Best Practices of Course Design and Delivery When Teaching Negotiation Online
At the May, 2018 Teaching Negotiation Resource Center (TNRC) Faculty Seminar, Professors Lawrence Susskind and Michael Wheeler discussed the pedagogical implications of teaching negotiation online.
In a follow-up to the December, 2017 TNRC Faculty Seminar on Gauging Effectiveness in Teaching Negotiation, Professor Susskind and Professor Wheeler compiled expertise from interviews with colleagues teaching negotiation online, to examine best practices in course design and delivery.
Check out the video below of Professor Susskind and Professor Wheeler discussing teaching negotiation online best practices with PON:
As discussed in the video, there are a variety of types on online courses:
- Fully automated with no live element.
- Partially synchronous with some live sessions.
- Hybrids with online and in-person experiences.
- Remote learning entirely on group platforms like Zoom.
For all those format differences, however, teachers’ views about assessing student performance were strikingly similar. Specifically, people gave little credence to standard satisfaction surveys after a course ends. The popularity of a subject and the level of student enjoyment of the exercises, it was felt, doesn’t necessarily equate with learning, especially in skills-based courses. Also, there was little enthusiasm for exams (whether multiple choice or otherwise) that simply test conceptual understanding. Instead, in assessing students learning, the interviewees gave more weight to various kinds of assignments that ask students to reflect on their experiences in preparing for and during simulations.
Several in this group volunteered that online platforms enable deeper and more extensive reflections (and hence richer data for teachers to access) than does standard journaling. Managing peer feedback also becomes much easier. Compiling continuous data (about each student’s experience throughout a course), rather than relying on separate journal entries or stand-alone polls, enables online teachers to ask students to comment on their overall performance from the beginning to the end of a course.
Faculty, in turn, can monitor each student’s journey as it unfolds. At a minimum, this allows a teacher to track overall learning and spot content that needs revision (i.e. whenever several students don’t understand a key concept or issue at the same time). For courses with live sessions for debriefing exercises and/or that provide tailored feedback for each student, one-stop access to individual and class data can be very valuable for teachers.
Professor Wheeler and Professor Susskind have developed numerous negotiation teaching materials for the TNRC. Check out teaching materials by Michael Wheeler and teaching materials by Lawrence Susskind in the TNRC online store.
TNRC: A go-to resource for more than 25 years
In addition to offering more than 200 negotiation role-play simulations, the TNRC offers a wide range of effective teaching materials, including:
TNRC materials are designed for educational purposes. They are used in college classroom settings or corporate training settings; used by mediators and facilitators seeking to introduce their clients to a process or issue; and used by individuals who want to enhance their negotiation skills and knowledge.
Role-play simulations introduce participants to new negotiation and dispute resolution tools, techniques and strategies. Our videos, books, case studies, and periodicals are also a helpful way of introducing viewers to key concepts while addressing the theory and practice of negotiation and conflict management.
Check out all that the TNRC has in store >>
