1. Carolina Lateral Entry
Developing Community for Effective
Collaboration
Collaboration
in the Online Classroom
The Bankers Team
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2. Carolina Lateral Entry
Developing Community for Effective
Collaboration
Why Collaborate?
Because it promotes:
 deeper levels of knowledge
 initiative, creativity and critical thinking skills
 co-creation of knowledge
 reflection
 interaction with peers
 self-assessment
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3. Carolina Lateral Entry
Developing Community for Effective
Collaboration
Building Community
A sense of community must exist for
collaboration to occur because it creates:
Trust that their ideas will be considered
Respect for each other and what the others have to
contribute
A feeling that we are all in this together
A sense that all parties are approachable
A motivation to interact with others feeling part of a class
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4. Carolina Lateral Entry
Developing Community for Effective
Collaboration
Community Essentials
 Learners and Facilitators are all engaged in the learning process
 Common Goals
- Sharing information, experiences, interests, resources, conflict resolution
 Infrastructure
- Structure of the course, ground rules for participation and interaction
 Technology or Meeting Places
- Wiki, chat rooms, discussion boards, Moodle, forums, email
 Collaboration
- Student-to-student interaction, student-to-group, student-to-facilitator
 Reflection
- To reinforce and transform the learning, to monitor progress, to improve
instruction
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5. Carolina Lateral Entry
Developing Community for Effective
Collaboration
Benefits of Working Together
Complete a task with a diversity of input
Create synergism
Come up with different ideas, new ways of thinking
Solving problems can often be easier with a group
Real life experience: working with other people to get the job done
Gaining collaboration tools
Creates a tolerance of others and diversity
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6. Carolina Lateral Entry
Developing Community for Effective
Collaboration
Groups: Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages:
- Improved performance
- Satisfaction with results
- Learning from others
- Building on each others’ strengths
- Shared responsibility
- Validation through collaboration
Disadvantages:
- Extra time involved
- Individual use of extra
energy
- Interpersonal Conflicts
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- Unbalanced workload

7. Carolina Lateral Entry
Developing Community for Effective
Collaboration
Stages of Group Development
 Forming: when groups get to know one another
 Norming: when groups figure out how to work
together
 Storming: Problem-solving where there will be
disagreement and/or conflict
•
•
Introduces new perspectives, while learning to resolve
disagreements fairly and amicably
 Performing: when groups work to complete the task
 Adjourning: when groups end the work and disband
or regroup for other tasks
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8. Carolina Lateral Entry
Developing Community for Effective
Collaboration
Instructor Responsibilities
 Set the Stage
Ice breakers, introductions, syllabus, weekly or topic
announcements
 Create the environment
Tone, expectations, conversation
 Model the process
Presence online, communications, time expectation and
participation
 Guide the process
Be available, be present, be consistent
 Evaluate the process
Checking online work, participation, surveys, provide timely
feedback
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9. Carolina Lateral Entry
Developing Community for Effective
Collaboration
Successful Collaboration
To enhance successful collaboration:
Set the tone when course begins
Provide a structure where students can work together
Have students take ownership in establishing norms /
student created Learning Agreements
Let voice be heard from the sidelines encouraging,
prompting, giving feedback
Be present
Offer suggestions for reaching goals
 Provide methods and structure for small group work
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10. Carolina Lateral Entry
Developing Community for Effective
Collaboration
Successful Collaboration
To enhance successful collaboration:
Set the tone when course begins
Provide a structure where students can work together
Have students take ownership in establishing norms /
student created Learning Agreements
Let voice be heard from the sidelines encouraging,
prompting, giving feedback
Be present
Offer suggestions for reaching goals
 Provide methods and structure for small group work
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