Now we have finished topic 3, a topic I really find interesting. It is about collaborative learning, learning in teams.  During the past two weeks we have discussed how to create effective learning groups in both an online environment and in class. But it is not only about “product”, it is also about the “process”. How can we help our students gain all the benefits from collaborative learning? How can we activate them? Naturally one main question concerns motivation, because motivation is the driving force to everything. It is about developing team work skills Barkley, Major, Cross and about giving students both freedom and a clear structure of the work Jane E. Brindley and Christine Walti, Lisa M. Blaschke. There are also new types of learning activities that can be used, for example gamification Bilgin and Gul.

There are many benefits of collaborative learning. The group can create many alternative ideas about how to solve a problem, the students can bring their special knowledge, they can learn from each other and students can practice skills they will need in their future work life. https://bokcenter.harvard.edu/group-work

Well, collaboration as a learning process is what THIS course is all about. Everybody in my group probably would agree with me, that our learning would have been totally different, if we would have done the assignments as individuals. What has increased our motivation, I believe, is the level of freedom, we can decide on the topic/problem we want to solve and decide on how to present the solution. Some topics probably are more interesting to some of us, but in all topics there is much to learn, I guess it is more up to everybody personally what they pick up during this process. I like to make notes, so I have a lot of notes with all the best take backs from this course…

What are the challenges in collaborative learning? In a study, the main sources of the students’ frustration were identified as level of commitment, unshared goals and quality of the individual’s contributions. Neus Capdeferro and Margarida Romero. In another study it was found, that the motivation influenced the level of participation of the students Bart, Tempelaar, Van den Bossche, Gijselaers, & Segers, 2009). I can really relate to this, especially when my students work in predefined groups. High performing students find it frustrating to work with students, who do not share the same goals. This is the reason why I find the topic so Interesting and I am glad our group decided to make a Teacher’s guide how to build effective, collaborative teams!