Important goals for collaboration

 

Collaboration is a type of social interaction that requires groups to synthesize and negotiate what is known by the group so as to create something that did not exist prior to collaboration. Collaborative groups can create new knowledge, novel solutions to complex problems, artifacts to synthesize and extend information, or innovative tools. However, collaboration is a complex process that many teams do not do well. Many collaborative problems are due to common break downs in communication.

Unpacking key goals for effective collaboration can (1) help students better understand what they should be striving for when they collaborate in teams and (2) help students to reflect on the quality of their existing collaborative processes so that they can make plans for improving them.

Three important goals for effective collective information synthesis: Verbal equity, joint understanding, and idea building

Three key aspects of Collective Knowledge Negotiation: Alternative ideas, quality of claims, norms of evaluation.