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| Collaborative and Cooperative Learning | Collaborative learning involves students working together to create synergy. In the course of a shared learning experience, students are able to accomplish more than they would be able to do individually. Collaborative work in distance learning has the added benefit of contributing a social element to a learning experience. This is primarily useful for students who find online learning isolating and crave interaction with classmates.
Identifying the Purpose
Prior to designing group learning experiences, identify the purpose of the collaboration. This kind of work can be time consuming and technically challenging. Besides, consider that not all students enjoy or benefit from this approach. Use cooperative or collaborative learning approaches to meet specific learning goals.
Collaborative knowledge is particularly useful when:
• individual students have specialized skills and experiences that would benefit classmates
• course content lends itself to categories of information or multiple perspectives that can be explored
• a project demands varied skill sets or expertise such as writing, editing, leading, drawing, calculating
• an activity requires role playing
Assigning Learner Roles
By selecting collaboration activities, consider the role of learners.
• Who assigns the roles? The tutor, individual students, the team as a group.
- Each student will represent a non-profit organization of their choice.
• Will roles be permanent?
- Students will select a country and play the role of their diplomat throughout the semester.
• Will roles be rotated?
- Teams of four will work through four scenarios. The leader role, author, editor, and illustrator will be rotated. All students will play each role sometime during the semester.
• Will roles vary within a particular activity?
- Students start by posting an assignment, and then reply to the work of others.
• Will roles vary within the semester?
- Each student will lead a discussion sometime during the semester. Recruiting will begin at midnight on April 1. Students can work in pairs, so no more than two people can sign up for each time slot.
Providing Clear Guidelines
Designing collaborative assignments you have to provide clear guidelines including:
• learner outcomes and expectations
• schedule of activities
• individual responsibilities, assignments and assessment
• group assignments and assessment
• learning spaces for group work
Providing Learning Spaces
Students require designated learning spaces for collaborative activities including:
• general forums for discussion
• specific places to share documents
• collaborative workspace such as collaborative whiteboards, collaborative concept mapping tools, and wiki spaces.
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