6.2 Ideas and examples of collaborative activities

In this section, we share some ideas and examples of online collaborative activities that you can try in your practice, these activities can be done using tools within your virtual learning environment or using external web tools.

Create Wikis or Blogs

Ask the groups to design and develop a wiki or blog that defines one or more key concepts from the course, along with links to relevant information sources.

Online debate

Select a motion relevant to the course material and divide the class into For and Against. Set up Discussion threads where groups post their opening statements and rebuttals. For large classes add more motions.

Create a collaborative mind map

Ask groups of students to create a mind map of key characteristics of a phenomenon, that they have identified, and that relate to the course material. Here is an example of a collaborative mind map created by participants in the #Openteach course about Eimear’s dilemma, we used a tool called MindMup.

Create a learning artefact

Ask students to develop a video or audio podcast that can be used in future courses as a resource to explain key concepts.

Create a class glossary

Ask students to collaboratively develop a glossary of key terms related to a module topic.