Role-taking as strategy for active participation in a blended learning course

The study here presented is included in a larger research, whose aim is to define specific pedagogical methods in order to manage effective blended learning courses. This paper mainly focuses on role-taking-based activities, considered from many researchers as useful to support active learning. Many roles can be designed and proposed within learning contexts supporting various skills and psycho-social process; in this paper two roles have been studied: the e-tutor, acting during forum-discussions, and the editor, in charge of supervising a collaborative writing task. A quantitative analysis was conducted to verify the impact of the two roles in terms of: a) participation of the course members to the online activities, b) their preference for one of the roles and c) their perception about the relevance of each role in acquiring academic skills. Forty-nine in-service teachers attending a blended course responded to a 9-items semi-structured questionnaire and their participation has been measured by counting their reading and writing activities. Main results show that no relevant difference in participation score was found between participants performing only the role of editor or that of e-tutor. However, the highest participation is obtained when participants had the possibility to play both roles. Participants prefer one or the other role on the base of specific motivations that we categorize by using theoretical metaphors, from a behavior-ist-based motivation to a socio-constructivist one. Such motivations are differently reported by higher or lower participants showing that the first ones report socio-constructivist argumentations, while the second ones declare a more behaviorist preference. Both roles were perceived as useful for fostering participation and improving communication and collaboration skills. Nevertheless, the role of the editor is perceived as more useful than the e-tutor role in promoting both online and offline participation and individual learning. These results are discussed by highlighting practical implications and suggesting that role-taking activities are as effective on learning as they are perceived familiar and relevant for participants. For this purpose, role-taking activities should be introduced by a specific training.