resources on teaching & learning with technology-enhanced collaborative group work

UW Madison Collaborative Examples and Articles

Putting Together Peer Review Groups
Some guidelines for putting together peer review groups.

A Collaborative Paper in Geography. Susy Ziegler
In this assignment, Susy Ziegler sets up the process and explains the requirements for a collaborative paper. Note particularly her suggestion that each group member be responsible for one part of the paper and that all group members work together to compose the introduction.

How Do You Make Peer Review Work? Kirsten Jamsen
After many semesters using peer review in her class and helping colleagues across campus use peer review successfully, she has developed sevearl specific suggestions for instructors trying peer review for the first time.

A Collaborative Term Project in Consumer Science. Irene Vida
Professor Vide explains the requirements for a group term paper and presentation. To evaluate the collaborative process, she asks students to report back on the contributions of each group member to the final project.

Team Poster for the Genetic Linkage Project. Ann Burgess
This Biocore assignment encourages collaborative learning by putting students in teams and encouraging peer review to evaluate final products.

Anticipating the Challenges of Peer Review. Katie Green Beilfus
Katie reviews a number of the challenges of different types of peer review and makes suggestions for overcoming some of the most common difficulties.

 

Other Readings

Cooperative Learning Methods: A Meta-Analysis. David Johnson, Roger Johnson, Mary Beth Stanne
These authors discuss their comprehensive review of effective achievement in coopererative learning methods used in schools. The review garnered eight cooperative learning methods that foster positive student achievement.

A Rating Scheme for Assessing the Quality of Computer-supported Collaborative Processes. Anne Meier, Hans Spada, Nikol Rummel
This article discusses nine dimensions of collaboration that can help evaluate collaborative efforsts: sustaining mutual understanding, dialogue management, information pooling, reaching consensus, task division, time management, technical coordination, reciprocal interaction, and individual task orientation.

Developing Authority in Student Writing through Written Peer Critique in the Disciplines. Barbara Schneider, Jo-Anne Andre
This article discusses how written peer critique can be used successfully to develop authority in students’ writing in the disciplines. Tehy suggest that having students respond to their peers in writing rather than orally and positioning students to write their critiques from a strong knowledge base are key elements in making peer critique valuable to the responder.

Case Studies. Colorado State University
This web site has a great wealth of information on how case studies can be used in collaborative activities.

The Influence of Social Interaction on Knowledge Creation. Alton Chua
This article examines the influence of social interaction on the process of knowledge creation. A study was conducted to determine the relationship between the level of social interaction and the quality of the knowledge created. The findings show a positive correlation between the level of social interaction and the quality of the modules developed.

From Wikipedia to the Classroom. Andrea Forte, Amy Bruckman
This article explores Wikipedia as a new publishing paradigm and how it could be used to engage
students in authentic collaborative writing activities? It looks at how can we design wiki publishing tools
and curricula to support learning among student authors. It suggests that wikis can create learning opportunities that address four dimensions of authenticity: personal, real world, disciplinary, and assessment.

Supporting Knowledge Creation: Using Wikis for Group Collaboration. Kate Watson, Chelsea Harper
This article examines the wiki philosophy and how it fits within the Web 2.0 context. While wikis offer a number of benefits for supporting knowledge creation in collaborative groups, the literature suggests a strong need to establish conventions to enable long-term success. It also examines how wiki technology can enable the online collaborative process.