Abstract:

The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly changed the education and stimulated rapid introduction of online educational technologies into learning. Now digitalization is an integral part of any training with its cons and pros. Studying online the students have possibility to choose the time, place and medium of study, yet they may feel isolated and lack community support which can result in loss of motivation to study. It is even more complicated with multicultural groups with their diversity of race, religion, culture, social level and abilities.

The study examines the impact of online collaborative learning on academic community formation and development of communicative skills. The research questions of this study is as follows: can the development of online course platform with collaborative learning activities help achieve effective communication, develop students’ social skills, and facilitate students’ adjustment to new language and culture?

The role of OCL (online collaborative learning) in achieving learning outcomes, acceptance of diversity, and development of social skills has gained much attention. It draws on constructivist approach which was proposed at the beginning of the ХХ century by Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky and later was developed in European educational research. It focuses on knowledge-building process as the result of active participation in mutual learning activities.

The online collaborative learning technology was implemented in online course of Russian as a foreign language named «Key to Russian» at the Moscow State University of Food Production. The course learning platform was designed to introduce students to synchronous and asynchronous collaborative activities providing opportunities for students with different backgrounds and conditions to work on shared tasks. 75 students from different countries taking online beginner course of Russian as a foreign language were engaged in the study. Digital technologies played an integral role in motivating the participants in the process. Data for this study were gathered through an online questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews.

This study reveals that the main factor in achieving better cognitive results, community feeling and quicker adjustment is the gradual introduction of students into collaborative activities, and skillful design of tasks to make students feel safe and confident. Collaborative learning had positive effect on group cohesion. The study showed that the tutors and pedagogical designers should have profound knowledge of cultural characteristics of students, which will result in creating best possible conditions for the formation of an online learning community.

Keywords:

Online collaborative learning, Russian as a Foreign language, synchronous learning, asynchronous learning.