Collaborative opportunities

Create opportunities for students to collaborate in ways that support learning. 

How-to guide:

• Step 1: Create or facilitate the creation of groups.  Keep groups small (3 or 4 students) to reduce “getting lost in the crowd” and freeloading. Mix up how the groups are created - sometimes allow students to choose; sometimes, create the group yourself. You can use the Groups tool in Vula or just share a spreadsheet with your tutorial group. 
• Step 2: Establish ground rules or a social contract in the group. Groups will sometimes need guidance with this, so be prepared to offer suggestions for a process and what the basic contract might look like. Groups may choose to chat in Whatsapp or via any platform that suits them. 
• Step 3: Choose a meaningful activity for the group to undertake. This could be collaboratively annotating a worked example or choosing between possibly correct answers and motivating the choice.  Pairing cognitive and social elements can create an incentive to engage, fostering connection, belonging and learning. 
• Step 4: Plan and communicate how students will share their learning with you and class. Think about tools such as assignments, blogs or student pages in Vula, or an embedded Padlet.  
• Step 5: As above, plan and communicate your feedback plan! Will you give feedback individually or to the collective using examples? When can students expect a response? Establishing and communicating this plan in advance will save you answering these questions individually many times.

Example:

• Not applicable.

Group settings:

• Use the section tool to assign the groups

Key points:

• Group members (students) can be assigned randomly or selectively by the lecturer or tutor using the Section Info tool in Vula.
• Establish rules of engagement
• Ensure all group members know how to access and work in the collaborative space - Scaffold or provide support where needed as not all students may be familiar with the functions of collaborative tools used.