Online Learning Instructor Resources

Distance Learning Design Banner




How Do I Encourage Collaboration?
Collaborative projects involve learners working together to produce a product. This is most often done in distance learning courses when there is a cohort of learners enrolled together who are progressing through the course at the same time and about the same pace.

Just as in the classroom, group projects assist learners in synthesizing and applying their knowledge and skills, and allow them to constructively build from each other's unique knowledge, insights, and perspectives.

The ongoing work of collaboration on a project requires significant communication among team members, so the communication capabilities of the distance learning media become critical to success. Encourage your students to take advantage of real-time synchronous communication such as chat or teleconferences, and delayed, asynchronous communication such as e-mail, discussion forums, or peer review.

How To

Tips on Facilitating Collaborative Work

Palloff and Pratt offer these suggestions:

  1. Be clear about the instructor role as facilitator—make your expectations for participation explicit.
  2. Be clear about group tasks and expectations—the clearer you are about what is to be accomplished, the less likely learners will flounder.
  3. Expect learners to work through phases in establishing working groups —Ask questions about group development and their comfort with the process.
  4. Facilitate the process—instructor guidance and intervention may be necessary to keep things on track.
  5. Assume good intent—assume any flaming (personal attack) is inadvertant and respond accordingly.
  6. Wait 24 hours before responding to what appears to be a personal attack —advise learners to do the same.
  7. Always address flaming—establish and reinforce a set of norms for interaction and group work. Before group work starts, you may want to remind students of the importance of the Netiquette guidelines.
  8. Expect conflict—welcome this as a sign of group development. Reinforce the norms for working with each otherand completing tasks.
  9. Don't mistake confusion for conflict—sometimes learners aren't clear on expectations and need an explanation.
  10. Ask for administrative support with difficult learners—just as in the classroom, individual meetings by phone or in person can help, but ask for assistance if someone persists in being difficult.
  11. Limit sidebar conversations with individual learners—unless the matter is deeply private, urge everyone to air questions and concerns in public communications available to all.

    Palloff, Rena and Pratt, Keith. Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom: The Realities of Online Teaching. Josey Bass, 2001. ISBN 0787955191


to top
© 2004, University of Washington. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.