Assessing Collaborative Learning

I.
Collaborative learning provides opportunity for sharing and discussing information, consulting with classmates and problem-solving in a learning community. This makes for an excellent student-centered environment; however, the question remains how students will be assessed at the completion of a collaborative project, paper or etc. I believe that there is some validity in Palloff and Pratt's (2005) comment in that collaborative activities are best assessed collaboratively; because, it is my belief that in a learning community each member is responsible for insuring the success of the group as a whole. If one falters due to lack of knowledge or interest, then the team should make every effort to help the individual along. Hence, the assessment should reflect the effort of the learning community and not each individual.

On the other hand, I believe that Siemens (2009) assertion that assessments should be fair and direct, based on stated outcomes, and equitable is a valid statement, as well. If the instructor has not clearly communicated the course objective and grading procedure from the onset, then assessment of the collaborative group will not be achieved. Hence, it is incumbent upon the instructor when designing the lesson to create and provide students with a rubric in the beginning which reflects how grades will be assigned during the course. The activities created should provide opportunity for self-evaluation through reflection of the completed task, peer evaluation, and finally the instructors grade. However, like Palloff and Pratt (2005), I to believe the instructor has to maintain a sense of authority or finality when it comes to the final grade which may incorporate the results of peer evaluations. Like all groups, tensions between members could cause an unfair assessment of performance and the instructor must consider this and adjust the final grade accordingly.

II.
Although it it the responsibility of every student to work within the learning community, oftentimes students who see themselves as high achievers do not find group work worthwhile or challenging. Hence, as the instructor, my goal would be to develop course modules with varying task of increased responsibility to maintain student interest and facilitate collaborative learning through social networking. These will in-turn insure the participation of each member. In addition to designing course objectives, as the instructor, consideration has to be given to how students will be assessed during group assignments. For this, I would turn to the business model of project management where the department manager assigns a project manager to oversee the completion of an assignment. The project manager develops a plan assigning the members of the team to the task they are responsible for with a time line for completion. I would liken learning communities to project management whereby the team should decide on a leader and the leader should assign specific task to each member based on their expertise and comfort level. Blogger Lawrence (2010) states that these differing points of views and variety of expertise helps members acquire and share knowledge which they otherwise would have to research themselves as they problem solve together. Another benefit is that when it comes to the assessment, all members of the team will be fully prepared through their sharing of information.

Additionally, the success of the learning community will be further facilitated by the instructor providing the teams with the tools, training, and references necessary to complete the task. As the instructor continues to monitor and/or facilitate each team's progress, he is able to assess how clear and helpful the information provided was to the outcome of the task. Adjustment for future course can be made, based on his observation. Finally, the instructors presence will drive the course, but the gains made will depend on the students desire to learn. The assessment will just provide a grade depicting the student's habits and achievements.

Reference

Lawrence, C. (January 17, 2010). Assessing collaborative learning. Retrieved blog from: http://21stchange.blogspot.com/2010/01/assessing-collaborative-learning.html

Palloff, R. M. & Pratt, K. (2005). Collaborating online. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Siemens, G. (2009). Assessment of collaborative learning. Vodcast: Laureate Education.

Swan, K. (2004). Relationships between interactions and learning in online environments. The Sloan Consortium.