The Importance of Collaboration

Collaboration not only develops essential social skills such as effective communication, trust building, and reciprocity, but also leads to greater student achievement by fostering open discussion and collective knowledge creation. Beyond immediate learning outcomes, collaboration expands academic opportunities, enhances research and innovation, and improves student employability. 

Things to Consider

Instructors should thoughtfully design and facilitate student collaboration to maximize learning and address common challenges. Key considerations include:

• Task Complexity and Relevance: Design collaborative, complex assignments that require students to work together to solve problems or create something new.  
• Optimal Group Size: Groups of three to four students tend to balance participation and coordination effectively, minimizing issues like “free riding” or logistical difficulties associated with larger groups.  
• Clear Expectations and Roles: Establish clear expectations for participation, contributions, and deadlines. Define specific group roles to ensure fair and transparent distribution of responsibilities and consider rotating these roles so students experience different aspects of the collaborative work.  
• Accountability: Build both individual and group accountability into assessments through reflections, peer evaluations, or participation tracking to address workload imbalances.  
• Promoting Productive Interaction: Foster open discussion, consensus-building, and constructive debate. Collaboration thrives when students share perspectives, give feedback, and help each other learn.  
• Student Autonomy and Ownership: Give groups autonomy to organize tasks, make decisions, and establish timelines. This fosters responsibility and collective ownership over their work.  
• Support and Motivation: Monitor for interpersonal conflicts or disengagement withing groups. Offer guidance, conflict resolution strategies, and motivational support as needed.  
• Inclusivity and Group Composition: Create diverse groups that mix ability levels and backgrounds to enrich discussions and peer learning but watch for dynamics that may exclude less vocal students. 
• Early and Frequent Opportunities: Begin collaboration early in the term and maintain it consistently to set clear expectations and build effective teamwork skills.  
• Physical and Virtual Spaces: Encourage frequent in-person or synchronous virtual meetings to strengthen relationships and communication better than email or chat alone.  
• Reflection and Feedback: Create structured reflection opportunities for individuals and teams to reinforce positive behaviors and address group challenges.

By attending to these elements, instructors can foster meaningful, equitable, and effective student collaboration in higher education.

Tips/Best Practices

Collaborative learning activities can be designed for students to complete during class or asynchronously, using group work and tools like Blackboard Groups, Blackboard Discussions and VoiceThread.

For large group projects, scaffolding (breaking the assessment down into smaller progressive steps) can make the task more manageable and provide more opportunities for guidance through feedback.

Readings and Articles

• Building Community Through Collaboration at the Start of the School Year – Edutopia: Discusses low-stakes group collaborative tasks 
• Collaborative Learning and Classroom Pedagogy, Part 1: Approaches to Successful Collaboration – The University of Chicago (May 2023): instructional designers discuss the pitfalls, types, and strategies of collaboration 
• Collaborative Learning – Columbia University: What and why of collaborative learning, strategies, and resources 
• The Community of Inquiry Framework: Resources, discussions, and publications on community of inquiry 
• The Community of Inquiry Design Principles: Dr. Garrison discusses designing your course to meet the three elements (social, cognitive, and teaching presence) for a Community of Inquiry 
• The Importance of Building a Community of Inquiry in Your Online Course – Johns Hopkins: Discusses how to create a community of inquiry using the framework of social, cognitive, and teaching presence.

References

• Clarke, M. (2017). Rethinking Graduate Employability: The Role of Capital, Individual Attributes and Context. Studies in Higher Education 43 (11): 1923–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2017.1294152.
• Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R., & Holubec, E. (2008). Cooperation in the Classroom. Interaction Book Co.  
• Ojie-Ahamiojie, G. (October 16, 2024). Using Collaborative Learning to Elevate Students’ Educational Experiences. Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/faculty-development/using-collaborative-learning-to-elevate-students-educational-experiences/  
• Skager, K., Boonstra, J., Peeters, T., Vulperhorst, J., Wiegant, F. (2016 Winter). Collaborative Learning in Higher Education: Evoking Positive Interdependence. CBE Life Sciences Education 15(4):ar69. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5132366/  
• Zhang, K.Y., Goh, B.K. (August 2022). Collaborate or compete? Times Higher Education. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/collaborate-or-compete

Related Resources

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