Tutor/teacher/facilitator needs to help learners to establish themself with each other. Aim: the more trust they will build, learners will build a feel comfortable with sharing their thoughts and ideas without the fear of being wrong or being criticized.

Nowadays work atmosphere → teamwork – innovative – problem-solving. Collaboratives mean build higher-order thinking, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. This should be a habit in the learning process. During online facilitator need to show that the student is present. This is not always about their face or voice. But more to their thought. This is a need and will increase the ability of interpersonal and intrapersonal between facilitator and learners. Several strategies that promote collaborative learning:

  1. Discussion
    The discussion will bring a wide range of ideas and perspectives. Do not put ideas as wrong and right. Better, but the idea into pros and cons during warming up discussion. As a facilitator will be great to convey a good structure question to make them feel that their idea should add more evidence. This will bring the learner into high-order thinking skills.
    Critical thinking can be built during the process. The thought is the key, the way of thought should help by the facilitator during the process. Please look at pages 102 – 103 to relate the thought element and what to consider in mind. To all facilitators, here, things to remember to build learners to be more collaborative and respectful participants in discussions. hospitality, participation, mindfulness, humility, mutuality, deliberation, appreciation, hope, and autonomy.
  2. Team or Group Project
    Team projects allow learners to experience real-world applications of knowledge in a dynamic environment. There are critical elements that need to be in place for a virtual team project to be successful. Consider the following: Clearly defined roles, Clearly defined tasks, and timelines, Team guidelines, Flexibility.
    Issues and conflicts can quickly destroy team cohesion and result in a poor learning experience. Some problems: gender (Masculinity-femininity), inactive member, or the superior and inferior (my idea is bad, all members do not grow an idea or my idea is the best, all member can’t decide and waste time with debate).
  3. Peer Reviews
    This is an excellent way to build their confidence and hide from the feeling judge by the teacher. In some assessments, we can use this as an assessment for learning. We can give marks from the product and give additional to their ability to review others product. Remember, reviewing need a high order thinking and problem-solving skill. The facilitator’s role here is needed to give post feedback and need to aware if there is a wrong review in the group. In the beginning, should be the same agreement and the same target should be revised like writing format, spelling, content, the structure of content, and others.
    The last but not least, collaborative learning as mention in the first part of this summary, would like to build student’s trust. If they are inactive, they are in the mode of individually, feeling like they are not needed. Social presence can help learners feel socially and academically integrated into the environment and help learners develop interpersonal relationships, which are key factors that help learners persist.