Collaboration in action
Collaboration in action
Collaboration is one of the core skills required for living in a globally connected world. Without targeted learning design for collaborative skills, learners will not develop the important skills needed to thrive in the real world.
Use the rubric or decision tree to design learning activities that incorporate collaboration. Focus on planning for the next month or term and set a goal to incorporate opportunities for learners to develop collaboration skills. Think about learners and their experiences to date. Their current experiences must impact the learning activities we design. Learners can't engage in interdependent work if they have no experience working together, sharing responsibility, or making substantive decisions. These experiences are prerequisites for being able to collaborate on an interdependent learning task.
Select a learning activity that learners will engage in soon. Use the collaboration decision tree to guide the design of a learning activity. Consider the following questions:
- How will learners work together, in pairs or groups?
- What part of the activity will require learners to share responsibility?
- Will learners make substantive decisions together on the content, process, or product?
- Will their work be interdependent?
If the upcoming activity doesn't warrant collaboration at a deep level, consider learning experiences that will come later in the semester. Which upcoming learning activities will require learners to:
- Share responsibility?
- Make substantive decisions together?
- Create a product interdependently?
Take note of those activities now so future planning incorporates the collaborative skills necessary to build on the dimension. If other colleagues have participated in this 21CLD module and understand the collaboration dimension, ask them for their advice or feedback on the learning activity. Based on the feedback, adjust the learning activity and it into action. Once learners have completed the learning activity, reflect on the following questions:
- What happened?
- How did learners engage in the collaborative work designed?
- Were there particular skills that learners demonstrated?
- Did they need extra input that wasn't anticipated?
- What worked?
- What didn't work?
Based on observations and reflections of the learning activity and learners' actions, consider:
- Does the learning activity need improvement?
- Is there a way to develop learners' collaborative skills even further?
Additional resources for inspiration:
- Learn how Narasimha Murthy H.K., an educator in India, incorporates collaboration in a learning activity
- Review Paula Vorne's learning activity Studying the Human Being on the Collaboration in action page in the Collaboration section of the OneNote. Note the collaboration skills practiced throughout the activity.