Learning through collaboration

Collaborative learning happens when you are working with others to negotiate or design a shared output or solution of some kind. This may involve other types of learning activity too, such as discussion, practice or production.

Working collaboratively is very different to problem-solving by yourself, because you're taking part in the process of knowledge building itself.

More example activities include:

Working as a group to create a poster or presentation; negotiating the best solution to a problem or case study; creating a document or a wiki with others and agreeing on the final version.

Students working together in a lab

Collaborative learning can be a bit challenging sometimes, especially when you're not used to it. It can be hard to agree with other people in my group about how to solve a problem. But it's really fun when you get used to it, and it's amazing to see what we can achieve when we work together."

Former Imperial student