Collaborative learning in a multivariable course

Innovator: Veronique Van Lierde, https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronique-van-lierde-5b1a25108

Organisation: Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane (AUI), Ifrane

Setting of the practice: face to face 

Description of the practice:

Groupwork was introduced in a Multivariable Class in Summer 2020. The goal was to increase social presence and create a community of learners in a time where classes were still online because of the ongoing pandemic. Students’ feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Hence, we continued the groupwork the following semesters, also after returning to a fully f2f class. However, I started noticing that some groups seemed to prioritize form over content. Sometimes students spent a lot of time creating a visually appealing slide deck, at the expense of addressing the assignment itself. To help students focus more on the actual task, I decided to switch to in-class groupwork. 

We did collaborative learning three times over the summer semester in 2022. My Multivariable Calculus class uses flipped learning (with instructor videos to watch before each lecture). During the groupwork session, students got a worksheet with clear instructions and the problem(s) to work on. For example, one class session was devoted to quadric surfaces, a topic that students commonly struggle to grasp initially. Rather than having me discuss each type of quadric surface, I explained one example of a surface in space in the pre-class video. During the group session, each group got a different equation (representing a different type of quadric surface). Groups got 45 minutes to investigate their equation and decide which surface it was (elliptic paraboloid, hyperboloid of one sheet, etc.). Then we took about 30 minutes to share. This meant that for each group, members would rotate between presenting their group's results, and listening to the other groups’ presentations.

Students took this extremely seriously because they knew that at the end, they had to teach the others. As a result, they were very focused on the assignment. During the presentation part, there was a pleasant buzz with students moving from group to group and explaining what they had found. After class, we gathered notes and pictures in the shared class notebook for students to review. As part of the assessment, students were asked to submit a reflection on what they had learnt from the groupwork.

One factor that played a key role in the success of this practice, was the venue. We used the so-called "Think Space" in the university library instead of the classroom where the class normally met. This “Think Space” is a spacious room with tables and chairs on wheels, and plenty of whiteboards. The space allows students to get organized in groups easily. Since we were doing math, they used the whiteboards to solve the problems and present their solutions, sometimes in combination with visuals shown on their laptops. 

Students told me both in the reflection and in person that they really enjoyed this activity. Since we did three sessions with in-class groupwork, I was able to witness how group dynamics and collaboration improved over the course of the semester. Students expressed their surprise at the use of presentations in a mathematics class, and how much they learnt from each other. This practice engages students, promotes peer-to-peer learning, has the potential to increase critical thinking and communication skills, and can be implemented in a variety of courses.