Working together with others is part of basically every ones work schedule. As such, students should also acquire this important skill in their university education in collaborative learning settings. During our group meetings we reflected what drives collaborative work and quickly identified one key factor: diversity. However, this factor was both considered as a factor that hinders and enhances the overall outcome. In the following, I want to discuss the pros and cons of diversity for the specific case of collaborative online learning.
As teachers in the university, the process of learning is part of your everyday work. By, however, taking the side of the instructor, you might not be entirely aware of the challenges faced by other side: the learner. The course was a good opportunity for me to take on the latter role and thus my concrete reflections on diversity will also by informed by this experience.
First of all and by construction, diversity is never there when you work on your own. Diversity only comes into play once you connect with others. Diversity can be the source of impressive outcomes. A group can bundle not only different individual skills, but also different perspectives and previous experiences on an issue to get a holistic view on a topic.
The previous arguments can, however, immediately turned into a negative view. With different given skills a lot of work might land in the realm of the person that already possesses these skills to begin with, while the rest of the group free-rides on his or her ability. Diversity in terms of views can also be a barrier to achieve a result. If group members strongly disagree about fundamental parts of the project, the collaboration might not lead to an outcome as it is lost in endless meandering discussions. Of course, this also depends on the involved personalities. The described scenario is likely to emerge with strong dominating personalities that want to ensure that the overall result largely reflects their own approach. Figuratively speaking, this is the case of a dictatorship which becomes even worse when several persons want to take the role of the dictator. The diametrical case – with similar bad outcomes – can emerge for extremely harmonic persons aiming at very democratic decisions. Individuals are afraid of suggesting something as they either fear their own idea will be rejected or they do not want to superimpose ideas on the group. Once again, the group project will have little outcome.
These problems are furthermore emphasized in a learning setting. When you work for example in a business project the objectives are often clearly given by some superior manager and everyone has a clear goal of achieving it. In the learning setting – in particular if there is no individual grading – everything depends on (heterogeneous) extrinsic motivation and thus might likely lead to a failure.
So is diversity after all just bad? No. However, we have to learn to effectively collaborate. It is key to agree on a common goal. It also is important to both assess individual skills and characters and adjust your behavior accordingly. How knows how to do what and how can we combine these skills for our overall outcome? At least as important as that: create a safe space for everyone to express his or her opinion. Is this easy? No. Especially in a cultural diverse environment. Yet, if we are willing to commit ourselves to this adventure, we can reap great benefits.
