Collaborative Learning can also be more fun, less intimidating, and build valuable teamwork and social skills.

Students might know more as a group than as individuals from collaborative learning (Barkley, Major, Cross, 2014, p. 17). This statement was correct in regards to our Comparison Chart for KSP 676, because my input cannot stand alone. My input adds to the group member's responses and vice versa. Multiple revisions and submission of the charts, proved a greater need and success in collaborative learning with our Learning Team.

I do support collaborative learning since it is both innovative and reinforcing of the lesson to be learned. But that doesn't mean there is no place for individual learning. Every student has different strengths and weaknesses. In fact there are some people who are nearly or completely autodidactic and excel when allowed the opportunity to study something on their own.

There is not one size which fits all.

Bruffee (1993, as cited in Barkley, Major, & Cross, 2014) promotes a sort of co-creation of learning and subsequent meaning by encouraging students to not settle for one-dimensional/directional knowledge flow from instructor to student. Rather he argues that knowledge is generated by sharing, reflecting, and communicating with others (Bruffee, 1993, as cited in Barkley et al., 2014). From Bruflee's perspective, the instructor must also engage in the collaborative process, and not just set small groups of students off to sail independently (Barkley et al., 2014).

Jonhson, Johnson and Smith (2014) found that cooperative learning improved a range of outcomes including knowledge acquisition, retention, accuracy and creativity of problem-solving, and higher-level reasoning (as cited in Barkley, 2014, p.23). Students can transfer these skills into their future places of employment, many of whom seek employees that are able to creatively problem solving and work as part of the team effectively.

Collaborative Learning is an important strategy that has numerous benefits. One significant finding of recent research on this teaching strategy found that students feel more positively about the subject matter, are more satisfied with their experience, and perceive the instructor as more supportive in classes that use this approach (Barkley, Major, & Cross, 2014). This learning technique also has the unique ability to improve problem solving skills which have been found to be gained in correlation with the use of collaborative learning.

According to Barkley, Major, and Cross (2014), the pedagogical rationale for collaborative learning is that it is a basic tenet of modern cognitive theory: "learners must be actively engaged in learning” (p. 10). Furthermore, neurologists and cognitive scientists agree that students must be actively engaged in building their own minds by actively constructing the mental structures that connect and organize isolated bits of information (Barkley, Major, & Cross, 2014).

Barkley et al. (2014), further propose three principles that are the backbone of collaborative learning:encourages contact between students and faculty, develops reciprocity and cooperation among students, encourages active learning. The authors also explain that students who benefit the most from collaborative learning are non-traditional college students, who prefer cooperative group learning and stand to benefit more from it than traditional students. Non-traditional students include women, minorities, adult and re-entry students, commuters, and international students (Barkley et al., 2014).

I appreciated the notion that collaborative learning helps prepare learners on a more global scale in terms of critical thinking and synthesizing information (Barkley et al., 2014). This is in comparison to cooperative learning, which promotes more concrete skills such as teamwork (Barkley et al., 2014).

Collaborative learning is so important as it is based on the assumption that knowledge is produced in a social environment by a consensus of peers. This is extremely helpful to adult learners as most often the answers and questions are more ambiguous and not as clear cut. By collaborating as a group and making meaning of the learning together, the groups create deeper meaning and retain the learning better. (Barkley,Major, & Cross, 2014, p.9).

Collaborative learning can be a great way for students to learn compared to individual learning. In collaborative learning, students can learn from one another, often students learn better from listening to each other rather than always listening to a teacher. Teamwork is learned in collaborative learning, teamwork is a skill many future jobs would require so students are getting practice working together like they will someday in a future job.

While a variety of the arguments listed on this thread have argued for the benefits of on-site collaborative learning, I want to quickly add the benefit of collaborative learning in the online classroom. Barkley, Major, and Cross (2014) note that on-site instruction is more effective than online instruction; However, when collaborative learning is present in the online environment, the quality of learning among students is improved.

From my point of view, I have been in online learning communities that are based on learning templates or modules and require little interaction from other students in the classroom. One summer course that I was involved in required students to read during the week and take a comprehensive exam at the end of the week. There was no interaction required among students in the online classroom. For this reason alone, I can guarantee that I was not the only student that felt that I was being cheated from actually learning the content for that course. Dr. Foord's course is designed differently--allowing students to create meaning and experiences from the course information using a variety of different techniques.

While there are a variety of benefits to collaborative learning in the online classroom, Barkley, Major, and Cross (2014) explain that individuals that involved in a "community of inquiry" often engage in personal discourse and collaborative reflection. They further "the goal of a community of inquiry is to construct personal meaning and confirm mutual understanding" (p. 30). Think about our communities of inquiry that have been established for this course! In our communities, we have been able to expand on creating personal meaning to the content as well as building mutual understanding. For assignments such as compare and contrast charts or adult learning principles, I would be severely ineffective in covering every ounce of content without the help of my community! Not only am I learning from this experience, but I am creating meaning that can applied within my own profession after this course has been completed.