How to Create a Successful Collaboration Experience

By: Lana Kempton, M.Ed.
USG eCampus




What Students Want

A study by Watson (2017) found that the Top Ten Instructional Strategies students wanted to see from their instructors ranked from highest to lowest are as follows. Students want instructors to:

  1. Be available and responsive to students

  2. Engage/interact with students

  3. Provide prompt feedback

  4. Foster interaction/communication among students and instructor

  5. Provide clear expectations

  6. Provide learning guidance

  7. Provide an organized course

  8. Provide meaningful coursework

  9. Provide synchronous sessions

  10. Use various instructional methods


Creating a Successful Collaboration Experience

Morrison (2012) outlines some essential steps for a successful collaboration experience:

  • Create a student introductory forum in the first week

  • Have learners upload profile pictures of themselves

  • Announce groups early in the session

  • Encourage group members to make contact early on

  • Create clear instructions for the group initiatives

  • Highlight the purpose

  • Limit group size

  • Encourage teams to collaborate with online applications & web 2.0 tools

  • Be available for concerns and questions

  • Be culturally sensitive

Click here for more details.

Additionally, there are more Group Work Best Practices from (optional):

When designing collaborative online projects, keep the Quality Matters Rubric in mind. Click here to view the rubric standards.

Another practice to ensure quality is to review the Online Learning Consortium’s Five Pillars of Quality Online Education.


Web 2.0 Tools

There is a plethora of web 2.0 tools out there! Do a quick search to see for yourself or view this list of 101 Web 2.0 Teaching Tools. When choosing a web 2.0 tool, be sure to do your research on it and practice using it before implementation.

Keep in mind that you also have tools already available inside the Learning Management System (LMS) such as:

  • Discussion Groups are a key method of collaboration in the online classroom

  • Virtual Classroom

  • Chat

  • Integrations

All-inclusive cloud-based collaborative tools:

  • Google Drive: Requires Gmail account but is a free, all-inclusive collaborative workspace including Google Hangouts for communication, Forms for data collection, as well as Docs, Slides, etc. for collaborative writing and presentation

  • OneDrive: All-inclusive collaborative workspace that integrates with Microsoft Office so users can access Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents in OneDrive. Users can simultaneously edit Office 365 documents and create and share folders


References

Bart, M. (2010, September 20). How to Design Effective Online Group Work Activities. Retrieved October 15, 2018, from https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/how-to-design-effective-online-group-work-activities/

Morrison, D. (2014, August 11). Strategies for effective group work in the Online Class. Retrieved from https://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/strategies-for-effective-group-work-in-the-online-class/

Watson, F., Castano Bishop, M., & Ferdinand-James, D. (2017). Instructional Strategies to Help Online Students Learn: Feedback from Online Students. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 61(5), 420–427. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-017-0216-y