To make sure collaborative learning succeeds in your course here are a few tips to make the most of group work in and outside the class room

·Create group tasks that require interdependence: The students in a group must believe they succeed or fail together, that each person is responsible to and dependent on all the other students. Knowing that other group members are relying on each other is a powerful motivator for group work. Strategies for promoting interdependence include specifying common rewards for the group, encouraging students to divide up the labor, and formulating tasks that compel students to reach a consensus (Slavin, 1983).

·Make the assignment relevant: Students must perceive the tasks as important to the course, not just busywork.  Showing applicability to real world situations and future use in the course will add validity to the tasks at hand.

·Create tasks that fit skills and abilities: In the beginning of the semester, assign relatively easy tasks. As students become more knowledgeable, increase the difficulty level. Later, groups generate their own research designs. At the end of the semester, each group prepares a proposal for a research project and submits it to another team for evaluation.

·Allow for a fair division of labor: Try to structure the tasks so that each student can make an equal contribution. For example, students conduct their research independently and use group meetings to share information, edit articles, proofread, and design the pages (Chickering & Gamson, 1987).

·Set up "competitions" among groups: A faculty member can turn exercises into competitions by assigning students work in groups on a specific task and a prize or award will be given to the top group.  Addition prizes may be given in various categories: best predictions of behavior, most efficient structure and best aesthetics to offer more possibilities of success for other groups.

C.  How does collaborative learning enhance teaching? Students learn best when they are actively involved in the process. Researchers report that, regardless of the subject matter, students working in small groups tend to learn more of what is taught and retain it longer than when the same content is presented in other instructional formats. Students who work in collaborative groups also appear more satisfied with their classes (Cooper, 1990).

Collaborative learning allows students and faculty to share responsibility for learning. It helps prepare students for workplaces that increasingly value self-motivated, self-confident, team-oriented employees. In these teams students learn to work with all types of people. During small-group interactions, they find many opportunities to reflect upon and reply to the diverse responses fellow learners bring to the questions raised (Slavin, 1983).

D.  Difficulties of collaborative learning Collaborative Learning requires faculty to be able to provide a more individualized reaction to students. Lecturing all together is a more efficient way of dealing with large numbers, but one of the key concerns with lecturing, that ideas, principles and concepts presented in lectures are understood by all, or even the majority of, students (Slavin, 1983).

A slow transition from traditional to collaborative mode may be necessary when students are unused to this approach. Students who are used to passive, content based learning are likely to resist a quick and rapid immersion into group based learning which de-emphasizes prescribed or predetermined solutions. Overly ambitious projects with unsuitable students are likely to fail. 

E.  Examples of collaborative learning

Guided Design: This is a carefully structured group approach to problem centered instruction in the classroom. The approach asks students, working in small groups, to practice decision-making in sequenced tasks, with detailed feed-back at every step (McKeachie, Pintrich, Lin, & Smith, 1986).

Resources:

·Tablet or Laptop

·Internet

·Word

·Dyknow

How to:  

The students are given a problem/task to solve and must record all steps in the clear identification of the assignment, gather facts and data, decide on possible resolutions to fixing the problem or completing the task and a final solution as the best action.  Students will use available technology to research, interact, record and propose their final plan.

The Listening Project: This project is motivated by our sense that if we could ask for and listen carefully to recipients' judgments of what has been useful (and not useful) and why, over the years of their experience on the receiving end of aid, then aid providers would learn a great deal.

Resources:

·Tablet or Laptop

·Internet

·Word

·Recording software - Audacity

·Microphone/camcorder

How to: 

The student teams are asked to interview several related groups to the assigned study that have received aid or services by another organization.  Each student interviews a set number of people from the selected group.  Students will find that individuals do listen to their colleagues, however, usually they hear only from people who are involved in the programs they run, and seldom from those who have been aided or served. These inquiries focus on recipients’ satisfaction with the specific aid or service they have received rather than exploring broader and longer-term impacts of the assistance programs.

The teams will report on each conversation in either written or oral form, with the intention of accumulating the ideas and insights across experiences, locations and types of people. A project core group will take responsibility for organizing these reports in a way that can lead to collaborative analysis and learning.

Group Quality Testing: This is a common approach to sampling and testing a wide range or area of objects in a designated area.  Students divide into teams collecting samples in an assigned area or from a selection of objects.  The individual members use the same sampling methods and then regroup to test the objects and formulate the data.  All groups then present their findings in class and compare the data to create a hypothesis.

Resources:

·Tablet or Laptop

·Internet

·Word

·Audacity

·Excel

How to: 

The students are divided into groups to sample separate areas or selected objects, for example fresh water in your area.  Each group is given a specific method for sampling the water and then the members of that group test and collect data for their assigned areas.  Once all the data has been collected, the class then presents their findings and a final hypothesis is created using the collective data from all the water samples in the area.

Class2Class: This multi-group approach allows for a greater variety of students to interact in an on-campus or virtual environment.  Instead of creating groups of students within just one course, the same project is assigned to a number of sections and even similar courses in other colleges or universities.  This larger number of groups collaborates on data collected and compares findings (Slavin, 1983).

         Resources:

·Tablet or Laptop

·Internet

·Word

·Blackboard

·DyKnow

·Excel

How to: 

The students are divided into groups to sample separate areas or selected objects, but in this case there are an expanded number of groups from other sections or classes.  The instructor may enlist the help of other instructors or even schools to accomplish this large collaborative effort. Each group is given a specific method and members of all groups test and collect data.  Once all the data has been collected, the groups will then presents their findings in meeting or virtually, via a delivery method like Blackboard.  A final hypothesis is created using the collective data from all the groups by communicating verbally on-line, through discussion boards, by chat or selecting representatives to meet in person.

Round Table: This simple, yet effective, form of collaborative learning allows students to form small groups in the classroom or online to discuss concepts and ideas presented by the instructor.  A mixed group allows for life experiences from each member to give different insight into the proposed problem or concept (McKeachie, Pintrich, Lin, & Smith, 1986).

Resources:

·Tablet or Laptop

·Internet

·Word

·Blackboard

·DyKnow

How to: 

Modeled after the classic round table discussion format for meetings, students will turn their desks towards each other or be placed in groups in and online course.  With in these groups all students have an equal voice and can free think and pull from previous experiences to contemplate the proposed question or content by the instructor.  The group is expected to expand their knowledge and gain a greater understanding of material, as well as form their own opinions and test them.  Students may be assigned different groups each time or remain with the same group to further the common knowledge (Slavin, 1983).

Editor: Students create short written works in class and then split into groups of two to edit each others work.  The short works are then rewritten and submitted to the instructor for review and grading.  This works well in both online and in class environments.

Resources:

·Tablet or Laptop

·Internet

·Word

·Blackboard

How to: 

Students write short papers or summaries over material presented in class.  Students then break into groups of two and verbally read the other partners paper to them, so that they can edit their own work.  Punctuation, grammar and spelling are discussed as each partner reads the others work and verbal editing of content is noted.  Each student then returns to their area and rewrites the short paper or summary with the corrections discussed.  The papers are then turned into the instructor for grading with each participants name included as the writer or editor.