Collaborative Learning

Collaboration is about bringing people together to learn – in groups. Of course, collaboration has to be planned, it doesn't just happen. In eLearning, collaboration can be achieved online, through discussion or role play for example, or it can be achieved in a 'blended' solution, in face-to-face, classroom, contexts. Learners can collaborate with each other, with teachers or instructors, with experts and with those less skilled. The principles guiding collaborative learning are that:

• learning is a social experience, where learners learn more effectively within a group, through negotiation and by engaging with differing perspectives. In this way, learners reach a shared solution.
• learners learn best in a community, where learners are at different points in their learning (which is a very natural state). In these communities, more expert and more experienced learners can help those less so; and learners 'mature' by becoming more expert as they learn from others.

Collaborative learning is contrasted with independent learning. The first is a more natural way of learning – as it is of living. We collaborate all the time – sharing, maturing, changing, negotiating. However, in most situations of formal learning (like at school) we are often forced to learn individually and to compete, rather than collaborate, with our peers.

Quite simply, where possible, collaborative learning is always to be favoured over individual learning. Learners enjoy interacting with others; they learn from others; and they gain reassurance and support from others. Can you imagine a workplace where workers don't collaborate - ever? Why then should there be any difference in workplace learning?