Promoting And Managing Student-Student Interactions In Online Stem Classes

The power of collaborative activities to improve students' learning, curricular retention, self-efficacy, and attitudes toward their instruction in face-to-face college classes is well supported by research. Whether the instruction qualifies as active learning, collaborative or cooperative learning, or an inductive approach such as inquiry-based, project-based, or problem-based learning, as long as the collaborations follow research-validated guidelines, the students on average outperform students taught entirely with lectures and individual assignments. A smaller but still substantial body of research shows similar benefits for online collaborative activities, but questions remain regarding the effectiveness of such activities and how best to implement them. This paper outlines synchronous and asynchronous online collaborative activities suitable for STEM courses, surveys research on the impacts of such activities on students' learning and attitudes, suggests effective implementation strategies, and offers recommendations for additional research.