The Role of Collaboration in Higher Education

Abstract

Collaborative learning is a widely used instructional method, but the learning potential of this instructional method is often underused in practice. Therefore, the importance of various factors underlying effective collaborative learning should be determined. This study focuses on elements that the students claim made teamwork in these courses more effective. The analysis of nine focus group interviews was done. According to the findings, the combination of student autonomy and self-control with a difficult, open, and complicated group assignment that challenged the students to produce something fresh and creative was what led to effective collaboration. The course's design elements encouraged a sense of shared ownership of the collaborative process and the final outcome of the group assignment. Students also noted that there were no free riders in these group projects. It was interesting to see that students appeared to place a higher importance on their sense of accomplishment, their learning processes, and the products they were developing than their grades. It is concluded that collaborative learning in higher education should be designed using challenging and relevant tasks that build shared ownership with students.