource-based
collaborative learning mode. As the teacher, or as a
learning advisor, he or she should show his or her
designing ability to the full at this step[1].
1) Learning resources design: Designing the
learning resources demand to consider the learning
contents and teaching strategy, and should be organized
round the learning need and teaching objectives[1]. Zhiting Zhu divided learning resources into learning
materials and teaching environment, which is divided into
resources environment and granted pass environment[8].
Firstly, in terms of learning materials, “Purchasing
Management” course in vocational high school is cross
associated with many courses from the course’s learning
objectives and contents. For example, this course can be
integrated with the courses such as “Enterprise Logistics
Management” and “Introduction to Modern Logistics” for
the content of purchasing work flow. For invite bidding, it
can be integrated with “Third-Part Logistics (TPL)”. For
purchasing contract management, it can be integrated with
“Logistics Laws and Regulations” as well[9]. The fig.1.
below is this picture of Purchasing Management’s
relationship of chiasma with other courses. So teachers
should integrate the related knowledge and learning
materials of these cross-discipline subjects in forms of
cases and special study websites and so on[10].
Fig. 1. Purchasing Management’s relationship of
chiasma with other courses
Secondly, in terms of learning resources
environment, we established special study websites, and
take full advantage of professional website such as
“www.chinawuliu.com.cn”, “www.purchasingbbs.com”,
and “www.chinabidding.com.cn” in order to collect
various kinds of learning resources. In addition, a very
convenient and practical purchasing management
software is applied for classroom learning. In terms of
granted pass environment, our school has gigabit ethernet
campus backbone, and more than ten thousand network
information points spread all over in school. There are
more than 100 various scale of multifunctional academic
discussion lecture hall and multi-media classrooms. Every
student is provided one laptop.These have formed high set
of molding physics academic environment. Except
traditional school library and logistics management
laboratory, we set up class blog and course Twitter so that
teacher and student can communicate online by forum, Email, QQ and Twitter, consequently promote teaching
benefits teachers as well as students.
2) Building learning groups: Learning group, which
is the basic organizational form of collaborative learning,
and is built whether reasonably or not can influence
quality and effect directly[1][11]. On the basis of teaching
objectives and learner’s characteristics, Except
introducing the course’s properties, objectives and
contents in detail at the first class, we explain the reason
of opening this course, its foundation and mysterious, its
position in professional knowledge framework and use
prospect, its relation with knowledge studied, its impact
on follow-up courses, how to learn and examine and the
gains from this course, so that learning interest of learners
can be aroused. Also, we let the students build learning
groups freely. Teachers confirm the foundation of
building groups for its collaboration. In other words, six
groups should be built in every classes, and there’re five
or six students in every group, and the sex ratio shouldn’t
be less than 1.5,and so on. Every group should elect its
principal, who is in charge of division, cooperation and
submitting the learning tasks of the group. Finally, for
individual group not in conformity with the principle, the
teacher should coordinate uniformly for the sake of the
groups’ harmony and diversity.
C. Learning Process
Learners should become principal part in this stage.
Teamwork Skills and problem-solving ability of learners
should be emphasized. Teachers should tell students what
should be done, which teaching materials are needed and
the deadline of finishing tasks. Also, teachers should
supervise the learning process at any time, and answer
any questions encountered in the process of collaborative
learning[1][12].
This text will show how to design learning process
specifically in detail by taking “Invite Bidding” for
example. On the basis of the work flow of “Invite
Bidding”, the teaching contents are divided to six steps,
that is, “Writing Bidding Announcement—Bidding—Bid
Opening — Evaluation of Bid — Award of Bid —
Discussion and Summarizing”. The fig.2. below shows
the process.
1) Writing Bidding Announcement: teachers design
the job task for students, that is “organizing an invite
bidding for purchasing 2500 laptops for students of our
school”. So at first we let learners write the bidding
announcement, and release it on the class Blog. Some
learning resources should be offer by teachers, such as
“www.purchasingbbs.com”,
“www.chinabidding.com.cn”, the cases of Invite Bidding
and the class Blog and so on. Every student is asked to
submit the bidding announcement until week 6.
2) Bidding: Teachers elect one excellent bidding
announcement from all the students’ fruit, and then every
learning group is asked to fill in some relevant core files
of bidding on the basis of the elected bidding
announcement. The core files of bidding should be sealed
in portfolio and submitted at week 7. Furthermore,
teachers offer some sample plate of core files of bidding.
3) Bid Opening： At this step the learners are asked
to organized the conference of Bid Opening and show the
flow of Bid Opening. Every learning group as a bidder
participates in the conference. Teachers should offer some
video and glossary of Bid Opening. And learners can find
references from the special study websites.
4) Evaluation of Bid: The committee of evaluation of
bid which is built by learners evaluates the bid at scene,
and then announces its result. At this step learners should
know the rule and method of evaluation of bid. Also all
the needed resources can be found and used with teacher’s
guidance.
5) Award of Bid: Bid-winning notice is issued to the
learning group which wined the bidding. At last learning
groups imitate concluding and signing purchasing
contract.
