Benefits of Collaborative Learning

Collaborative learning is a teaching technique where students are put together in groups to explore meaningful topics or tests in a syllabus. It may involve just two people discussing an assignment or a larger group of students working on a given project. The technique has been largely used by both online-based education platforms and brick-and-mortar schools to steer performance. Collaborative learning is basically meant to help students capitalize on one another's unique skills and resources to improve learning outcomes.

As much as it might seem difficult to have effective online group collaboration, many academic institutions are doing their best to ensure it's a success. Through such video conferencing software as ezTalks Meetings, students can easily meet online and discuss important assignments hassle-free. The software can allow students to stream live HD videos and share important tools of learning while at it. But what key benefits of collaborative learning can students studying online enjoy? Well, we’ll discuss everything you need to know in the article below.

What Are the Benefits of Collaborative Learning

1. Helps Students to Actively Participate In Assignments and Projects

Collaborative or cooperative learning allows students to share strengths and improve on weaker skills. It stimulates critical thinking, which ensures each member brings a new perspective to the project. Student can further clarify ideas through discussions and debate to ensure they come up with stronger and clearer points. Numerous studies have shown that students tend to think and work better when engaged in group discussions than when they handle assignments alone. A group that's managed by a serious leader can ensure a project is discussed expansively and that conclusions are made in time. That will ensure students get hold of new ideas of learning, which will improve their study skills and by extension, their performance.

2. Focuses on the Student Rather Than the Content

Teaching is not always supposed to be a one-way mode of presentation. Instead, it should seek to engage every student using all viable means. With collaborative learning techniques, students can have the opportunity of learning more using different methods and resources. Teachers can also provide study materials to facilitate proper discussions. After finishing, a group can present the work to the teacher for marking or review. To ensure even better understanding, the instructor can organize for overall class discussions and/or revisions. That way, the students will learn more and improve their performance significantly.

3. Develops Students' Interpersonal Skills

A perfect collaborative group of students should always seek to engage every member on group discussions and activities. That way, students can get a chance of improving their social skills, self-esteem and on-task behavior. Having a good relationship with other group members improves the student's attitude towards learning. Working with peers towards a common goal makes academic work a fun thing to do, which inspires greater performance in the long run.

4. Allows Students to Share Useful Resources for A Given Assignment or Project

One of the benefits of collaborative learning to students is that it brings many skills and resources to the table. Doing an assignment alone might sometimes get you stuck on one idea. But when engaged in group discussions, different members can bring diverse ideas and approaches to a project. That not only inspires new perspective but also leads to stronger points in an assignment or discussion. Even those studying online can enjoy greater discussions using a number of video conferencing tools.

ezTalks Video Conferencing offers interactive whiteboards that can help students in a group discuss assignments quite effortlessly. They can share important files including text, images, video and audios to facilitate better understanding. With such a platform, group members can bring different resources on board that can be useful in strengthening the outcome of a project.

5. Reduces Classroom and Test Anxiety

Most students are not always comfortable answering questions in class or taking certain tests. That's because they're afraid of giving the wrong answer or are unprepared for assignments. Collaborative learning can help bring sharper and weaker students together to handle challenging topics, assignments or tests. In such a setting, a student can find it easy understanding a given concept or tackling a test in tandem with other group members. That simplifies class work and assignments as one can enjoy in-depth discussions and debates in a more comfortable environment. Both students and instructors will end up benefiting from improved learning ability and overall performance.

6. Increases Student Retention

One of the greatest benefits of cooperative and collaborative learning is that it encourages team work. In such an environment, solving a given academic or study problem requires group effort. That means each member is required to contribute at least a single point or idea to the discussion. Pooling many ideas together can help the group explore the problem from different angles, discuss viable options and adopt the best solutions. With such mode of teaching and assessment, a student can find it easy exploring hard topics and tackling assignments. In the long run, a school department or faculty can be able to retain a great number of students who have enrolled for certain courses.

7. Helps Students Practice Leadership Skills

Being a group leader is never that easy. One must be tolerant with each member's while ensuring the group sticks to the topic and that the work or project is completed on time. It also requires one to have strong interpersonal skills to ensure proper coordination and positive engagement of group members. Hence managing a group and ensuring an assignment or project is successfully completed helps build on leadership skills while studying.

Conclusion

As you can see, the benefits of collaborative learning for students are massive. Those who have already had successful study group sessions can relate to the benefits listed above. A school or college doesn't need to use any expensive resources to make collaborative learning effective. All a teacher needs to do is to help students establish structured group activities to help them learn or carry out assignments. Students must also ensure they have clear objectives on what needs to be done during group discussions or debates. That way, solving class problems can be easier while steering overall class performance. Group discussions can be done by students enrolled in online programs and those pursuing on-campus degrees. It doesn't really matter where you're working from. What's important is to find a way of getting different students together to discuss a topic, share ideas and discover solutions to class problems.