Collaborative Learning
Learn how you can facilitate students to learn together and from each other, through reflection.
Why Collaborative Learning
Collaborative Learning (CL) has multiple positive effects for students, such as:
- Development of relevant future (professional + sustainability) skills.
- Supports student motivation.
- Increases self-efficacy and self-esteem.
- Encourages an inclusive mindset and builds understanding of diversity.
- Improvement of students’ cognitive performance, meta-cognition, and critical thinking.
Collaborative Learning provides many opportunities for instructors too:
- Larger, complex and more interesting projects could be completed by students when working collaboratively.
- Your workload can be reduced by enabling students to resolve problems with and learn from each other
- Allows you to be more inclusive of different learning styles and encourage participation.
- Groupwork can address practical limitations such as lab equipment or grading capacity.
How to facilitate Collaborative Learning
There are multiple ways for you as an instructor to stimulate Collaborative Learning within your course(s), whether your course contains groupwork or not. You can find tips and strategies for your situation in the sections below.
Strategies for courses with groupwork
Working in a group does not simply lead to collaboration. It requires skills to work together and communicate with each other. The groupwork assignment itself should be designed in a way suitable for collaboration. The following sections provide tips for shaping assignments, orientation and keeping track of teamwork within courses.
As you may have experienced, students often encounter collaboration issues. Most common ones are:
- Free riding: some students reduce their effort or hardly contribute at all during team assignments. This makes it difficult for you to ensure that all students have met the learning outcomes of the course and contributed to the project results.
- The Sucker effect: This issue arises from free riding. Other students may feel that their efforts are leading to unfairness and that they are being taken advantage of by the free riders. As a result, these students reduce their effort. They might think, “I won’t put too much effort into the assignment because the grade will probably be around 6 or 7 anyway.”
Students may breakup the assignment into parts, assign each part to one another, and then briefly integrate prior to submission. The work then is not discussed or reviewed as a team and limited new knowledge is generated. The following outlines three important things to consider before, at the beginning, and throughout teamwork activities and assignments during the course to prevent common issues that arise during groupwork:
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The following tips aim to give you ideas on how to optimize groupwork assignments that support CL and help to prevent common teamwork issues.
- The task should be challenging and too complex to complete individually. However, it shouldn’t be immediately clear to students how to complete it – this invites for a discussion among students.
- The tasks within the assignment should be interdependent, requiring students to communicate with each other (e.g., build a product that consists of several components to be integrated).
- Consider setting up the assignment in such way that students in teams have to explain theories or concepts to each other. This way more content can be processed and applied to the project/ assignment. Moreover, students would be aware of the whole assignment, not only “their parts”.
- The assignment description should include clear expected outcomes to reduce the likelihood of misaligned agreements and students freeloading.
- The assignment may include a competitive element between the teams, as it could strengthen the collaboration within the teams.
- Consider the group size for your assignment. Note that in smaller groups (2-3) students would have a greater individual responsibility, but less opportunities for diverse input and complex team working processes. In larger groups students are likely to feel less motivated; however, larger groups can work well if the task is large enough to tackle and good supervision is offered.
- In cases where you aim to contribute to the development of students’ collaborative skills in your course, make sure to include it as a learning objective and specifically assess it.
- Consider relating individual assignments (remember: groupwork cannot be 100% of the course grade) to groupwork. This way, students will be motivated to actively engage in the groupwork assignments, as they will also relate to their individual tasks.
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Differences in pre-existing knowledge and speed of comprehension can be vulnerable aspects within groups.
Students also tend to stick to roles they are most comfortable with, in a group, never being exposed to activities addressing specific skills.
- At the beginning of the course, make sure you address working in groups during the orientation. Specify the value of working in groups, such as critical thinking through negotiating perspectives, mention personal development goals and learning objectives related to teamwork. And specifically point students to materials that support working in diverse teams. Doing so will give students space and purpose to learn collaboratively.
