Johnson, Johnson & Smith (2013) and Alavi (2018) describe collaborative learning as an instructional approach of having learners work in groups towards a common learning goal while enhancing the learning experience and performance for each member of the group (as cited in Montebello et al., 2018).

The one thing that stood out from the first lecture video about the affordance of collaborative learning by Dr Bill Cope was the quote by Newton, which I see on my screen on a semi-regular basis, that is to say, every time I open Google Scholar – “Standing on the shoulder of giants.” And that for me drove the idea of collaboration as a concept in learning and knowledge-meaning-making as a process as it was and is established that this (learning in general and more so, learning facilitated by ‘e-learning ecologies) is never a singular event. I felt that the same idea was being reiterated when I started using GScholar as a part of this course.

Here I want to bring into focus my experiences in these collaborative environments for here not only am I consuming knowledge but I actively participate in the process while generating and aiding in the meaning-making process of learning and understanding while curating ‘knowledge’ constructs. And it is beneficial in various levels beyond just the academia and assessments. It, for the lack of a better term, opens my world view as the many contributors are from across the world, whose work I might have read in a classroom (traditional) setting but the interactions lead the way to another dimension in the meaning-making process of ‘learning.’

This notion of my belief that I have a greater benefit in a collaborative learning space is reaffirmed by Laal & Ghodsi, (2012) according to whom there these benefits can be classified under four categories. They are social (the community that is built as a result of collaboration, which leads to the understanding of ‘diversity’ and the importance of being ‘inclusive’ to everyone’s interests), psychological (boost in self-esteem, etc. because of the collaborative communication) and quite obviously academic and assessment-oriented.

And since the proliferation of Web 2.0 technologies, we’ve moved towards a dialogue-oriented, feedback-based, give and take that motivates learners to do better by learning and doing together. The growth then is more of a communal nature rather than being individualistic. There is the “Wisdom of the crowd. People interact themselves and promote new knowledge obtained from their experiences and enhancing it by structured digital documentation and repositories…” (Gea, Rosana Montes Soldado, & Gámiz, 2011). That is collaboration, plain and simple. And these reflect in the generation of ideas and/or their understanding within the Coursera and GScholar Community. And more so, in the assessment practices.

Now, I’d like to touch upon fair few concepts briefly as to how E-learning reaches to a diverse audience but still caters to their needs (fairly well). First, the Internet of things. It deals with how people consume media differently, and that is most relevant in today’s day and age, especially with education. Now we have a lot of options in E-Learning, be it mobile learning or Social Media Learning or asynchronous learning, ubiquitousness is at the forefront, and I think the collaboration starts from there. Take Coursera or GScholar, for example. The time when you access the platform or submit the assignments are flexible (you even have an option to reset deadlines!) but what is guaranteed is learning – and that’s not just through the lecture videos or the transcript notes but through an active discussion and peer-review process for and on your work based on which you can improve.

Tying in this ‘ubiquitousness’ in the access of learning material in Web 2.0, the information era with the learners becoming both knowledge consumers and generators, it then becomes what is called ‘Ancillary communication’ that becomes one of the instructional strategies for Teaching in Online Learning Environments (especially in synchronous setups) with the COVID-19 situation in the world right now. As a result of which schools and educational institutions have gone online, and the rest are following suit. And in this scenario, most teaching and learning is happening at a synchronous pace in many schools here where I live. And that is where Ancillary communication comes in. Jones & Harmon (2010)explain ancillary communication in education as the exchange of information in support of learning that occurs synchronously with but is physically and semantically separate from a primary communication mode. I believe that this is just the first step and approach before everyone adopts and adapts to ‘New Learning’ facilitated by e-ecologies.

References:

Gea, M., Rosana Montes Soldado, & Gámiz, V. (2011). Collective Intelligence and Online Learning Communities (pp. 336–340). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rosana_Montes/publication/252027955_Collective_intelligence_and_online_learning_communities/links/00b7d538309dced9d7000000.pdf

Laal, M., & Ghodsi, S. M. (2012). Benefits of collaborative learning. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 31, 486–490. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.12.091

Montebello, M., Cope, B., Kalantzis, M., Amina, T., Searsmith, D., Tzirides, A., & Haniya, S. (2018). Deepening e-Learning through Social-Collaborative Intelligence. In Illinois.edu. Retrieved from http://aotzirides.web.illinois.edu/Deepening_FIE.pdf

Jones, M. G., & Harmon, S. W. (2010). Instructional Strategies for Teaching in Synchronous Online Learning Environments (SOLE). In H. H. Yang & S. C.-Y. Yuen (Eds.), Collective Intelligence and E-Learning 2.0: Implications of Web-Based Communities and Networking: Implications of Web-Based Communities and Networking (pp. 78–93). New York: IGI Global.