Collective intelligence (CI) is defined as: shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration… of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making (Wiki)

CI is effective for working on “wicked problems”, such as climate change and economic equality. The complexity of these problems requires a multi-faceted approach, and “multiple sets of eyes, ears and hands can find better solutions than politicians and bureaucrats working alone” (medium.com). CI is also the key to educating a new generation of learners.

Complex technical courses pose a challenge to online teaching. The lack of mentor and immediate assistance can hinder and frustrate the beginner. Online forums like Stack Overflow quickly grow weary of the same questions being asked, which causes learners to regress into their own shell, and often give up.

Imagine some type of knowledge repository that held hints, tips, and tricks related to the online materials. This could include:

Annotations about the lessons themselves
FAQ items about the exercises
Culling and consolidating outdated or repeated items
Info about specific failures/misunderstandings with the material.
Alternative/Optimized solutions to exercises.

An online course could require that each student add to this repository in some way as he/she took the course. This ensures that each student is creating knowledge, and making the online course itself more effective for future students.

Imagine a student who does NOT have this feature. She goes through 2 sections of the course, and then gets stuck on an exercise. Her knowledge is so lacking that she doesn’t even know how to form the questions to ask on a forum. Embarrassed, she drops the class.

Imagine another student. He is just as stuck as the first. However, at the end of the exercise there’s an annotation he clicks that leads him to a web page/app/wiki with the title: “What to do if you’re stuck”. He finds his specific situation included in the list (because someone else before him figured it out, and posted in this resource about it). He is able to determine the issue and move on. He successfully completes the course.

I believe using collective intelligence in this way could be a game changer in online technical instruction.

Resources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_intelligence

https://medium.com/sciam-fr/collective-intelligence-could-be-the-most-important-science-of-the-21st-century-39eb55f866d1