Assessing Collaborative Efforts

The point of collaboration is to address "issues that cannot be addressed individually." I think a big problem with collaborative learning is that instructors give assignments that require working in groups when collaboration is not necessary. For example, I for one have never worked in a group on a topic that I could not have researched alone. Many times the assignment is tedious and requires a lot of work that is easier split up amongst different people to save time, but the topic is not so intellectually stimulating that more than one brain is required.

When asked the question, "If a student does not want to network or collaborate in a learning community for an online course, what should the other members of the learning community do?" it makes me wonder if the collaboration is truly necessary. This video explains that not all students learn the same way, some need to be left alone:

However, if an assignment truly needs collaboration, it requires multiple people working together, the person will not request to be alone because the person will need the help of others.

If the instructor firmly believes that the assignment requires more than one person's help then the instructor can explain that. If one person can adequately accomplish his/her work without collaboration then I think the instructor should allow the person to work alone. It is not a challenge to the person and the assignment should be reconsidered for next year.

A collaborate learning community needs a different rubric than an assignment that requires individual work. George Siemens explains that the assessment of the project should include information on how many times a student logged in to work on a project or how many hours the student spent working with the others in the group (Laureate Education, Inc, 2012). This is because the collaboration portion is critical to the assignment, otherwise collaboration would not have been necessary. Other people from the class should also have the opportunity to rate the quality of the information presented and rank the usefulness (Laureate Education, Inc, 2012). This could also go into the grading of the individual and group. The varying skills and knowledge students bring to a course would be reflected in the rubric the same way it is during an individual evaluation, but in collaborative learning, it is more important how that individual shared that information with the group.

Resource
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2012). Assessment of Collaborative Learning. Baltimore, MD: Author