If you ask people what the future of learning will look like, you may get a sense that it will be pretty solitary. With generative AI becoming so prevalent, it's possible that learning activities will mainly involve asking your robot tutor for help. While there is undoubtedly something powerful and cool in that idea, something critical is missing from that approach: other people.
Education research, dating back to Lev Vygotsky’s “Zone of Proximal Development,” finds that people can learn very effectively when collaborating. “Collaborative learning,” where two or more people engage on a learning task, can help people go further in their thinking than they may have been able to do by themselves. In fact, this sort of “co-construction” of knowledge is one of the reasons interactive learning is considered to be the deepest way of processing information. So, what does this mean for the design of collaborative learning experiences at your organization?
Research-based design tips
In general, research finds that having a bit of structure helps collaborators get off to a good start. While throwing a group together and giving them an open-ended task can create an energizing challenge, it can also lead people to waste time on ineffective approaches and devote too much time just figuring out how to work together. One of the biggest insights from research on computer-supported collaborative learning is that people tend to do much better when there is a script for the interaction to follow, particularly in the early stages of their collaboration. The specifics of the script can vary, ranging from clearly spelling out what to do in a step-by-step way to a more abstract set of instructions. Regardless, going beyond a simple “Work together to solve this challenge!” is likely to lead to better outcomes.
Of course, as with all learning tasks, it's important to pick something that is challenging, engaging, and relevant. If people collaborate on uninteresting problems that just require recitation of previously learned facts, no one is likely to learn much from the experience. Also, factors that produce effective collaborative work, like turn-taking, social cohesion, and acknowledging that everyone has room to grow are also important in collaborative learning environments. And, like with all learning tasks, it's important to know what the goal of the instruction is. Collaborative learning can be a great way to get learners deeply engaging with a topic and the related concepts, but it will not, automatically, teach people how to collaborate. The ability to effectively collaborate is a skill, like any other. That means it can be taught, practiced, and improved upon. But, if you simply ask people to work together on a learning task, that doesn’t mean they’ll leave the experience knowing how to collaborate more effectively. If that is your goal, you’ll want to structure your activity in a way that includes reflection on what makes for effective collaboration itself.
Activity recommendations
Here are some examples of collaborative learning opportunities you can try out in your organization:
Book or journal clubs: Discussions on a set topic are a classic example where people can help build upon one another’s thinking in ways that leave all participants with a richer, deeper understanding than they may have otherwise had. To make these effective, consider preparing a list of questions people can think about ahead of time to help scaffold and script more effective dialogues.
Peer-led workshops: One benefit of collaborative learning is distributing knowledge that experts share among your team. If some of your team members are really great at using a new technology, have them do a walk-through of it for the rest of the team. Consider having the team members then work in groups on small projects using the technology to really leverage collaborative learning opportunities.
Two-way mentoring: Having junior employees learn from more senior folks is a well-established way to foster learning. But consider ways of making the teaching and learning go in both directions. Can the more junior employees train on emerging technologies, social media trends, or other areas that can benefit senior employees as well?
MIT Horizon’s workshops: At MIT Horizon, we’ve applied the ideas of collaborative learning to the design of our Innovation and Emerging Technology workshops.
