The experience of students in a collaborative learning classroom

To achieve collaborative learning, instructors must first create an environment for collaborative learning. To understand and create this environment, instructors must be familiar with the shifts students make when transitioning from a traditional-lecture dominated class to one that is collaborative. This study examined students' experience in a graduate-level writing for publication comse in terms of those shifts. This qualitative case study was an action research project of the writing class over two semesters. The focus of this study was to examine in what way an environment for collaborative learning impacts students in a face-to-face classroom that was augmented with an online discussion forum. To answer this question, the study examined the collaborative learning environment in the areas of instructor and student participation, preparation, working with peers, sources of knowledge, and the use of the discussion forum. The themes emerging from an in-depth understanding of the students' experiences are elaborated and implications and practical applications for creating an environment for collaborative learning are discussed.

Themes that emerged from this data include the importance of participation by both the instructors and the students, the importance of students hearing and learning from other students, the creation of an environment where instructors are not seen as the only source of knowledge, and the role and use of an online discussion forum. This research suggests that a class can be designed beyond the lecture format that demonstrates to students that everyone is a participant. When this occurs, an environment for collaborative learning can be created where there is trust and comradery, where the students see and understand that there are many sources of knowledge beyond the instructor, where the students better prepare for class, and where the students look forward to working in small interdependent groups.