The Jigsaw Collaborative Method within the Online Computer Science Classroom

This paper presents an innovative description of the Jigsaw collaboration method within the context of open source e-learning ‘Learning Design’-based systems such as LAMS, with special reference to the learning of essential issues in Computer Science. These issues include: (a) the wide range of computer technology used in daily life and the consequences of such utilization, (b) the variety of computer systems serving different tasks, (c) the dynamic evolution of information technology in our times. The innovative implementation of the Jigsaw method within LAMS is based on the fact that (a) the tasks assigned to the expert groups consisted of various investigative activities within the real world -where computers are usedand not merely the study of various learning materials as is usually proposed (b) for the design of the whole collaborative activity, the intuitive ‘learning design’-based online tools provided by LAMS were used.