Fig. 2. Learning process of “Invite Bidding”
6) Discussion and Summarizing: Learners are asked
to discuss the whole process of Invite Bidding, and
analyze the possible problems and the solution. Then
teacher summarizes and comment by introducing typical
cases and the groups performance. Finally, learning
groups should write an analysis report submitted at week
8.
D. Effectiveness Evaluation
Evaluation includes formation evaluation and
summative evaluation. Formation evaluation proceeds in
form of learning achievement exhibition in every learning
process. Summative evaluation is on the basis of whether
learners reach the learning objectives or not. Objectives of
resource-based learning includes course objective and
information literacy objective, so effectiveness evaluation
should evaluate the two fields[1][13].
The past course assessment layed particular stress on
the written examination, and let teachers evaluate
learners[14]. Purchasing Management is a major core
curriculum, and we have changed its evaluation methods.
That is, the past assessment payed attention to result and
neglected learning process, now we not only stress on
learning process, professional training, but also we invite
corporate experts as well as teachers on campus to
evaluate learner’s effectiveness[15]. Learner’s total score is
divided into the following four parts: score of checking
attendance accounts for 10%, performance in class
accounts for 20%, professional training achievement
accounts for 30%, and final examination accounts for
40%. So we can see the evaluation of performance in
class and professional training achievement are increased,
and proportion of final examination is cut short.
Checking attendance, performance in class and
professional training achievement constitute the contents
of formation evaluation which evaluate learners
performance in learning process. During professional
training achievement evaluation, students are asked for
self-assessment at first, then the principal of every
learning group should evaluate every member’s
contribution for the group, and finally teacher should
evaluate learners’ effectiveness of training synthetically.
For summative evaluation, on the one hand we
evaluate whether students have reached course objectives
or not in the form of final examination, and on the other
hand “assessment mechanism by external experts” has
been built in our school, that is, at the end of the semester,
some known corporate experts and directors will be
invited to evaluate students’ professional competence.
This evaluation is conducted around the technical ability
of major core curriculum, and mainly evaluates learner’s
professional skill and information literacy. On these
conditions teachers on campus can add or subtract score
of student by combining the result of external experts
assessment.
REFERENCES
[1] Zhu Jingna, Dai Hongzhu, “The mode design for
cooperative learning under RBL” (in Chinese), Journal of
Ningbo Polytechic, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 27–29, Jun. 2009.
[2] Xiong Bangzhong, “On the construction of instruction
support service system based on resource” (in Chinese),
Distance Education Journal, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 53–54, 2004.
[3] Wang Tongming, Miao Zhigang, “The Design of
Cooperative Learning Modes in Networked Distance
Teaching” (in Chinese), Journal of Henan Radio & TV
University, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 5–6, 2005.
[4] Jing-hua Ma, “The significance and method of cooperative
learning” (in Chinese), Shanghai Education, vol. 15, no. 8,
pp. 82–83, 2003.
[5] Wang Ju-xiang, Wen Yan, Wang Lei, The Practice of
Purchasing Management (Book style). Beijing, China:
Publishing House of Electronics Industry, 2011, pp. 1–14.
[6] You-qun Ren, The teaching and learning supported by
technology and its rationale (Book style) (in Chinese).
Shanghai, China: Shanghai Education Press, 2007, pp. 15–
30.
[7] Song Yuqing, “Study on the setup of the purchasing
management major course” (in Chinese), Logistics
Technology, vol. 29, no. 9, pp. 51–52, 2010.
[8] Zhi-ting Zhu, Modern educational technology (Book style)
(in Chinese). Beijing, China: Educational Science
Publishing House, 2002, pp. 80.
[9] Zou Long, Zhu Changzheng, Shi Xinfeng, “Research on
course system and practical teaching of logistic
management major” (in Chinese), China Market, vol. 36,
pp. 35–36, 2007.
[10] Liu Chunzhi, Zhao Yongsheng, “Teaching design of
resource-based learning” (in Chinese), Forum on
Contemporary Education, vol. 10, pp. 69–70, 2004.
[11] Li Guohong, Li Wenjuan, “On the effective interaction of
BBS course forum through learning teams online” (in
Chinese), Journal of Hebei Radio & TV University, vol. 16,
no. 2, pp. 10–12, 2011.
[12] Zhou Bin, Rao Yuchuan, “Research on collaborative
learning process through interaction analysis” (in Chinese),
Journal of the Chinese Society of Education, vol. 5, pp. 15–
17, 2008.
[13] Feng Tianmin, Zhang Shilu, “Design of learning evaluation
of web-based courses ” (in Chinese), Education Research,
vol. 3, pp. 17–18, 2004.
[14] Bao Hong, “Study on the problems existing in the student
learning assessment in University and its reformation” (in
Chinese), Journal of Educational Science of Hunan Normal
University, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 22–24, 2011.
[15] Liu Chen, “Design and practice of the scheme for webbased course learning assessment” (in Chinese), Distance
Education in China, vol. 10, pp. 23–26, 2006.