- Encourage students to sign a team contract and develop a project plan. Remember that not all students have learnt about team contract, and even if they have, refer them to the student materials. To enable students to align values, expectations, and set-up team goals, meeting and working norms with their groups. (Workshop - TA or coach-led, and student materials provided)
- Help your students identify the (technical) skills and knowledge needed to complete the assignment. Encourage students to discuss both the skills they have and would like to develop while distributing tasks and responsibilities. Prompt students to take on different responsibilities to achieve personal goals and learning objectives. (See student materials for tips and tools on role adoption and adaptation)
- At the start of the assignment, make students familiar with what is expected (in terms of deliverables, assessment criteria, good and bad examples, etc.). This can help students make clearer agreements within their teams.
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Multi-diverse groups may face power inequality and cross-cultural concerns that can hinder groupwork.
Conflict ridden and disputatious groupwork can not only negatively impact learning and project outcomes; it can severely affect student wellbeing and motivation for participation and learning.
Do keep an eye out and intervene when required in case of dire situations!It is important to understand how your students are progressing during the groupwork activities. After all, you will have to assess the work of teams (and in some courses, collaboration skills). How can you ensure appropriate monitoring of students’ progress when working in teams?
- Consider various pieces of different information. For instance, if there were external parties (e.g., a client) involved, they would also have information on how the team proceeded. You may have recruited teaching assistants or mentors in your course, who could observe and support student teams during the project. They can share the information about the team processes with you.
Those with more teaching experience should focus on the process, while those with less teaching experience on content.
Get students to monitor their teamwork processes themselves by providing relevant process related-criteria (see student materials):
- Encourage students to have a teamwork discussion session half-way through the course, where they can reflect on how the team has succeeded so far. During the formative assessment of the assignment, ask about team processes. Refer to the student materials for such reflection.
- Ask students to individually evaluate teamwork process from their own perspective (refer them to the student materials). Consider incorporating individual reflections throughout the course and/ or at the end. Additionally, ask each student to explain their role and contributions to the team and the project. For example, if they were unable to convince their peers of their ideas, this would provide them with a chance to explain what they would have done differently and why.
- Encourage students to provide peer-feedback throughout the teamwork during group meetings and afterward.
- You may use BuddyCheck tool for self- and peer- feedback. Please make sure that feedback and reflection are discussed with the teams. Without this discussion, feedback scores are not accurate enough and will not provide learning moments for students.
Strategies for courses without groupwork
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- Pose relevant topic related conceptual or ethical questions for students to express individual perspectives and engage in meaningful discussions. These questions could be around societal or environmental relevance of studied concepts, or personal impact on research, etc.
- At the beginning and before mid-term of the course or project ask groups or individuals to present summary of their process. Follow up with an in-class discussion on best practices for carrying out the project. Let smaller groups wrap-up with a discussion on their process planning and skills required for the same.
Always make space for smaller group discussions alongside plenary ones, to encourage all students to participate, rather than a select few who are comfortable speaking up.
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- Use peer instruction[6] wherein a traditional lecture is intermixed with conceptual questions. Students respond via voting or quiz, discuss with peers, and respond again.
- When possible, implement a studio setting where students’ groups can sit together at a table. This can encourage all students to participate in discussions rather than a select few who are comfortable enough to speak up in plenary settings.
- Other learning activities such as in-class demonstrations of challenges and good examples voluntarily by students can also prompt peer learning and addressing common challenges and queries.
- Complex, in-class and time-bound (practice) assignments in small groups followed by presentations, can challenge students to adopt team roles quickly, and collectively come up with creative solutions. Create a low stakes environment, by prompting informal discussions, and only formative rather than summative assessment of the results by you, other coaches, and/or students to enable groups to creatively work together.
- Encourage role switching during lab work, for example, in Computer Science courses teaching assistants or coaches shout out for students to switch roles between reviewer and programmer every 5 or 10 minutes, while working in pairs.
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From experience, it is noticed that when voluntary, students tended not to work together. In one case, “Lab time was provided, but no one showed up!”
Student-led study sessions require guidance and direction for students to collaboratively learn from each other and use the collective time effectively.
