Collaborative Work in Online Learning

Collaborative Work in Online Learning

1. GIVE STUDENTS CONTROL Students who say that they do not like collaborative projects may have had a bad experience on a team. Make collaborative work more attractive by giving students more control over process and outcomes. For example, allow students to select their group assignment or projects from an array of potential topics.

2. GIVE TEAMS TIME Keep teams together long enough to do needed team building and create a meaningful product

3. BUILD STRONG GROUP INTERDEPENDENCE One design goal for any online group activity should be to build strong group interdependence. For example, offer bonus points to a group if all members score above a certain grade on an assignment, test, or paper.

4. MAKE THE LEARNING PERSONALLY RELEVANT Allow students to relate and apply coursework to their needs, interests, and workplace or life experience. Direct and immediate application of course concepts is motivating and enhances the learning

5. Assessing Online Groups GROUP WORK CAN BE ASSESSED AS: *a single entity *a combination of individual and group achievement, or * as individual achievement within the group

6. ASSESSING THE GROUP AS A TEAM AND AS INDIVIDUALS Give separate grades, weighted appropriately, to individual work and to work within the team. This way, the grade for team that produces a quality product, despite a non-contributor, will not be reduced. Only the non-contributor receives a lower grade.

7. KEEP GROUPS SMALL Group members need to interact frequently; a good guideline is three to five members

8. FORM DIVERSE GROUPS Deliberately mixing students—based on achievement level, gender, ethnicity, academic interests, learning styles, or other relevant factors—typically enables students to work constructively with others who bring different strengths and approaches to their learning tasks.

9. ESTABLISH PEER EVALUATION Peer evaluation helps to build team skills because it lets students reflect on their process and outcomes, and provides instructors with continuous feedback

10. GIVE STUDENTS FEEDBACK ON THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE GROUP Students expect timely and direct feedback. Messages explaining or facilitating engagement with course content can go into to the course discussion, but send messages with either individual praise or pointers for improvement privately via email

11. ASSESSING THE GROUP AS A TEAM When the group is assessed as a team, members can bond more closely and, where bonding and interactivity occur, the social context improves the quality of the learning experience. However, you need to prepare for the situation of the non-contributor who may reduce the team's motivation.