Collaborative learning

Collaborative learning is an important component of learning, and can also be used in assessment. This occurs when students work in groups and learn from and with each other. By sharing individual experience and expertise, they create an authentic learning environment which replicates collaboration in professional or community settings.

As assessment, collaboration can be used for capstone projects, work-integrated learning, authentic assessment, laboratory work or creative projects that are designed to encourage students to demonstrate their knowledge, skills and capabilities.

Collaborative learning can take place in real time either in person or online, or even asynchronously.

Collaborative learning activities

There are many types of learning activities that can be done by students collaboratively. How these are structured will depend on whether the activity is an in-class activity (and whether this, or part of it, is assessed or not), or a formal assessment task. Regardless, educators need to consider whether these activities will happen online or in person, or synchronously/asynchronously, and how they will be managed in all cases. Some ideas for in-class and assessment collaborative learning activities are below.

Group work

Group work can be used in a variety of classroom situations. For example, students can be organised into teams to work on a solution to a set of problems, create arguments for a debate, or discuss case studies. These collaborative activities are also possible online, using Moodle forums, the Google suite, MS Teams or Zoom, and other technologies.

Group assessment

Collaborative assessment activities require educators to think through not only the activity, but how it will be assessed, and what components require individual assessment, and which parts will be collaboratively assessed. The resource Group and Peer Assessment outlines some of the strategies you can use for creating collaborative group assessments.

Collaborative examples View

This example looks at how the unit BEX3500: Current Issues in Commerce incorporated a collaborative case study activity. The goal of the collaborative activity was for each group to analyse one of seven authentic cases from a set of key companies and to produce a collaborative stakeholder matrix.
Teaching Strategy
The educator provided short descriptions of the case studies (one to each project team) to initiate group discussions. Students had to actively participate in the discussion to analyse their case study, which was scaffolded using a guide with a set of four questions to address.The answers to these questions helped frame the second part of the activity, which was to fill out the stakeholder framework worksheet (Image 1). Providing students with this sheet helped them with analysing the assigned case study and ensured all teams were being assessed on the same criteria. There were two main tools used in this online workshop activity: Moodle discussion forum (Image 2) and a Google document.
Image 1: Problem-based case study worksheet
Discussion: A number of discussion forums were created in advance based on the case studies distribution and pre-set student groups (project teams).
Image 2: Moodle discussion forum
Group-based analysis: Students used Google docs to complete a Stakeholder Framework matrix and attached it to their forum threads or shared the links.
Recommendations
- Write up case studies that can be divided among the groups, making them authentic and relevant will encourage students
- Provide students with a guide to scaffold the group discussion with key questions
- Create a handout or online shared document on Google Drive that students can use to frame the conversation and analysis
- Create a Moodle Forum for each group of students to discuss their ideas in a synchronous manner.
Credits:
- Dr Jacqueline O'Toole, Lecturer, Faculty of Business & Economics
- Mr Kimble Montagu, Teaching Associate, Department of Marketing
- Rod Sarah, Industry Fellow, Teaching Associate, Faculty of Business & Economics
This example from FIT5057: Project Management is an online tutorial collaborative activity that helped prepare students for their group assignment project plan report. The activity provided students with a high level of understanding of the planning processes in project management, as well as sound skills in the use of project planning tools.
Teaching Strategy
The educator created a platform for synchronous and asynchronous communication and collaboration for each project team. This tool provided opportunities for students to discuss project requirements, share links and documents, create and co-edit the assignment report.
Microsoft Teams was used as the primary student communication and collaboration tool. A separate team was created for each tutorial. Students were assigned to large groups (group 3 in the images below) and sub-groups (project teams 111 and 112 in the images below). Each project team had its own channel with no access to other team channels. The channel tool provided students and educators with one central hub for all the communication relating to the project.
Image 3: Microsoft Teams Channel Set Up
The channel had two main tabs: Posts for communication and Files for storing documents, resources and forms.
Image 4: Tabs for Posts and Files
Collaboration: Posts section was used by project team members as a common working space to collaborate with each other and organise small self-managed group meetings.
Image 5: Examples of collaboration between the students in Group 3
Communication with students: The channel tool provided the educator with one central point to communicate all the project-related details, with clear and concise instructions.
Image 6: In channel communication via posts
Recommendations
- Create a separate team for each tutorial
- Create channels for the different teams and encourage discussion on all project details
- Set up Posts for communication and Files for storing documents, resources and forms
- Provide clear instructions for students on how to communicate within MS Teams
Credits:
- Dr Chan Cheah, Faculty of Information Technology
- Ms Asha Padisetti, Teaching Associate

Feedback in action

Make your way through Incorporating Student Feedback and Enhancing Student Experience to learn how Monash University academics have used student feedback to amplify students’ voices and enhance their learning experience - these case studies demonstrate how actionable feedback can transform teaching and create a more responsive learning environment.

Education Performance Standards Framework

Braun, M. (2017). Comparative Evaluation of Online and In-Class Student Team Presentations. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 14(3), 23.
Oana, B. (2020). Refocusing group work on collaborative learning and diversifying assessments in political science departments. European Political Science: EPS, 19(1), 140–157. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-019-00212-6
You can use the tabs on the left-hand side menu to navigate between the sections or click on the links below:
1. The How-to section provides you with instructions and/or strategies to implement in your teaching.
2. The Related technologies section highlights some relevant tools and applications.
3. The Supporting your students section provides you with key strategies for creating a good learning experience and a list of resources to share.
4. The Related resources section provides you with additional resources.

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Facilitating online teamwork

This workshop video looks at how to use a range of tools in combination, including Moodle, Google Drive and MS Teams, to help you manage, monitor and support student teamwork in your units.

Student group brainstorming and collaboration with Zoom whiteboard

You can replicate a tutorial small group discussion and brainstorm online, using Zoom tools and the whiteboard function

The Education Performance Standards identify the expectations of education practice at Monash – See the Education Performance Standards for more details.
Impact on student learning				Impact on educational knowledge		Impact on educational environment
Effective teaching and learning	Responsive program design	Student- centred orientation	Professional learning engagement	Pedagogical content knowledge	Education research performance	Education innovation	Education leadership
✓	✓	✓				✓
You could address these Practice Elements by providing evidence of how you: Plan appropriate group and team work learning activities and/or assessment Provide guidelines and resources to support students to develop collaboration skills Monitor and facilitate collaborative processes in your unit/s Design innovative approaches to teamwork projects, including online collaboration Embed student-centred learning within collaborative activities and/or assessments Align collaborative learning activities with the overall learning outcomes for your unit/s.

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