- Provide reading materials, practice problems or topics as subject matter for the sessions. Share relevant discussion topics with teaching assistants or peer leaders. (Refer to ‘Lead the discussion’ tips in Student Materials)
- Encourage students to think of how they can convince and explain concepts to each other, taking member differences into consideration.
- Organized study sessions can be used by students to address each other’s doubts and queries related to the lecture and study material.
- Encourage students and teaching assistants to pose reflective questions such as “what are you trying to do”, “what have you tried already”, “what else can you try”, or “what would happen if…...?”, when students are stuck.
- Develop time-bound, and complex enough assignments for students to solve in-class or during lab sessions in small groups.
Practicalities to consider:
- Ask students to participate in student-led study sessions. These can be voluntary or mandatory, based on the course. Do specify the value of these sessions, and why it could be beneficial for students to participate.
- Identify, incentivize and support teaching assistants or peer leaders to organize and facilitate regular study sessions.
- Plan these sessions in alignment with the course curriculum, focusing on difficult topics, upcoming exams, etc. Adapt these to current student needs and challenges.
- Consider access to online tools for groups to solve problems, discuss concepts, and review materials together.
How to get help
Please refer to the Study Climate website for more information, reach out to the educational advisors at your faculty or contact Teaching Support for 1-on-1 guidance.
Credits
This page was written by Annie Aggarwal, Greta Petkauskaitė and Katie Barry for the Study Climate project.
References
- Hrastinski, S. (2008). What is online learner participation? A literature review. Computers and Education/Computers & Education, 51(4), 1755-1765. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2008.05.005
- Huang, Y., & Wu, T. (2010). A systematical approach for learner group composition by utilizing U-learning portfolio. IET International Conference on Frontier Computing. Theory, Technologies and Applications, 2010 P. 210 – 214. https://doi.org/10.1049/cp.2010.0563
- Laal, M., & Ghodsi, S. M. (2012). Benefits of collaborative learning. Procedia: Social & Behavioral Sciences, 31, 486–490. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.12.091
- Kumar, R. R. (2017). The effect of collaborative learning on enhancing student achievement: A meta-analysis (Doctoral dissertation, Concordia University).
- Wang, X.-M., Hwang, G.-J., Liang, Z.-Y., & Wang, H.-Y. (2017). Enhancing Students’ Computer Programming Performances, Critical Thinking Awareness and Attitudes towards Programming: An Online Peer-Assessment Attempt. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 20(4), 58–68. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26229205
- Pirker, J., Riffnaller-Schiefer, M., & Gütl, C. (2014). Motivational active learning: engaging university students in computer science education. In Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Innovation & Technology in Computer Science Education (Pp. 297-302). https://doi.org/10.1145/2591708.2591750
- The tips on team assignments and tracking teamwork are based on the book “Hoe maak ik een toetsopdracht? / How to asses students through assignments” by Evelyn van de Veen.
- Wang, Y., Li, H., Feng, Y., Jiang, Y., & Liu, Y. (2012). Assessment of programming language learning based on peer code review model: Implementation and experience report. Computers and Education/Computers & Education, 59(2), 412–422.
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.01.007
Some of the tips on facilitating CL are based on:
- Falkner, K., & Falkner, N. J. (2012). Supporting and structuring “contributing student pedagogy” in Computer Science curricula. Computer Science Education, 22(4), 413–443. https://doi.org/10.1080/08993408.2012.727713
- Wang, X., & Hwang, G. (2017b). A problem posing-based practicing strategy for facilitating students’ computer programming skills in the team-based learning mode. Educational Technology Research and Development, 65(6), 1655–1671. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-017-9551-0
- Inspiration from LDE Minor on Collaborative Science. https://interactivetextbooks.citg.tudelft.nl/csbb-textbook/intro.html
Essential components of CL from:
- Roger, T., & Johnson, D. W. (1994). An overview of cooperative learning. Creativity and collaborative learning, 14(2), 1-21.
- Van Den Bergh, M. (2022). A community-based learning program to improve wellbeing and design student success. Proceedings of DRS. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2022.761