Promoting collaborative learning in higher education

Abstract

This research explores the learning that took place in three hybrid university-level courses in education, which were designed according to three main design-principles: (a)engage learners in peer instruction, (b)involve learners in assessment processes, and (c)reuse student artifacts as resource for further learning. These principles were employed in the courses in different manners according to the goals, contents, and target audience in each of the courses. About 40 graduate, and 260 undergraduate students participated in the study. Data-sources included collaborative and personal artifacts in the courses' sites (wikis, forums, and documents created by teams or individuals), researchers' reflective journal, surveys and interviews. We focus on the first design-principle, and show how learning was promoted by features designed according to this principle in each of the courses. We recommend course-designers and instructors in higher-education to use the design-principles identified and developed in this research to foster meaningful learning in other web-based courses.