The Power of Collaborative Learning Methods

Ranked consecutively since 2015 among the top four anticipated hot trends for L&D, employees and organizations can benefit from the power of collaborative learning and social learning methods, a core element to many modern learning strategies in the digital learning landscape. Whether it’s a single employee engaged in personalized learning, or an entire cohort of new hires embarking on a new learning journey together – use of social and collaborative learning methods are enriching learning experiences around the globe. Read on to find out how your team can benefit from social and collaborative learning methods.

You may have heard the term collaborative learning before, but here is a practical definition for those thinking in terms of corporate training programs and business: Collaborative learning is an approach to learning and teaching that involves groups of learners or employees working together to solve an issue or create a product.

It’s been proven that learning flourishes when learners are put in a social environment allowing for collaboration to take place. For example, an employee undergoing corporate language training in an online course may be physically alone while completing their course, but many opportunities for collaborative and social learning arise through virtual classroom sessions, 1:1 phone sessions with trainers, customized workshops, and group discussions where an employee can practice with other learners from around the globe.

Coupled with use of spaced repetition, collaborative learning is a surefire way to help learners retain more information. Spaced repetition works by recalling and using information that helps create memory pathways within the brain.

The Ebbinghaus forgetting curve shows that you can study alone and remember 28% of what you learned after only two days. If you repeat the material, your chances of remembering the information rise to 46%. Take it one step further by using the material and interacting with others on the subject you learned, and you’ll remember 69% of the material.

That’s the power of collaborative learning, it can help promote the development of critical thinking skills among your team, communication skills, and problem-solving abilities.

A few examples of collaborative learning methods may include the following:

A type of collaborative learning where a group of learners is given a specific problem to solve (motivating the learners to seek out a deeper understanding of concepts), usually over a given amount of time.

One of the most common types of collaborative learning, yet a low-effort strategy that makes for quick collaboration and active learning in pairs.