Support for Online Collaboration

For understanding content, it was discovered that students often understood content better when they collaborate with another student on it. They often showed better retention of content, deeper engagement, and a better sense of community with the class. Students felt that they had a better grasp of what was going on when they were allowed to communicate in small groups on projects even if they were doing their own assignments it allowed for feedback by peers (good or bad) on their ideas and if they were on the right track. 

Another big plus to online collaboration was the social aspect. Students often performed better in the same class when online collaboration took place both synchronously and asynchronously. When students were expected to complete assignments together and collaborate on the content it provided them with more of a sense of a belonging, and the class felt more like a community. Students felt more connected to one another and the instructor because they were allowed to work together, students when asked felt the class was better because of their ability to collaborate and work together. This is a skill that I have often used in my coursework through ISU.

Students feel a sense of belonging in their courses when they are allowed collaboration. In the case study that I examined that looked at online courses with online collaboration and without collaboration students scored higher in engagement, relationships, community, and trust of the professor in class. 

Courses online have often been viewed as doing your work independently and not having to depend on others and the coursework is completed when you have time. Through online collaboration students have the opportunity to interact with one another. They get to experience Vygotsky's social learning concepts and get to learn from one another. This type of learning is a key to face to face learning so we must make it an emphasis of the online learning as well. Students should be able to still experience the benefits of an online course but should be expected to interact with peers and learn from one another.