Published by: Michaela Dodson - Instructional Designer

November 2021

Many times when we assign group work, students tend to divide and conquer or a few do the work for the whole group.  We have the best intentions in mind, but is EVERY student in the group really performing at higher intellectual levels?  Drawbacks from group work can include allocating a fair grade to each team member and verifying that every student achieved the learning objective.  Group work can also be frustrating and exhausting to students (especially introverts). Collaboration on the other hand takes each other's ideas and builds upon them to co-create and discover new and different perspectives.  It allows the learners to focus on the process and the product, instead of the product only.  Group work and collaboration both involve groups however, collaboration is more intentional and individual pieces.  

There are many engagement strategies that support collaborative learning.  Using these strategies in smaller settings will hold each student accountable for the learning and take some of the pressure off of your introverts.  The best ideas don’t always come from the biggest talkers.  

-Teams Check -  Teammates help each other understand answers to exercises, so that any member of the team may be called upon to answer any one of the questions.  Then, everyone shares their ideas as a class.  This strategy is very powerful in adding confidence for introverts to bounce their ideas off of someone else before the entire class.  

-Jigsaw - each student takes a small section of reading.  They become the expert on their section and its main ideas.  Then, each of the individuals form a small group and present the main ideas to each other.  In the end, every student has to conceive but is responsible for an individual piece. 

-Graphic organizers - Graphic organizers are a great way for students to jot main ideas, key concepts and terms down on an organized form.  Graphic organizers are easy to compare with others or build together in partners.  

Collaboration focuses more on the learning experience and provides opportunities to practice employability skills such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving, organization, self management and leadership for all students involved.

 In collaboration the students grow and learn at the individual level (providing accountability) in order to see progress as a whole.  Collaboration involves every student doing some individual piece that will benefit the thought process of the group.  Adding the independent piece allows the instructor to know the level of knowledge of each individual student.  Collaboration also ensures that every student is working on each individual piece of the whole.  It allows each student to bring something to the table.