ACTWAN - Aligning Collaboration Tools With Academic Needs

Key Findings

• Face-to-Face environments hold the highest value to instructors and students when collaborating.
• 90% of instructors state that learning is aided when collaborating face-to-face, while only 41% of instructors indicate that student learning is aided by online collaboration.
• The top three most valuable collaborative activities for learning chosen by students and instructors are discussion, study groups and group problem solving (see chart below).

• 81% instructors indicate that collaborative activities are essential for student learning.
• 57% of instructors do not currently assign the use of collaborative technologies.
• 79% of the faculty would consider integrating various collaborative tools into future courses.
• Students find more value in the use of study groups than faculty (20% variance).
• Faculty value group presentations more than students (12% variance).
• 75% of students and 83% of faculty want control of who can or cannot see course work.
• Numerous comments indicate student and instructor lack of knowledge of online collaborative technologies; what are they, how they work and how they can be used.